People 4/16 - Publishers Lunch

Grasset

Longtime CEO of Hachette-owned Grasset, Olivier Nora was fired on Tuesday by the parent company’s controlling owner Vincent Bolloré. Nora had been president of Grasset since 2000, after leading Calmann-Levy before that. (For a time, he was also CEO of Fayard.) He was replaced by Jean-Christophe Thiery, deputy ceo of Hachette Livre and chair and ceo of the Louis Hachette Group holding company.

Reportedly, 115 Grasset authors indicated in an open letter that they would not work with the publisher as a result. The letter noted, “Grasset was our publishing house, a special one, because it peacefully brought together women and men writers who agreed on very little…. Olivier Nora was both its bulwark and its binding force, through his moral elegance, his availability, and his commitment.”

Grasset author Claude Askolovitch said on a radio show, “Vincent Bolloré is like Attila: he arrives, he destroys as he pleases, he corrupts because there are people who stay and have no choice.”

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Min Goto has been promoted to senior designer.

Sara Hayet has been promoted to senior publicist, Doubleday.

Kelly Shi has been promoted to publicity manager.

Elka Roderick is promoted to publicist.

Penguin Random House Publisher Services

Sam Kiemele has joined as reprint production manager on the Kodansha team, reporting to Angela Silver. She was previously logistics and operations manager at Compendium.

Curtis Brown Creative

Senior staff have bought out the CBC writing school its parent, literary agency Curtis Brown UK, which has given up control and now has a minority stake, the Bookseller reports. The staff members hold a majority stake with managing director Anna Davis named as a “person with significant control” in financial filings.

Curtis Brown ceo Jonny Geller has resigned as CBC director. CBC will move out of Curtis Brown’s offices by the end of May but will maintain a relationship with the agency.