Renowned agent Pat Kavanagh (and wife of author Julian Barnes) has died. A spokesperson from United Agents, the firm that Kavanagh helped to form after leaving PFD last year, said: “Pat Kavanagh was an exceptional agent and a great friend. We all owe her a tremendous amount. She was an extraordinary presence who was much loved and will be greatly missed by her colleagues and her clients. All our thoughts are with Julian at this difficult time.”
Personnel
People, Distribution, and More
Dan Weiss has left Barnes & Noble, where he was most recently publisher and managing director of Quamut.com, their “how-to” website and printed guide venture started in late 2007. He can be reached at dweissco@gmail.com. Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating confirms for us that the SparkNotes.com and Quamut.com teams have moved to BN.com. (Spark had been under BN Publishing Group president Alan Kahn.) VP of digital media Mike Skagerlind “will take responsibility for directing and managing these strategies in addition to the other content and community features at Barnes & Noble.com.” Jed Donahue is leaving Crown Forum after […]
People, and More
At Random House Canada, Lisa Charters has been promoted to svp, director, digital, continuing to report to president Brad Martin. The company’s BookLounge.ca, a site for “avid readers,” is said to have over 10,000 members. Charters is “also now leading our efforts to get our books into Ebook format and focusing on the increasing sales opportunities for digital downloadable ebooks and audiobooks.” Also electronically, Random House UK is developing a site called AuthorsPlace that gives the house’s authors a toolkit to create pages online with a variety of standardize content elements. At the site, the company says: “We’ve invited our […]
People, and More
Lynn Grady has been promoted to svp and deputy publisher for the William Morrow and Eos imprints. Shawn Nicholls will join the Collins group at the end of the month as director of online marketing, reporting Margot Schupf. He was at Crown, where he managed online marketing for all the group’s imprints. There’s informal word, via the Book Publicity Blog, that John McMurtrie has replaced the departing Regan McMahon as book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. Quayside Publishing Group is renaming their MBI Distribution Services to Quayside Distribution Services. They acquired MBI Publishing, along with its distribution arm, in […]
People
Co-founder of Weldon Owen John Owen has been named group publisher of Bonnier Publishing, comprising nine companies in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and France, said to have combined revenue of over $120 million a year. CEO Des Higgins says: “Bonnier Publishing is growing rapidly. With a presence in every major continent we see tremendous opportunity for our companies to cooperate more to realize our full potential as a group. I’m delighted to appoint John Owen as group publisher. John’s role is not to replace the outstanding and talented people who run our companies but to help identify global […]
People: Wikert Joins O'Reilly
Blogger and executive publisher of two lines of technical books in Wiley’s professional/trade division Joe Wikert has joined O’Reilly Media as general manager for O’Reilly Technology Exchange. That division publishes O’Reilly’s core manuals for developers and systems managers. Wikert is “spearheading the expansion of the OTX publishing program into a broader offering that spans print, online, and in-person products and services.” In the UK, former chief executive of Virgin Publishing Adrian Sington is leading the start-up of DCD Publishing, a subsidiary of TV production and distribution company DCD Media, according to BookBrunch, a new UK service from Liz Thomson and […]