Pamela Clements has joined Hachette Book Group as associate publisher of marketing for Center Street and Faith Words, focusing on publicity and promotions. She spent 16 years at Thomas Nelson in several executive roles, most recently as publisher of the general interest & lifestyle division (formerly Rutledge Hill Press). At Pippin Properties, Samantha Cosentino has been promoted to rights associate after a year and a half with the literary agency as an assistant. She will be the point person for audio, video, stage adaptation, and foreign rights. Jessica Krakoski joins Basic Books today as a publicist. She has been an […]
Personnel
Robert Giroux, Publisher, Dies at 94
The former publisher died in his sleep earlier today. The NYT writes: “If the flamboyant Roger Straus presented the public face of Farrar, Straus, Mr. Giroux, as editor-in-chief, was its quiet mover, working behind the scenes to shape its list of books and establishing himself as the gold standard of literary taste. The publisher Charles Scribner Jr., in his memoir, In the Company of Writers: A Life in Publishing (1991), wrote, ‘Giroux is a great man of letters, a great editor, and a great publisher.'”NYT
Sedita to Run Grossett and PSS; Ford Leaves HBG; New Boomsbury Line; More Personnel and Distribution News
Francesco Sedita has been named vp, publisher of Grosset & Dunlap and Price, Stern Sloan, reporting to Penguin Children’s president Don Weisberg and starting September 29. Most recently he was executive creative director at Scholastic, where he worked for the past seven years. Weisberg says, “Francesco’s varied background in creative marketing, school book clubs, in addition to his involvement with the campaigns for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Brian Selznick’s award-wining The Invention of Hugo Cabret, makes him the perfect fit. For Grosset and PSS, I was searching for someone who is totally immersed in the trends of […]
Personnel, Bookstores, and Distribution
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 […]
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.