Richard Rhorer has been named associate publisher of Simon & Schuster, reporting to Jonathan Karp. Previously he was director of digital business development at Macmillan. Beach Ball Books, a new children’s book publishing company spearheaded by former Shoreline Publishing Group editorial director Jim Buckley, will launch this fall with six preschool and middle-grade titles focusing on “sports books, board books and plans for a raft of colorful, entertaining books that kids and families will love.” Beach Ball’s list will be sold and distributed by Dave Weiner & Associates and The BookMasters Group. Effective April 1, Simon & Schuster will handle […]
Personnel
People, Etc.
Anne Kubek has joined the InScribe Digital as EVP, General Manager. She had been EVP of merchandising and marketing at Borders, spending 20 years with the company before leaving in late 2009. Meg LaBorde Kuehn joins Kirkus Media in the new position of vp of business development. Her most recently publishing position was coo of Greenleaf Book Group. Former Granta Books managing director David Graham has joined Aurum and its associated trade publishing division, where he will be setting up a new imprint, Union Press, which will focus on “serious literary writing”, specifically non-fiction. Former Granta staffers Alex Clark and […]
Obituaries: Remembering McElderry, Schulman, Hill and Marchioni
Children’s book publisher Margaret K. McElderry, founder and editor-at-large of her self-named imprint, has died at the age of 98. She began her publishing career in 1945 with Harcourt Brace, moving to Atheneum in 1971 to become director of Margaret K. McElderry Books. Both the company and imprint became part of Macmillan and later, Simon & Schuster. She was the first editor to have books win the Newbery and Caldecott awards in the same year, when Ginger Pye by Will Lipkind and Finders’ Keepers by Eleanor Estes won, respectively, in 1952. Longtime children’s book publisher Janet Schulman, 77, died Friday […]
People, Etc.
At Scholastic, Anamika Bhatnagar has been promoted to Executive Editor and Director of Paperback Reprints, and Doug Analla has been promoted to Director, Marketing and Creative Services for Klutz. In addition, Samantha Schutz has re-joined the company as Executive Editor, Licensed Publishing. Previously she was at Grosset & Dunlap/PSS!. At PublicAffairs, Brandon Proia has joined as editor, effective February 1, and Clara Platter has been named senior editor, effective March 1. Proja was previously with Basic Books and Platter arrives from Princeton University Press. In addition, senior editor Lindsay Jones is leaving after seven years to pursue independent editorial projects […]
Briefs: New Eugenides Novel; Excerpts of New Bolano and Gov. Patrick Books; and More
Jeffrey Eugenides‘ first novel in nine years (and his first since the Pulitzer Prize winner MIDDLESEX) will be published by FSG in October. Catalog copy describes THE MARRIAGE PLOT as “a brilliant, funny, and heartbreaking novel about the glories and vicissitudes of young love”, with the 576-page novel priced as a $28 hardcover. FSG will also publish Roberto Bolano‘s previously undiscovered manuscript THE THIRD REICH in November, with an excerpt running in the spring issue of The Paris Review – the first time the magazine has excerpted a novel in nearly 40 years.WSJ In his forthcoming memoir, Massachusetts Governor Deval […]
People
Maria Campbell Associates has named Mary Pender-Coplan vice-president, the first time the scouting agency has appointed someone to this position. She has been there for five years and is responsible for the dramatic rights and children’s book scouting. They have been appointed exclusive US literary scout for AST Publishing Group in Russia; both Wahlstrom & Widstrand and children’s publisher Bonnier Carlsen in Sweden; Locus in Taiwan; Shanghai 99 in China; and Warner Bros. Television (joining longtime client Warner Bros. Pictures). Longtime Atria executive editorial director Emily Bestler will establish an eponymous imprint, Atria Books-Emily Bestler Books, and has been promoted […]