People 7/14

Lorin Stein, co-founder of McNally Editions with Sarah McNally, is leaving the imprint after six years to pursue other editorial projects. The imprint has put out 52 books.

Stein writes in an email to agents and authors, “Our success is a tribute to the McNally team, starting with Sarah herself, who staked her money and her name on the Editions, who lent us her acumen as a bookseller, and who gave us a home in the best bookstores in the city. But the secret sauce—and the meat, and the wines of rare vintage, and the butter on the parsnips—has always been the books and introductions, which we owe to you.”

Jenn Risko has joined as a partner. Previously, she co-founded Shelf Awareness, where she served as publisher.

David Lamb, principal in Book Advisors says in a release, “Jenn joins us at a pivotal time, as we’re seeing more transaction activity in trade publishing than at any point since my partner Susan Reich and I founded Book Advisors in 2016. Jenn brings a vast and complementary network and her expertise is already proving itself in several of our sell-side mandates.”

Octopus has laid off six people across a range of senior positions. The company blamed market conditions and “financial under-performance against budgeted targets,” writes The Bookseller. Octopus ceo Charlie King wrote in a memo that the company is “assessing the structure across our marketing and publicity departments, in the context of a fast-changing landscape for how consumers discover our books.”

Ellie Pritchett has been promoted to editor.

Julia Steffy has been promoted to project editor.

Brooke Kozar become associate, sales on the PRHPS Client Sales team, moving over from the National Accounts team.

Abigail Jordon has been promoted to publicist.

Joseph Benincase, most recently associate director of advertising, has voluntarily resigned from the company after 12 years to pursue new opportunities. He can be reached at josephbenincase@gmail.com.

Stuti Shah has joined as associate agent and associate film and TV agent, representing commercial and upmarket fiction across genres, narrative-driven nonfiction, and concept-driven books with film and TV adaptation potential. She was previously international rights administrator at Transatlantic Agency.

GiannaMarie Dobson joins as associate agent. She was previously at Neighborhood Literary.