So what exactly does a business development position and department look like? How does the biz dev professional interact with publishing colleagues on the one hand, and new vendors on the other, and what metrics do they use to gauge success? We talked to people who work in several different publishing business development capacities to explore these questions.

Though definitions and workflows vary, everyone agrees that business development revolves around relationships and connections with other companies. “The definition for business development used by some is ‘the creation of long-term value for an organization,’ so this generally means working with people with whom you don’t currently have a business relationship,” explains Ted Hill, President of THA Consulting. “Any time I meet people I’m thinking about how I can work with them even if it’s not the reason we were introduced,” says Steve Sandonato, VP of Business Development & Strategy at Time Home Entertainment Inc. “You need to always think outside the traditional business models to create a spark of a new idea.  If the spark of the idea is thought of without a specific partner in mind you need to identify and contact companies that can help you realize that idea.”

When asked how they view biz dev in publishing, almost everyone agreed that the definition has to be tweaked. “Positions in biz dev didn’t exist until the mid-90s. It’s a digital, new economy term,” says HarperCollins’ Director of Digital Business Development, Adam Silverman. “At HarperCollins, biz dev is a combination of strategy, business analysis, and legal—finding new channels and new partners to sell ebooks. Biz dev then stays involved to oversee any new terms or territories with new channels.” If this sounds  familiar, it might be because  “business development is often just a fancy way of saying ‘sales,’” explains Doug Stambaugh, VP, Global eBook Market Development and Strategy at Simon & Schuster Digital. For Kate Travers, Director of Digital Business Development at Workman, digital means direct sales, but also marketing: “creating verticals around a brand and closer relationships to consumers,” she explains.

As for whom publishers are building relationships with, companies range from startups to known industry resources. “The role of business development for me is about creating new relationships and partnerships as well as expanding and leveraging existing ones,” says Peter Balis, Director of Digital Business Development at Wiley.  “New partners include companies like Inkling and Bookshout and we have expanded our partnerships recently with Apple and O’Reilly.” Adam Silverman also mentioned Inkling in particular, talking about how they offer “an evolving model on the fly” that has been changing with the market. Many of the industry professionals we talked to also spoke about the importance of the library and elearning community in discovering new frontiers and business opportunities.

While pitching on behalf of the publisher is a common approach, business development professionals often find themselves on the other side of the table. “There’s a lot of capital out there looking for opportunities,” says Doug Stambaugh. “There’s an influx of people from outside perspectives coming into publishing – content development, start ups, biz dev etc.” Consultant Joe Wikert agrees, “This is the heart of innovation and what excites me most about the radical changes we’re seeing in the content industry. Finding new ways to build content, as well as distribute it, is what startups are focusing on. Some of this biz dev happens in the traditional publishing house but it’s the core of the startup community.” Still, Krista Carnes, Business Development Director, Blissful Media Group, which works with publishers, advises against being too much of a maverick: “One of the most important attitudes in media business development is keeping an eye on what doesn’t apply to your particular area of the business today. You don’t necessarily need to be the one who pioneers that approach in your corner, but you should know what it is when it arrives.”

Much of how business development positions function is tied into the size and scope of the company. “Handling biz dev in a company with legacy is very different from one in which there is no legacy,” says Adam Silverman. “At a larger company people are developing new channels and piecing them together with existing channels. At a new company, it’s good for someone in biz dev to have entrepreneurial and sales experience and be able to evangelize—make it up as you go along.” The size of the company also affects what resources are available and how agile a biz dev team can be; biz dev at Sesame Workshop, for example, has fewer resources but also more flexibility due to its smaller non-traditional, non-profit status. “We tend to have fewer resources than a traditional publisher,” says Jennifer Wendell, Manager of Business Development at Sesame Workshop. “However, for a small team, we have been able to develop a very strong digital program by pursuing both direct distribution as well as third-party distribution through our print publishers and other distributors.”

Whether large or small, it is important for companies to not only forge new relationships but to also use metrics to measure their success. For the execs we talked to, evaluation can come in two forms: revenue and engagement. “For traditional biz dev, sales (in terms of dollars or units) need to be established,” says Steve Sandonato. “They should be scalable and you need to be able to replicate in order to optimize.  This is really important and sometimes is forgotten.  If I have a one-time fantastic hit but I can’t replicate it, the company could be left with a large hole to fill in the next year.” At Wiley, Peter Balis says there is “a global target based on percentage increase of revenue year-over-year with one target for trade, STM, worldwide, etc.”

But numbers alone aren’t the only way of determining success: “The broadest measure of success usually comes in the form of engagement,” says Ted Hill. “How many companies have you connected with?  Has the discussion progressed the sales process?  If not, what have you learned that will help you move the business forward?” In addition to evaluating client/partner satisfaction, customer satisfaction is also integral. “On a corporate level, we of course look at revenue and downloads to measure success, but we also look at the impact our programs are having on our target audience,” insists Jennifer Wendell. “To this end we do a lot of testing and focus group research to ensure that our products support our mission and that we’re providing a quality experience in a safe and educative environment.” Steve Sandonato adds that successful biz dev can infiltrate all areas of a company: “In this age of digital publishing, our goals for ebooks sales are less about sales units but more about establishing efficient workflow, testing new concepts and formats, locking in promotions that we use to gauge promotional effect, and pushing the tech envelope to be the first out of the gate with a new interface.”

While there is no set approach, biz dev roles within this sector will continue to change as the market does. In fact, they already have. “I think more publishers are willing to take on more small risks than they were, say, 10 years ago,” says Joe Wikert. “Back then ebooks were just a prediction of the future whereas today they represent 20-30% of a publisher’s revenue. Publishers are also experiencing change at the fastest rate in recent history, so they know they can’t sit on the sidelines for very long.” After all, Peter Balis explains, it’s business development’s job to “hold a mirror up to the company and whatever it is looking for, whatever its world view is, that is biz dev. Biz Dev is just a container for whatever you decide to put inside of it.”

(Additional reporting gathered by Lorraine Shanley and Elisabeth Watson.)

This article was written for the e-program distributed to participants of Publishers Launch BEA 2013, which will be held at the Javits Center on Wednesday, May 29. Register online here or contact Jess Johns by email.

