News Briefs: Week of 8/2/10

Allin Steps Up At John Wiley

With his family in England, headquarters in New Jersey, and offices around the world, Mark Allin is well aware he'll be spending lots of time traveling now that he officially took over as head of John Wiley's professional/trade group August 1. "I'll be racking up the air miles," Allin said in an interview at Wiley's Hoboken, N.J., headquarters.

Comings and Goings: July 30, 2010

If you've been laid off recently, or left your job, and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@publishersweekly.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Allison Trzop, former Beacon Press associate editor, is going to law school to study intellectual property. She can now be reached at atrzop@gmail.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Job Moves: July 30, 2010

Clare Peeters has been promoted at Perseus Books Group, from v-p, business operations to v-p, corporate strategy and business development. Peeters joined Perseus Books in 2004.

Stebbins Promotes and Hires Six at Kaplan

Sheryl Stebbins, who recently took over as executive director of editorial at Kaplan Publishing, announced several promotions and new hires at the company this week.

Comings and Goings: July 28, 2010

If you've been laid off recently, or left your job, and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@publishersweekly.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Janet Corson, formerly COO and publisher at Eaglemont, is heading a new venture called Educational Initiatives for book producer becker&mayer! She can now be reached at janetc@beckermayer.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Kamil Named Random House Publisher

Random House Publishing Group president and publisher Gina Centrello is turning over the publisher responsibilities to Susan Kamil. Kamil will remain editor-in-chief of little Random and Dial Press. Tom Perry has also been promoted, named deputy publisher.

Job Moves: July 27, 2010

Ayesha Mirza has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as marketing manager in the adult marketing department. She was most recently a marketing manager at Macmillan for the company's trade, academic, and professional books, focusing on online marketing and social networking; prior to that, she was an associate marketing manager at Knopf.

Job Moves: July 26, 2010

Jason Pinter is joining the Waxman Literary Agency as an agent. Pinter, who has been writing full-time (and occasionally blogging about publishing at The Huffington Post), previously worked as an editor at St. Martin's Press, Crown and Warner Books (now Grand Central). He will be representing primarily commercial fiction (mysteries, thrillers, suspense), along with pop culture, sports, and YA/middle grade fiction. He will be starting at Waxman on August 2.

Job Moves: July 23, 2010

Caitlin Graf is joining Basic Books as a publicist, replacing Jessica Krakoski. Graf was most recently at Cambridge University Press, where she worked on the house's U.S. publicity campaigns and spearheaded its blog.

Scribd Taps Former Google Staffer to Start New York Office

Scribd announced that it has hired former Google staffer Robert R. Macdonald as senior vice president of business development to open a New York office for the upstart social publisher. Macdonald will be tasked with building a business development team for Scribd that will work out of the company's soon-to-be-announced Manhattan location.

Job Moves: July 21, 2010

Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz has been hired as CEO of the Jewish Publication Society. Schwartz was most recently senior rabbi at Congregation M'kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, N.J., for 11 years.

Comings and Goings: July 20, 2010

If you've been laid off recently, or left your job, and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@publishersweekly.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Isabel C. Stein, formerly a project editor at Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., is currently freelancing as a copy editor and developmental editor. She can be reached at isabelstein@mindspring.com.

David Coggins, formerly with Berean Christian Stores, is starting his own services company, Campfire Solutions. He can be reached at campfiresolutions@gmail.com.

Tom Willshire, former v-p of sales and marketing at Continuum International Publishing, can now be reached at TDWillshire@gmail.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Comings and Goings: July 19, 2010

If you've been laid off recently, or left your job, and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@publishersweekly.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Gretchen Crary, former publicity director at HarperCollins, is starting her own book publicity company, February Partners. She can be reached at gretchen@februarypartners.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Job Moves: July 16, 2010

Helen Atsma will be joining Grand Central Publishing as a senior editor, reporting to v-p, editor-in-chief of hardcovers Deb Futter, at the end of August. Atsma started her publishing career at Little, Brown, went to Holt, and is now returning to Hachette.

Brown Named President of Klutz

Scholastic has hired Matt Brown, co-founder and "play czar" at strategic innovation company big BOING LLC, to head up its Klutz division. Brown joins Scholastic as president of Klutz and a senior v-p at Scholastic Inc., a new role occasioned by the recent retirement of Klutz co-founder John Cassidy, and the departure earlier this summer of Debra Lande, who joined Klutz as publisher last year.

Job Moves: July 15, 2010

Ben Loehnen and Jofie Ferrari-Adler have been named senior editors at Simon & Schuster's adult trade imprint, hired by newly installed executive Jonathan Karp. The two will start on July 26. Loehnen, who arrives from HarperCollins, has edited such books as Change by Design by Tim Brown and The Myth of the Rational Market by Justin Fox. Before HC, he was at Random House, where he acquired and edited the bestseller Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Ferrari-Adler, who started his publishing careeer at Housing Works Bookstore in Soho, went on to work for Four Walls Eight Windows, Thunder’s Mouth Press, and Viking. He was most recently an editor at Grove/Atlantic. At Grove, he edited such books as Karl Marlantes’s Vietnam novel Matterhorn and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Kinney’s The Big One. At S&S he will be acquiring and editing narrative non-fiction, fiction, modern history, and sports.

People: July 15

Reka Simonsen will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group as executive editor, Casey McIntyre has been promoted to publicist at Penguin Young Readers Group, and Connie Hsu and Kate Sullivan have been promoted to associate editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Smetanka Joins Counterpoint

Dan Smetanka, editor-in-chief of Phoenix Books before it was abruptly shut in April, has been named editor-at-large for both Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press. Smetanka will remain in Los Angeles and will acquire fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, current events, and history titles. Counterpoint has already acquired a couple Phoenix titles and Smetanka will add more.

Comings and Goings: July 14, 2010

If you've been laid off recently, or left your job, and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@publishersweekly.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Junie Dahn, former associate editor at Little, Brown, has left the company.

David Coggins, former senior buyer for Berean Christian Stores, can now be reached at campfiresolutions@gmail.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.