Book People

By Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 2/21/2005

Jen Linck, director of marketing programs for National Book Network and the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, is passing the reins to Davida Breier, who will now be running NBN's small press distribution company, Biblio Distribution. Breier was promoted to sales and marketing manager of the nearly $4 million company; chain sales representative Eliza Dyar and administrative assistant Theresa Thomas will report to her. Before joining Biblio in 2003, Breier worked for Atomic Books in Baltimore, Md., and for the publishing house, the Vegetarian Resource Group.

In other news, Breier announced that Biblio, which has stabilized its client base at 850 and has a backlist of 2,000 titles, published its first backlist catalogue. "So far, the response has been positive," says Breier. Among the company's backlist gems is Jupitalia Productions' Jupiter's Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Motorcycle by Ted Simon, which had a jump in sales because of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's Bravo series Long Way Round, about their four-month transcontinental journey by motorcycle.

At Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, president Julie Schaper announced the appointment of Wendy Armstrong to the newly created position of special markets manager. "It's been something we wanted to do for a while. It's clear the market has expanded outside the traditional book trade. I'm thrilled to have someone focus on that," she said. Armstrong comes to Consortium with special sales experience at Holtzbrinck Publishers, Abbeville Press, Troll Communications and Penguin USA.

Wil Niquette was named president of Bookworld Companies in Sarasota, Fla. He has been with the company for 11 years. Current president Ronald Ted Smith has been promoted to chairman and CEO.