Brenda Marsh has left her position as VP, Author Relations at B&N, where she has worked since 1998, and can be reached at brendasmarsh@gmail.com

Margie Chan-Yip has left her position as VP, Global Publishing at Hasbro and will consult in global business development, brand licensing and publishing strategy.  She may be reached at mcyip99@gmail.com

Doug Pocock has been named Managing Director of Abrams & Chronicle Books in the U.K., a partnership formed in 2010 by the two U.S. publishers based in London. He was formerly a consultant at The Media Partners and ran Egmont USA.

Diana Blough joined Random House Publisher Services as Imprint Sales Director; she was working as a consultant, and previously worked at Bloomsbury.

Alison Impey joined Knopf/Delacorte/Dell as Art Director. Stephanie Moss has been promoted to Associate Art Director. 

Sean Desmond has been named Editorial Director of Twelve, a newly created position. He was previously Executive Editor at Crown.

Joe Wikert, formerly General Manager of the TOC Division of O’Reilly, has left the company and can be reached at jwikert@gmail.com

Julia Carvalho has joined Chronicle Books Special Sales team as National Account Manager; she was formerly East Coast Sales Representative at Taschen.

At Open Road, Pete Beatty is now Acquisitions Director. He was previously Senior Editor at Bloomsbury.  Summer Smith will be joining Bloomsbury Adult Trade as Associate Director of Publicity. Previously, she was Publicity Manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Julie Buntin, formerly the Literary Events Coordinator at The powerHouse Arena, is now Director of Programs and Strategic Outreach at CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines & Presses).

Ed Wilhelm has been named Director at Books-A-Million. Most recently at The Finish Line, he was formerly with Borders as Executive VP and CFO.

Ryan Chapman has joined the publishing start-up, Atavist Books, as Associate Director of Marketing. Previously he was Marketing Director at Penguin Press.

PROMOTIONS

Clay Farr will be moving to Basic Books as VP, Associate Publisher & Marketing Director. He was previously with Perseus Books, another imprint in the Perseus Books Group.

At Knopf, Robin Desser has been promoted to the newly created position of VP, Editorial Director, and Jordan Pavlin has been promoted to Executive Editor.

At Chronicle Books, Ryan Kelly has been promoted to the role of National Account Manager, calling on Barnes & Noble and Calendar Club. 

Quirk Books has promoted Brett Cohen to President and Jason Rekulak to Publisher. In addition, David Borgenicht will assume the role of Owner/CEO of Quirk Productions (the parent company of Quirk Books), with a focus on development partnerships in film, television, and digital media.

Matt Adamec has been promoted from Designer to Senior Designer at Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Books.

At Grand Central, Amanda Pritzker has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click here to see our full calendar of publishing events

May 16 – 19
Bookworld Prague 2013
Guest of Honor: Slovakia
Prague-Holesovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague, Czech Republic

May 19 – 22
National Stationery Show
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
BEA Bloggers at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Publishers Launch Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
New York Library Association (NYLA) Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – 30
IDPF Digital Book Conference
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – Jun 1
BookExpo America
Guest of Honor: Mexico
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 1
uPublishU at BEA
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 12 – 15
Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

Jun 18 – 20
Licensing Expo
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV

Jun 27 – Jul 2
ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition
Chicago, IL

Jul 3 – 6
Tokyo International Book Fair
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Jul 10 – 14
Southampton Writers Conference, Session 1
Stony Brook Southampton, Southampton, NY

Jul 14 – 26
Yale Publishing Course: Magazine/Digital (Jul 14 – 19)
Yale Publishing Course: Book (Jul 21 – 26)
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Jul 17 – 20
Romance Writers of America Conference
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, GA

Jul 18 – 21
San Diego Comic-Con West
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Aug 17 – 23
International Summit of the Book
Singapore

Aug 18 – 21
The Gourmet Housewares Show at NYIGF
Javits Center, New York, NY

Aug 28 – Sep 1
Beijing International Book Fair
Beijing, China

Aug 31 – Sep 2
Bumbershoot
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

Sep 15 – 16
CIANA Remainder & Promotional Book Fair
The Business Design Centre, Islington Green, London

Sep 21 – 22
National Book Festival
“Books that Shaped the World”
National Mall, Washington, DC

Sep 23 – 25
39th Annual FIPP World Magazine Conference
Hilton Cavalieri Hotel, Rome, Italy

Sep 23 – 25
Publishing Business Conference and Expo
NY Marriott Marquis, New York, NY

Sep 30 – Oct 2
NAIBA Fall Conference
Somerset Doubletree, Somerset, NJ

Oct 2 – 4
Liber International
Guest of Honor: Chile
Madrid, Spain

Oct 6 – 8
PNBA Tradeshow
Airport Holiday Inn, Portland, OR

Oct 9 – 13
Frankfurt Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Brazil
Frankfurt, Germany

Oct 10 – 12
MPIBA Fall Trade Show
Renaissance Denver Hotel, Denver, CO

Oct 10 – 13
New York Comic Con
Javits Center, New York, NY

Oct 11 – 13
Southern Festival of Books
Legistlative Plaza, Nashville, TN

Oct 20 – 27
Belgrade Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Poland
Belgrade, Serbia

Oct 27 – Nov 3
The Chicago International Remainder & Overstock Book Exposition
Hilton Chicago, Chicago, IL

Nov 13 – 17
Dublin Book Festival
Dublin, Ireland

Nov 17 – 24
Miami Book Festival International
Miami, FL

Nov 20 – 25
Montreal Salon du Livre
Place Bonaventure, Montreal, Quebec

PublishingTrends.com continues its regular column in which we review, explicate, and excerpt books that we think will resonate with people in the business of publishing and media. 

****

The word “disruption” is hardly unfamiliar to those in the publishing industry. Almost every part of book business has been affected by disruption, particularly of the digital kind, from the advent and availability of ereaders to the struggle for bricks-and-mortar stores to keep up with online retailers. With several disruptive companies already in full swing and announcements of new startups every day, Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst James McQuivey’s Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation (published, appropriately enough, by Amazon this year) seems like the ideal read for anyone in the book business.

