Mary Cummings, former administrator of the McKnight Award in Children’s Literature and organizer of the Festival of Children’s Literature at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, will be representing children’s books in association with Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. Hollan Publishing’s principals Holly Schmidt and Allan Penn have joined with literary agent Lori Perkins to form Literary Partners Group, which is launching an online publishing company called Ravenous Romance. They will publish daily novel-length erotic romances, as well as lunchtime short stories, in e-book and downloadable MP3 format, starting December 1. Schmidt says in an announcement “we will succeed by producing […]
Personnel
Volini Out at Random House
The first big personnel change following Markus Dohle’s appointment as ceo of Random House is not a new hire (though bookish folks still express a desire/expectation for a publishing veteran directly under Dohle) but a departure. Deputy chairman and chief operating officer Ed Volini is leaving the company at the end of September. His positions will be eliminated and his reports will report directly to Dohle as of October 1. Volini has had a senior management role at the company since 2001. Dohle praises him as “a valued decisionmaker, strategist, analyst, mentor and leader for our financial, sales, human resources, […]
Personnel News: Crowley Switches Agencies; McDermid Picks RCW
Sheila Crowley has left AP Watt to join Curtis Brown UK, and expects most of her authors to move with her. She says “the time was right to move to a bigger agency and one that would embrace the more commercial angle of the authors I represent.”Bookseller Canada’s Anne McDermid & Associates will use British agency Rogers, Coleridge & White to represent rights on behalf of their authors in the British and translation markets.
Plus: Personnel, Announcements and More
At St. Martin’s, Rob Grom has been promoted to associate art director, as Jason Ramirez moves up to designer and Jeanette Levy is now associate designer for Griffin. Just Books bookstore is hosting a grand reopening and open house on Saturday, September 6 to celebrate its new ownership under Marion Holmes and remodeled store. Local authors with a book released in the past six months interested in participating can contact the store. Earlier this week the Langum Trust issued a statement criticizing Ballantine’s decision to postpone publication of Sherry Jones’s novel THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, saying the company’s “actions represent […]
Roche Joins Harper UK
Former ceo of Borders UK David Roche will work for Harper UK on “a short term consultancy basis to provide a unique insight into our sales operation from the perspective of a real retail expert.” He reports directly to ceo Victoria Barnsley. The company is still looking for a full-time group sales and marketing director.Bookseller In other personnel news, Shanta Small will move over to become director of publicity at Penguin Children’s on October 1. Most recently she has been the head of marketing and publicity at Penguin’s Tarcher Books, after five years in the publicity department at Random House […]
Rosenman to Algonquin
Former Houghton Mifflin executive editor Jane Rosenman will join Algonquin as an editor starting after Labor Day. Publisher Elisabeth Scharlatt says, “What a great fit. Jane’s sensibility is so well suited to Algonquin’s list of fiction and narrative non-fiction.” In other personnel news, writer and TV performer Jo Unwin, 43, is joining Conville & Walsh as an agent focosing on books for children and teens, “looking to build a quality list of both British and international writers, and also a list handling brilliant American writers into the UK.” Unwin will also continue to scout film properties for Aardman Features (Wallce […]