Driscoll Named iUniverse CEO
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 7/14/2003
Things continue to change at iUniverse. The print-on-demand subsidy publisher named veteran book publishing executive Susan Driscoll its new president and CEO, making her the fourth president of the company since it was founded in 1996.
Driscoll succeeds interim president and CEO Kimra Hawley, brought on by iUniverse investors last year and charged with stabilizing the company's business side and finding a permanent president and CEO. Hawley called Driscoll's experience in traditional publishing "perfect for guiding iUniverse."
She takes over iUniverse at a time when POD publishers such as iUniverse, X-libris and 1stBooks are publishing thousands of books annually for a fee, without assurances that any of these books will be purchased by consumers. In fact iUniverse has launched a new program to identify its own bestselling, most promotable authors and help these authors move on to traditional publishers.
Driscoll told PW that "our goal at iUniverse is not to compete with publishers but to serve them. There are a lot of authors out there who are daunted by the challenges of finding a place in the traditional publishing world. We can help publishers by identifying the best unpublished authors and passing them along to traditional publishers."
Driscoll said she plans to relocate to the iUniverse offices in Lincoln, Neb. Previously, she worked as a senior publishing executive at the Holtzbrinck Group and has been an executive at HarperCollins and Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