Though this title  is not specific to book business, McQuivey repeats throughout that digital disruption will affect every industry. The agility of new electronic platforms and digital technology in general has not only accelerated the rate of change in every business sector, but also allows for individuals to wield  greater power. McQuivey cites entrepreneurs like Guy Cramer, who developed an online camouflage business, and Charles Teague with his weight loss program/community FitNow, as case studies demonstrating how one idea can create an entire business. He also goes so far as to say that future companies may be a part of a “disposable economy” where small teams of innovators work together on a certain project and disband after completion. This all embraces the lean startup mentality—but what is a company to do when it is not a startup? How can legacy publishers take advantage of this revolution?

Digital Disruption’s research shows that one of the obstacles in fostering innovation in a larger company is that the perception of what a company can achieve varies, depending on the company size and an employee’s position within the company. In companies of more than a thousand employees, people were less optimistic about the progress of their companies, with only 60% saying they are excited about the changes digital will bring to their respective company (compared to 70% in companies with less than 1,000 employees) and 18% saying their company policies and business practices enable them to adapt to the changes digital brings (compared to 43% in companies with less than 1,000 employees). There was also a big discrepancy between executives’ views of their companies’ digital future, in contrast to that of lower-level employees. For example, 70% of executives though their company would be more innovative than other companies in the same industry, while only 39% of lower level employees agreed.

McQuivey argues that any company can take advantage of the digital revolution, so long as it adopts a disruptive mindset. Within a larger corporation, McQuivey argues, executives should capitalize on employee enthusiasm/curiosity and put together small innovation teams to identify silos and break down boundaries between them and work within short development time frames. To illustrate, he primarily focuses on Disney’s development of its gaming division and how the extracurricular experimentation of employee and game developer Tim FitzRandolph led to the successful  app Where’s My Water?  By embracing FitzRandolph’s  interest in gaming, Disney was able to use assets already within its wheelhouse to experiment and eventually create a bestseller.

The problem, of course, is that not every company has the infrastructure of the House of Mouse, and while McQuivey broadly lays out the ways in which larger companies can look for opportunities to develop new disruptive products, there is not much evidence to support that examples like Disney would work across the board. Also, while McQuivey points out the power that new technologies and platforms affords the individual, he also does not delve much into the extreme competition a potentially over-crowded marketplace creates and the fact that speed-to-market isn’t just an advantage of the digital era—it’s become a necessity if a company wants to set itself apart from the masses of startups. If startups are commonplace in the marketplace, how do disruptive products proliferate, and are they meant to? And how should legacy companies react in the wake of competitors’ disruptive products? There is a world of possibility, perhaps, but much remains unanswered.

Brendan Cahill has joined Random House, Inc. as Vice President, Corporate Projects, working with departments across the company on a variety of internal and externally-directed endeavors, beginning with digital-partnership development opportunities.  He was previously CEO of NatureShare, and before that VP and Publisher at Open Road, and an Editor at Running Press, Grove/Atlantic, and Gotham Books.

W. Ralph Eubanks has announced that he will be leaving his post as the Director of Publishing at Library of Congress to become Editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review

SVP of Hachette Digital & Audio Maja Thomas is leaving the company after 22 years with Time Warner and then HBG, “for the next exciting chapter of her career.”  She has led Hachette Audio since 2000 and Hachette Digital since 2005, chief strategist for HBG of the Bookish website.  Though she will be consulting for Hachette until the end of the year and reachable via that email address, she will also be  at majathomas@gmail.com

Courtney Hodell is leaving FSG, where she was Executive Editor. She can be reached at Courtney.hodell@gmail.com.

Margaret Coffee has joined Egmont USA as Sales and Marketing Director. Most recently she was VP of Sales at Albert Whitman, and was previously at Scholastic for more than 16 years.  Katie Halata moves up to Sales and Marketing Manager at Egmont.

Michael Cairns is joining Publishing Technology as COO of their Online Solutions division, succeeding Louise Russell and reporting to George Lossius.  Most recently, Cairns has been a consultant and served as Chief Revenue Officer for SharedBook, focused on their Academic Pub platform.

Deputy Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), Angela Bole, will become Executive Director of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) in July, remaining based in New York. Current Executive Director Florrie Binford Kichler, is retiring from the post in June.

Christian Trimmer will be joining S&S Books For Young Readers as Senior Editor.  He has worked for the Walt Disney Company for nearly 13 years.

Ken Brooks, Cengage SVP, Global Production & Manufacturing Services, has left the company to restart his operations and product development consulting firm, Treadwell Media Group.

Julia Kenny is joining Dunow Carlson & Lerner as an Agent, rejoining her recent colleague Eleanor Jackson. Kenny was at Markson Thoma–from which Geri Thoma, Jackson, Laney Katz Becker and Kenny have all departed since early March.

Maddie Caldwell has joined Knopf, reporting to Director of Media Relations Paul Bogaards. She was at Weed Literary for the past year.

Jennifer Corcoran will join Little, Brown Children’s on May 6 as Director of Publicity. She was most recently Publicity Director at Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Julie Just, who became an Agent at Janklow & Nesbit in late 2010 after working at the NYT Book Review as Children’s Book Editor, is moving to Pippin Properties.

PROMOTIONS

Angela James has been promoted from Executive Editor to Editorial Director at Carina Press/Harlequin.  Adrienne Macintosh has been promoted to Editor, Harlequin Series; Karen Reid moves up to Associate Editor, Harlequin Superromance, and Charles Griesman has been promoted to Editor, Harlequin Desire.  In addition, Reka Rubin has been promoted to Senior Manager, Subsidiary Rights, while Amy Wilkins moves up to the Manager, Online Engagement.

Shawn Nicholls announced the promotion of Dana Trombley to Senior Manager, Digital Marketing at HarperCollins, focusing on campaigns for their genre fiction books including Avon and Voyager, but also overseeing the marketing of all of the digital first titles that fall under the Impulse lines.

