People 5/20

Rich Thomas has been promoted to svp, group publisher of Harper Children’s.

Heidi Richter moves up to vp, marketing and publicity for Harper Children’s.

May Chen and Tessa Woodward have been promoted to vp, publishers of the newly formed Avon Group, which includes the Harper Voyager, Avon A, and Avon imprints.

Morgan Pager is joining on June 1 as senior director, marketing for Avon.

Literary scout Philippa Donovan is launching Two Script Studio, a new agency that will focus on “reverse adaptations.” The agency will facilitate producers and screenwriters turning film and tv projects into novels early in their development. “Book rights are then pitched to literary agents and publishers to build an audience or developed as underlying IP for the film or TV project.”

“It is nothing short of a miraculous alchemy when a book is given a second life on screen, so I think it’s high time that books returned the favor,” Donovan told Deadline. They report Donovan “is in early stage discussions with publishers to establish a pipeline for any novels that come from producer deals.”

Allison Malecha has become an equity partner at Trellis Literary Management, joining founding partners Michelle Brower, Allison Hunter, and Stephanie Delman. Malecha will continue as director of foreign rights and a literary agent with a small domestic list.

Tori Clayton has been promoted to subsidiary rights manager.

Stefani Szenda joins as marketing manager.

The nonfiction imprint is being renamed Tallis Street Books (for the street behind Hachette UK’s office on Carmelite House).