Sandra Cochran notified Books-A-Million that she has resigned from her positions as president and ceo effective March 11 “in order to accept an executive position with another company.” (In April she will become cfo of Cracker Barrel.)The statement says “Cochran’s resignation was voluntary and did not result from any disagreement with the company or its board.” Executive chairman of the board Clyde Anderson has taken over as ceo.
Personnel
Simonoff Moves to WMA, and More People News
Agent Eric Simonoff is leaving Janklow & Nesbit after 18 years to join William Morris. He will take all of his clients with him. Professor of philosophy at Princeton and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah is expected to take over from Francine Prose as president of the PEN American center. Nick Trautwein will join The Penguin Press as editor on April 6, moving over from Bloomsbury. Jeanne Glasser has joined FT Press and Wharton School Publishing as executive editor. Most recently, she was editorial director, finance, for McGraw-Hill’s Professional Division. Lindsay Mergens has joined Nelson Literary Agency as marketing director, based […]
Wilson Takes New Post at Headline As Neild Prepares to Leave
Kate Wilson, who left her position as managing director of Scholastic UK without noting her next step, is taking on the newly-created post of chief executive of the Headline Publishing Group within Hachette UK. Wilson joins the company on May 5 and will report to managing director of Headline and chief executive of Hodder & Stoughton and John Murray Martin Neild–but only until Neild relinquishes his full-time job in early 2010 to become a consultant to the company. At that point, Wilson will report directly to Hachette UK ceo Tim Hely Hutchinson and Jamie Hodder-Williams will move up from managing […]
Layoffs At National Geographic
National Geographic eliminated nine jobs in their book division last week “as part of the organization’s response to the evolving marketplace.” Among those leaving are publisher Kevin Mulroy, director of photography books Leah Bendavid-Val, and director of travel publishing Symmie Newhouse. As part of the reorganization, Barbara Brownell Grogan was named vp and editor-in-chief for adult books. And Melina Bellows has been promoted to evp of Children’s Publishing. VP of children’s books Nancy Feresten will report to Bellows, who in turn reports to National Geographic Publishing president John Griffin. VP for communications MJ Jacobsen tells us “the move was a […]
On Dalrymple
Provided by Hachette Book Group: Dennis M. Dalrymple died Thursday, March 5, in New York City. He was 67. He is survived by his wife, Jamie Raab, and their children, son Ian Dalrymple and daughter Lola Dalrymple. The cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage. In a forty year career in book publishing as a literary contracts expert, he consulted with hundreds of authors, publishers and literary agents. He worked with such companies as Avon Books, Dell Publishing and Harper and Row (now HarperCollins), and then joined Warner Books as Director of Contracts where he stayed for 17 years. There, he […]
People: Merkh Takes Over at Howard, and More
Jonathan Merkh joins Howard Books as publisher today, reporting to Mark Gompertz. Merkh spent a brief stint at the William Morris Agency after serving as an executive at Guideposts and publisher of the Nelson Books division at Thomas Nelson. Merkh will oversee all editorial and marketing and the senior management team, including John Howard (who had held the publisher title), will report to him. At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Alexandra Cooper has been promoted to senior editor. Sarah Weinman discovers that bestselling author of DOG ON IT “Spencer Quinn” is actually Cape Cod novelist Peter Abrahams. Publishing contract specialist and […]