At S&S Children’s, Nicole Russo has been promoted from Associate Director of Publicity to Deputy Publicity Director; she has been with the company since 2005. Lydia Finn has been promoted from Associate Publicist to Publicist. Christina Abram has been promoted from Production Manager to Senior Production Manager, overseeing Little Simon, Simon Spotlight, and Product Development. Rodd Bailey has been promoted to Production Manager for Children’s Reprints, managing Aladdin, Atheneum, Beach Lane, MKM, Paula Wiseman Books and S&S BFYR imprints.

Also at S&S, Kristin Dwyer has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity for Pocket Books imprint, Gallery Books.

At Dutton, Carrie Swetonic has been promoted to Director of Marketing, and Bernadette Blanco joins as Assistant Marketing Manager. Swetonic has been with Dutton since 2007, and Blanco was most recently at NYU Press. At Abbeville Press, Joan Strasbaugh has been named Senior Editor. Previously she was Publisher of Jones Books in Madison, WI. In addition, Diana Griffin has been promoted to Marketing and Publicity Manager.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Apr 25 – May 13
Buenos Aires International Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Amsterdam
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Apr 29 – May 5
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
New York, NY

May 1
29th Annual Literacy Partners Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner Dance
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, NY

May 1 – 5
Geneva International Book Fair
Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland

May 13
Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala
The Liberty Theater, New York, NY

May 16 – 19
Bookworld Prague 2013
Guest of Honor: Slovakia
Prague-Holesovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague, Czech Republic

May 19 – 22
National Stationery Show
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
BEA Bloggers at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Publishers Launch Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
New York Library Association (NYLA) Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – 30
IDPF Digital Book Conference
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – Jun 1
BookExpo America
Guest of Honor: Mexico
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 1
uPublishU at BEA
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 12 – 15
Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

Jun 18 – 20
Licensing Expo
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV

Jun 27 – Jul 2
ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition
Chicago, IL

Jul 3 – 6
Tokyo International Book Fair
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Jul 10 – 14
Southampton Writers Conference, Session 1
Stony Brook Southampton, Southampton, NY

Jul 14 – 26
Yale Publishing Course: Magazine/Digital (Jul 14 – 19)
Yale Publishing Course: Book (Jul 21 – 26)
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Jul 17 – 20
Romance Writers of America Conference
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, GA

Jul 18 – 21
San Diego Comic-Con West
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Aug 17 – 23
International Summit of the Book
Singapore

Aug 18 – 21
The Gourmet Housewares Show at NYIGF
Javits Center, New York, NY

Aug 28 – Sep 1
Beijing International Book Fair
Beijing, China

Aug 31 – Sep 2
Bumbershoot
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

Sep 15 – 16
CIANA Remainder & Promotional Book Fair
The Business Design Centre, Islington Green, London

Sep 21 – 22
National Book Festival
“Books that Shaped the World”
National Mall, Washington, DC

Sep 23 – 25
39th Annual FIPP World Magazine Conference
Hilton Cavalieri Hotel, Rome, Italy

Sep 23 – 25
Publishing Business Conference and Expo
NY Marriott Marquis, New York, NY

Sep 30 – Oct 2
NAIBA Fall Conference
Somerset Doubletree, Somerset, NJ

Oct 2 – 4
Liber International
Guest of Honor: Chile
Madrid, Spain

Oct 6 – 8
PNBA Tradeshow
Airport Holiday Inn, Portland, OR

Oct 9 – 13
Frankfurt Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Brazil
Frankfurt, Germany

Oct 10 – 12
MPIBA Fall Trade Show
Renaissance Denver Hotel, Denver, CO

Oct 10 – 13
New York Comic Con
Javits Center, New York, NY

Oct 11 – 13
Southern Festival of Books
Legistlative Plaza, Nashville, TN

Oct 20 – 27
Belgrade Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Poland
Belgrade, Serbia

While no one denies the extreme challenges, there is almost equally universal agreement among Argentinian publishing professionals that their industry is at a more exciting place now than it’s been since Argentina’s literary “golden age,” post-World War II. Despite the economic and legal challenges, many within the industry see specific ways that Argentina could very reasonably “reassure” its place in—and even help reshape—the global Spanish book industry if governmental policies shifted even slightly.

Argentinian book business’ greatest international challenge currently comes from the home front. In autumn 2011, faced with  annual rates of inflation over 20% and taking a policy stance of “cultural sovereignty,” the Argentinian government introduced rigorous guidelines for all aspects of international trade. For the book industry, this means strict import quotas on the number of books manufactured outside Argentina and extensive chemical tests to the materials of those books that are imported, along with newly complicated procedures for sending international payments.

While, in theory, the quotas should give Argentinian publishers a fighting chance in the face of cheap imports from Spain, they also place strain on any Argentinian publisher wishing to manufacture outside the country, and on global wholesalers and distributors from non-Spanish-speaking territories as well. Because of the new legal challenges, John Bacon, VP of International Sales at Baker & Taylor, says B&T is “not expecting to see our exports to Argentina grow in the near future.”  While Argentina’s own exports have not been directly restricted in the same manner, local inflation rates keep the prices of books manufactured there far from competitive in foreign markets, says Alejandro Katz, Publisher of Katz Editores, resulting in markedly reduced international sales. The policies even affect non-material goods: insofar as transferring money out of the country has been made more difficult, so has Argentinian publishers’ ability to license rights from foreign countries.

The ability to maintain and strengthen global bonds is, undoubtedly, of the greatest concern to all players in Argentina’s book business. Alejandro Katz points out that since Argentina produces 12.5% of Spanish-language titles in the world, extreme import strictures “prevent Argentinians from accessing more than 85% of the titles published in our language every year.” The most harm is likely to be felt in the long term, by limiting the variety and complexity of what’s available on the market. Even without taking into account limited competition and cross-pollination at home, it’s hard to imagine how a new trade policy so extreme it’s prompted an official complaint to the W.T.O. from forty countries—including the US, Canada, and Mexico—is doing anything to help Argentinians compete on the world stage.

Nevertheless, if regulations could be made just a bit less extreme, the current situation could be ripe for positive change.  “Fifteen or twenty years ago, the map was completely different, dominated by larger corporate publishers,” says Leonora Djament, Publisher of Eterna Cadencia. Now, while Gabriela Adamo says the country may have become “too chaotic to be a real haven for the large international corporations,” circumstances have nurtured enough new, independent houses to make the period between 2003-2010 what Octavio Kulesz, Director of Editorial Teseo calls “probably one of the greatest publishing booms ever in Argentina.”

