CEO of eMusic.com David Pakman will leave the company at the end of 2008 to become a partner at an unnamed venture capital firm. He’ll remain on the board of the company, which says it now has about $70 million in annual sales. A search is underway to recruit a new ceo. In the UK, former Picador deputy publisher Ursula Doyle will return to a staff job, taking on the new position of editorial director at Virago in November, reporting to Lennie Goodings. Falls Media, which specializes in funny, interactive, irreverent books and entertainment properties, has hired Peter Fornatale as […]
Personnel
On Pikarski, and Other Announcements
Israeli literary agent Ilana Pikarski, 62, passed away suddenly on Friday in Tel Aviv. She led the Pikarski Literary Agency from 1982 and built it into Israel’s largest literary agency. Ziv Lewis writes: “A familiar face at international book fairs, Ilana will be remembered for her strong leadership and character, her passion for literature and for helping to shape the modern Israeli publishing industry to be the vibrant, competitive and high quality market it is today.” At Random UK, the CHA group–comprising Hutchinson, Heinemann, Century, Random House, Arrow and Windmill–will now be called Cornerstone Publishing. According to the announcement, the […]
Another Chronicle Book Editor to Leave
Regan McMahon, who took over as books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle when Oscar Villalon took a buyout, is now also take a buyout and leaving the paper. “When SF Weekly contacted McMahon Monday morning, she said people in the publishing world didn’t know about her imminent departure, and she feared that once they heard the news, they’d freak out. But she insists they shouldn’t worry — she’s been assured by higher-ups that the paper plans to name a new books editor and keep the section going.”SF Weekly
Barney Rosset, The Man, the Movie, the Money-Losing
Charles McGrath celebrates the colorful life of publisher Barney Rosset in advance of his lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation. He quotes the old line of Rosset’s, “I had a very good publishing career, but not money-wise. We got rid of the money.” On his landmark legal battle for the right to publish Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer–which inspires in the print headline that Rosset “fought Puritanism, and won,” Rosset’s take is, “I loved that book. When I was a young man, it never occurred to me that it was about sex. What interested me was that Miller […]
Judy Blume, at Blumesday
The LAT covers “a sold-out event celebrating the 70th birthday of the bestselling author” Judy Blume, dubbed Blumesday. Like Barney Rosset, Blume fought a kind of Puritanism: “Blume took them on, boldly going where young adult fiction had previously feared to tread, writing in the first person on topics that had long been taboo. In the process, she earned a following so devoted that 30-plus years later, many of her original readers still can’t get enough. “This was definitely the case at M Bar, where a packed house listened to readings and watched comedic reenactments of scenes from their favorite […]
People
At HarperCollins’ Speakers Bureau, Julie Elmuccio has been promoted to assistant manager, while Blair Bryant Nichols moves up to coordinator. Director Jamie Brickhouse, who has signed on an additional 75 authors since his arrival in 2006, has been made a vice president. Also at Harper, Frank Albanese has been promoted to svp, supply chain. He has been at Harper since 1994. Ron Longe has joined Media Masters Publicity, which specializes in children’s books and graphic novels, as account director. He was most recently publicity director for Workman and Artisan. In the UK, Vintage publishing director Rachel Cugnoni has been named […]