For much of the past 20 years or more, the Spanish-language publishing world has undeniably been what Gabriela Adamo wryly calls “Spain’s backyard.” The blow that the world economic crisis has dealt Spain’s book industry, though, presents an “opportunity for Argentina, after many decades of [Spain’s] hegemonic control of the markets of Latin America,” says Alejandro Katz, both in terms of bidding for world language rights and also to produce original titles with “more than a purely local focus.” One particularly serendipitous opportunity has been global interest in the new Pope, which has been keeping Argentinian publishers and agents “frantically busy,” says Agent Irene Barki, and “has been the best opportunity for Argentinian publishing in a long time.” A more general area in which Argentina has been distinguishing itself as a global bellwether, says Leonora Djament, is with “a fabulous translation policy,” harkening back to the first half of the 20th century when Argentina “served as a world pioneer in Spanish-language translations…remember Sartre, Benjamin, Nabokov all got their Spanish-language start in Argentina.” In the area of children’s literature, Argentinian illustrator Isol has drawn global attention also, since being awarded the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Award in March.

There is vocal agreement that Argentina is in an excellent place to take advantage of global changes to Spanish-language publishing—if only its trade laws weren’t so alienating to global partners. Rationalizing the new policy in April 2012, Argentina’s Culture Minister said it gives power to Argentinian publishers and not to “what is decided in the great capitals of the world about the books we read.” Global opportunities are available, but unless international relations are improved, it isn’t so much that “the great capitals of the world” won’t have a say in what Argentinians read as that Argentina’s own books will have a harder time finding a place at the global table.

Getting your foot in the door is important, but it’s also only the first step in building a career in the publishing industry. Though there have been many articles and stories about how to navigate a first job, very few delve into what happens next. How do you evaluate when you’re ready for a change? What is the best way to pursue a promotion? What do you do when unexpected opportunities to move up the ladder come knocking? In order to find out, we recently took a survey of a variety of publishing industry professionals who shared their second job experiences with us.

After finally getting that first real job, how does one identify when it’s time to move on? For Todd Berman, VP, Client Development  at Random House, moving on to his next job has always been a matter of needing a new challenge, whether it was in publicity, marketing, sales, or even (his current position) client development.  “Each job I approached I was somewhat unqualified for,” Todd admits. “Every few years, I want to learn something new or different, so when I see something of interest, I pursue it.” The drawback to this approach, of course, is that there is a sometimes a steep learning curve, especially since it might not just be the job title changing, but the department and house as well. The trick to finding new opportunities, Todd says, is to approach different departments and “get to know audiences and become a sponge for information.”

Others realized that it was time to move on when they saw that the job they had wouldn’t position them for the long-term career they really wanted. Claire Taylor, National Accounts Manager at Macmillan, and Bruce Nichols, SVP, Publisher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, both got their starts at academic publishers but quickly realized that they needed to break out to fulfill their career aspirations. Though Bruce started in a coveted role as an Editorial Assistant at Little, Brown’s college division, he learned within six months of starting his first job (and in fact was told by many people in the Editorial department) “that the best way to move anywhere in College publishing was to get into Sales.” While Bruce’s eventual career in Sales provided him with the mobility he was looking for, he admits the importance of a first job, even (or especially) if it’s not perfect: “You know, I think if I’d applied for the sales position right out of college—even though it was the better position for me and for my career—I wouldn’t have gotten it. It was better to just get my foot in the door.”

Claire Taylor had a similar experience when she took her first job to be closer to the company she most aspired to work for: Candlewick. “I was at [Wiley] Blackwell about a year, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do about 8 months in. First I applied to an opening there in Editorial, but then I withdrew my name from the running, since I realized that what I wanted was to get out of was educational,” she explains. Eventually, her efforts paid off. She scored a position at Candlewick, albeit at the bottom of the totem pole in the Sales department. But sometimes even getting what you want doesn’t signify the end of the story. A few years later, having become an Accounts Manager at Candlewick, Claire found herself at another impasse. “Because Candlewick is small, there isn’t a lot of room to move beyond account manager… I had to decide whether I was OK with where I was at Candlewick, whether I wanted to leave publishing, or whether I wanted to move to New York.” She ended up taking the leap that landed her in her current position at Macmillan.

Indeed when it comes to searching for the “next thing,” not all careers follow the same narrative, especially in a tough job market. For those following a more traditional path and hoping to stay within the same department and house, learning how to communicate a desire to ascend can be a tricky task. Having a good boss, for one, definitely helps. “I’m actually very serious when I say that the most important thing for getting your start in publishing is finding the right boss,” insists Carolyn Reidy, President and CEO at Simon & Schuster. Her own boss at her first job in Sub Rights “knew that knowledge was power, and she knew how to share it—two very important things.”

In other cases, however, discussions about job opportunities need to be pursued more aggressively, a task that is sometimes fraught with office politics. “I think our generation is struggling to articulate the nature of [being able to speak up to superiors when they need something], and just trusting business best practices,” says Claire Taylor. Some argue that actions simply speak louder than words. “Enthusiasm and can-do are crucial, but it’s never about ‘communicating my skills’ or ‘what I want’ so much as it is about getting things done,” says Carolyn Reidy. “There are always skills and tasks waiting to be learned and that will further your ability to contribute.” One Production Associate we interviewed agreed: “I think it’s important to learn how to get what you want, and to learn the proper way to present yourself, even if you’re doing great work on the job. Verbalizing your requests in a way that doesn’t make it about you, but about the process, the whole.”

Some new job opportunities, though, aren’t sought after-or even expected. For many, especially more senior publishing professionals, the publishing industry was not even where they intended to end up. “I came to New York thinking I was going to be an actor…publishing is lousy, you will find, with ex-thesps,” says Bruce Tracy, Senior Editor at Workman, who got his start working two temp jobs for FSG and Doubleday. It was an Editorial Assistant gig at Doubleday that got the ball rolling: “So I temped for 22 months until a new publisher was brought in and they promoted [my boss], and hired me as Assistant Editor.” Charles Kim, Associate Publisher at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), also got his start temping—in his case at the French Publisher’s Agency, which later turned into a full time job, and he has been recruited for his subsequent jobs ever since. “I’ve had great luck, as every single opportunity I’ve had in publishing has presented itself to me,” says Kim, a position that, while fortuitous, presents its own problems: when he was offered the opportunity for his current position, he was not necessarily ready to leave his job as Publisher and Editor in Chief of the Smithsonian‘s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (where his wife also worked). “But when I found out [the job was for] MoMA,” he admits, “I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring.”

Unexpected opportunities, however, are not always positive at least not at first. Oriana Leckert, Director of Operations at Gotham Ghostwriters, was made Assistant Editor of Value Books at Random House within less than a year of being hired, when both her bosses were laid off. “It was a weird time in the department,” says Oriana. “I worked for the Info group, which included Collectibles and Games. The promotion came as a part of reorganization.” While the idea of moving up the corporate ladder is often an exciting one, playing catch-up was not necessarily ideal. Still, as she was learning about “being careful what you wish for,” she also learned she was capable of more than she had thought.

Similarly, Kevin Bauer had a bit of a rocky road on his way to his current position as Corporate Services Assistant at HarperCollins. Starting his career in bookselling, he eventually took his first publishing job in the contracts department at Bookspan, DirectBrands. Though he enjoyed his time there, he was laid off within the year due to the shrinking of the book club market. A temp job led him to his current—and rather unusual—position at HarperCollins. “I think working ‘between departments’ the way I am right now in Corporate Services, I’m learning a lot about processes, cutting back on waste, streamlining—and the fluidity of lines between departments,” he explains.

When unexpected opportunity presents itself, however, the important thing to do is to see how to leverage the skills you already have to get ahead. Rebecca Saletan, Editorial Director at Riverhead Books, for example, was promoted from an assistant position to Managing Editor at Vintage—a role that took her off her intended track toward becoming an Acquiring Editor. While not the path she intended, she did see the silver lining: “What I did learned is that you can leverage something you have of value – some way you’re contributing to the larger enterprise (in this case, my managing editor-related skills) into going in the direction you want (acquiring editor), even if it’s not a straight line,” she recalls. Leveraging her skills while making her acquiring ambitions known eventually paid off, as she was later promoted to Senior Editor at Random House and eventually moved to Simon & Schuster.

While there is no set road map to help navigate a career in publishing, the knowledge that there is no natural progression can be a comforting one. Especially as technology continues to disrupt traditional business models, the opportunities to work in the industry in different capacities only grow. Movement from job to job can be nonlinear, while still providing new skills and knowledge that will play a constructive role in one’s overall career. What does become clear, however, is that opportunities abound: from opportunities in moving amongst houses and departments, to even moving from one industry to another. What is important is to always look ahead. As Oriana Leckert comments, “In terms of my greater career, [my first and second job] taught me how to craft my ‘narrative.’ I can see what it means more now, but didn’t feel it at the time.”

Also, for related reading:

Your Next Job in Publishing: Sage Advice from Across the Industry from Publishing Trendsetter

Random House has announced a multi-faceted book deal with Dave Zinczenko, formerly EVP, Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Health and General Manager of the Healthy Living Group and Rodale Books at Rodale, which includes a 3-book publishing deal with Ballantine, an imprint Zinc Ink within the Random House Publishing Group and a distribution deal for branded titles produced by his packaging company Galvanized Brands in association with American Media and others. Zinc Ink will be headed up jointly by Galvanized COO Stephen Perrine (formerly Publisher at Rodale Books) and BBD Publisher Libby McGuire.

As reported in Publishers Lunch, Vaughn Andrews will join Workman Publishing as Creative Director for the Workman imprint on April 22. Most recently a Freelance Designer, he worked for 26 years at Harcourt, including serving as Executive Art Director and Creative Director. Raquel Jaramillo, who has been acting Creative Director for two years, will return full time to her position as Director of Children’s Publishing.

Deb Futter has been named Publisher of Twelve in addition to her role as VP, Editor-in-Chief of Grand Central Publishing.  As a result, Twelve Publisher Cary Goldstein has decided to pursue other interests.  Cary joined Twelve at its inception, seven years ago.

Sam Tanenhaus has stepped down from his role as New York Times Book Review Editor to become Writer at Large. He is replaced by Pamela Paul, the Features Editor at the Book Review, whom Tanenhaus hired as Children’s Book Editor in 2011.

Maha Khalil has joined the Crown Publishing Group as the Marketing Director for Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, Watson-Guptill and Amphoto.  She joins Crown  from Hyperion, where she was most recently the Director of Sales.

Judy Courtade is leaving her position as Associate Director of Client Services at Perseus Distribution and can be reached at judy@tcourtade.com

Eric Nelson, most recently Executive Editor at Wiley, has joined the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency as an Agent.

Laney Katz Becker has joined Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as an Agent. Previously, she was at Markson Thoma and before that, Folio Literary Management.

Tad Floridis has joined Zola Books as Director of International Business Development, with an initial mandate to take the company into the UK and British Commonwealth markets. Floridis was previously Co-founder and Associate Publisher of Canongate US.

Jhanteigh Kupihea will join Atria as Editor on April 22. Previously she was Associate Editor at NAL.

Lisa Vanterpool has joined InkWell Management as its Public Relations and Social Media Strategist; she worked previously for Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. Monika Woods has also joined InkWell as Assistant Literary Agent to Kimberly Witherspoon, who previously worked at Trident Media Group.

PROMOTIONS

For the Potter group of imprints at Crown, Allison Renzulli has been promoted to Senior Marketing Manager, Carly Gorga has been promoted to Associate Marketing Manager, and Kevin Sweeting has been promoted to Marketing Associate.

At Abrams, David Blatty has been promoted to Director of Managing Editorial, Dervla Kelly moves up to Senior Editor, Laura Dozier has been promoted to Editor, and Samantha Weiner moves up to Assistant Editor.

Meg Cassidy has been promoted to Publicity Manager at Free Press; she joined the publicity department in August 2011.

IN MEMORIAM

Workman Publishing Company announced the death of its founder, Peter Workman, at the age of 74 from cancer. He died on April 7, 2013, at home in New York.  He left his wife of fifty-one years, Carolan Raskin Workman; their two daughters, Katie and Elizabeth; their sons-in-law, Gary Freilich and Mark Williams; and four grandchildren: Jack, Charlie, Madeline, and Charlotte.

A memorial service for longtime Knopf vice president and senior editor Ashbel Green will be held in New York at Cooper Union on Thursday, April 25th at 5:00 pm in the Great Hall. Green, who started at Knopf in 1964, died last September at the age of 84.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Apr 25 – May 13
Buenos Aires International Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Amsterdam
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Apr 29 – May 5
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
New York, NY

May 1
29th Annual Literacy Partners Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner Dance
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, NY

May 1 – 5
Geneva International Book Fair
Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland

May 13
Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala
The Liberty Theater, New York, NY

May 16 – 19
Bookworld Prague 2013
Guest of Honor: Slovakia
Prague-Holesovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague, Czech Republic

May 19 – 22
National Stationery Show
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
BEA Bloggers at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Publishers Launch Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
New York Library Association (NYLA) Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – 30
IDPF Digital Book Conference
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – Jun 1
BookExpo America
Guest of Honor: Mexico
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 1
uPublishU at BEA
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 12 – 15
Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

Jun 18 – 20
Licensing Expo
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV

Jun 27 – Jul 2
ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition
Chicago, IL

Jul 3 – 6
Tokyo International Book Fair
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Jul 10 – 14
Southampton Writers Conference, Session 1
Stony Brook Southampton, Southampton, NY

Jul 14 – 26
Yale Publishing Course: Magazine/Digital (Jul 14 – 19)
Yale Publishing Course: Book (Jul 21 – 26)
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Jul 17 – 20
Romance Writers of America Conference
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, GA

Jul 18 – 21
San Diego Comic-Con West
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Aug 17 – 23
International Summit of the Book
Singapore

Aug 18 – 21
The Gourmet Housewares Show at NYIGF
Javits Center, New York, NY

Aug 28 – Sep 1
Beijing International Book Fair
Beijing, China

Aug 31 – Sep 2
Bumbershoot
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

Sep 15 – 16
CIANA Remainder & Promotional Book Fair
The Business Design Centre, Islington Green, London

Sep 21 – 22
National Book Festival
“Books that Shaped the World”
National Mall, Washington, DC

Sep 23 – 25
39th Annual FIPP World Magazine Conference
Hilton Cavalieri Hotel, Rome, Italy

Sep 23 – 25
Publishing Business Conference and Expo
NY Marriott Marquis, New York, NY

Sep 30 – Oct 2
NAIBA Fall Conference
Somerset Doubletree, Somerset, NJ

Oct 2 – 4
Liber International
Guest of Honor: Chile
Madrid, Spain

With this in mind, we decided to take the next logical step and ask: “How did you get your second job in publishing?”—a change we chose to define as the first officially recognized title change, whether that was brought about by internal promotion, department change, or company switch. We compiled a survey with questions about the “second-job experience” and sent it to publishing professionals in all corners of the industry and at all points in their career.  We wondered what that first career shift could tell us about what keeps young professionals in publishing, and how second jobs and the forces behind them have changed over the past four decades.

While our more in-depth interviews with participants are forthcoming, the initial data provides a striking portrait of a career milestone through time and in a wide variety of contexts.

WHO: The 650 carefully weighted surveys yielded a double digit response—some of them amazingly detailed—about  careers that measured anywhere  from three to forty-five years. Respondents currently work in companies that range from Big 6 publishers to indie presses, trade to textbooks, agencies to distributors, trade associations to national accounts, and hold titles that run the gamut from Associate to CEO.

WHERE: Among those surveyed, the greatest number began in Editorial, with 41% of responders having started there. Sales was runner-up with 20%, and Rights/Agencies were tied with Publicity, having each been the launchpad for 11% of our respondents. When they moved to their second job, 67% respondents said they moved departments, while 61% said that a second job meant moving to a different company altogether. Whether or not people moved departments seemed to vary depending on where they started: most people who started in Editorial stayed put in their department, with 68% of our respondents who started in Editorial saying they are still in the same department now. Those who started in Sales had higher turnover, with only 37% of respondents who started in Sales still working in that department now.

WHEN: The timeline for how long it took for people to get to what they considered their “second job” in publishing ranged from 6 months to 6 years, but averaged 1.75 years.

HOW: When it came to how the move to a second job was made, 59% said they “took direct action.” “Direct action” meant different things to different responders. Plenty of people said they made their desire to move up known to supervisors, or applied to job listings in-house or from other companies. Just as interesting are the number of job changes young workers didn’t go out of their way to obtain, but which were hardly part of their company’s typical career path. The most common example (and often the source of the most dramatic change) was a supervisor’s promotion or dismissal, pointing to the interconnectedness of individuals’ career paths.

But the meatiest questions begged for an in-depth conversation, so stay tuned to learn: How do people manage to make the leap? Why do people decide their next jobs should be in publishing at all? How does that first progression inform the career changes that come after?

As widely reported, Bob Miller has left Workman, where he was Group Publisher, and he may be reached at robert.s.miller56@gmail.com. He will “stay on as a consultant for ongoing projects until June.” Susan Bolotin has become Acting Publisher of the Workman imprint. Katie Workman will return to the company as an “active” participant, with her mother, Carolan.

Charlie Winton, Chairman, CEO and Publisher of Counterpoint, announced that he will step down as Publisher of the company. Rolph Blythe has been named Publisher of Counterpoint/Soft Skull and will begin at the Counterpoint offices in Berkeley on May 1, 2013. Winton will remain Chairman and CEO, and will also continue to acquire books as an Executive Editor-at-Large.

Christopher Sweet has gone to Thames & Hudson US as Editorial Director.  He was previously at artnet.com and Abrams. Lauren Miller has been named Associate Marketing Director; she was previously at F+W.

Random House Children’s Books Editor-at-Large, Jim Thomas , will leave the company on April 5 to write full-time. Thomas will continue to work with RHCB and several authors on a freelance basis.

McGraw-Hill Education hired Mark Dorman as President of McGraw-Hill Education International. Most recently, he was President and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.  Philip Ruppel relinquishes that title but remains as President of McGraw-Hill Professional, a position he has held since 2007.

HarperCollins SVP, Publishing Transformation, Carolyn Pittis has left the company.  She may be reached at Carolyn.pittis@yahoo.com.  Meanwhile, Kate Jackson announced that Nancy Inteli has joined HarperCollins Children’s Early Childhood Group as Editorial Director. Previously, she was at Disney Book Group, where she was the Global Editorial Director. Kristen Pettit has joined Harper as Executive Editor; she was most recently with Razorbill. Alexandra Cooper joins as Executive Editor. She had been at S&S for thirteen years, most recently as Senior Editor. Tara Weikum has been promoted to Vice President, Editorial Director; she joined HarperCollins in September 2000.

Paul Harrington has been promoted to Vice President and Associate Publisher at CN Times.  He was previously a National Accounts Manager at Oxford University Press. Sean Concannon has joined CN Times, Inc, the US subsidiary of Beijing Media Time, as Sales and Marketing Manager. He was previously Client Services Director at Sonnet Media.  Helen Song has joined CN Times, Inc, as Executive Managing Editor. She was previously Editorial Production Manager at Continuum International Publishing Group. 

Jeff Gomez, VP of Online Consumer Sales and Marketing at Penguin, has moved to Byliner as the Head of Writer Marketing, a new position. In his new role, Gomez — who was the Director of Internet Marketing at Holtzbrinck before he went to Penguin — will “work with the company’s team of accomplished editors to continue to grow the Byliner Writers Network,” according to the announcement.

Since Mark Suchomel left  IPG earlier in March, where he had been President for 15 years, IPG has made a number of changes:  Jeff Tegge has been promoted to EVP, where he will continue to coordinate the efforts of the IPG sales and marketing staff and look for additional sales opportunities outside of the book trade. Clark Matthews (son of majority owner Curt Matthews) moves up to VP, Digital Services, while Mark Noble has been promoted to VP, Publisher Relations.

Andrew Duncan has joined Grand Central on March 25 as Associate Director, Online Marketing, reporting to Matthew Ballast. He was most recently Senior Marketing Manager at Viking.

Betsy DeJesu has joined Basic Books as Assistant Director of Publicity. She was most recently at Oxford University Press where she was a Senior Marketing Manager.

Megan Perritt has joined Crown as Senior Publicist; she was previously at F&W Media. In addition, Rebecca Marsh has been named Publicist, moving from Simon & Schuster.  At Crown/Hogarth, Zack Wagman has been promoted to Senior Editor, and Christine Kopprasch moves up to Associate Editor. Candice Chaplin has been named imprint Sales Director at Crown. Jacqueline Lebow has been appointed imprint Sales Director for publishing brands including RH Audio, Fodor’s Travel, Living Language, Princeton Review, and Prima Games. 

Dave Bolen has joined Highlights Press, Inc. as Director of Sales.   Previously, Bolen worked for Simon & Schuster, Levy Entertainment and Sourcebooks. Mary Colgan has joined the Highlights Book group in the newly created position of Senior Editor, Highlights Press.  Colgan worked at Weldon Owen Publishers and Chronicle Books and will be based at the Highlights editorial offices in Honesdale, PA.

Craig Herman has moved to Iconix Brand Group as Executive Director, Publishing, Peanuts Worldwide, based in NYC.  He was previously Associate Publisher at Running Press.

Martin Flanagan has moved from Ideals Publications, a division of Guideposts, after 26 years as President and VP of sales, and has joined APG Sales & Distribution located in Nashville as their Executive VP. He will be responsible for all day to day operations at APG and is actively recruiting new publisher distribution clients.

Following its sale to the Leon D. Black family last October, Managing Director Amanda Ridout announced her decision to leave Phaidon to pursue personal projects. Mary Albi has returned to Phaidon US as VP, leading their US operation and reporting to CEO David Davies. She had been VP, Sales & Marketing for Phaidon in the US previously until leaving in 2003. Albi has been Sales and Marketing Director at Egmont USA since 2009.

Ashleigh Gardner has joined Wattpad as Head of Content; she was previously Director, Content Management at Kobo. Wattpad also added two other members to their team: Candice Faktor as General Manager (formerly co-founder and VP of Corporate Development & New Ventures at Torstar Digital) and Charles Chan as Head of Engineering (formerly Director of Core Systems at Kobo).

Brandon Proia has joined the University of North Carolina Press as Acquisitions Editor. Previously he was an Editor at Public Affairs.

PROMOTIONS

A reorganization of St. Martin’s Press has put Jeff Dodes, Executive VP, Marketing & Digital Media Strategy, in charge of the combined operations. Reporting to him are Anne Marie Tallberg, Dori Weintraub, Laura Clark, Paul Hochman, John Murphy, Nancy Trypuc, and Matt Baldacci.  Anne Marie Tallberg has been named VP, Marketing, Communications & Audience Development, leading a group focusing on women’s fiction/romance/young adult/parenting/self-help/health-fitness-diet/crafts. Dori Weintraub will serve in the same executive capacity, leading a group focusing on women’s fiction/literary fiction/biography-memoir. Lisa Senz will has been named VP, Marketing and Partnerships, and will continue as lead marketer of the publisher’s women’s fiction and literary fiction authors.  Director of Publicity John Murphy and Senior Director, Creative Services & Advertising Nancy Trypuc will remain in charge of SMP’s publicity and creative services, respectively. Matt Baldacci has been promoted to VP, Marketing and Sales Operations, leading a group focusing on operations and analysis. Joe Goldschein has been named Director, Marketing and Sales Operations, working with Baldacci to build out the capabilities for this group.

Meanwhile, Jeanne-Marie Hudson, Paul Hochman, and Laura Clark have each been named Director, Marketing, Communications & Audience Development. Hochman will focus on mystery, thriller and suspense titles; Clark will lead a group working on the business/politics/history/military/religion/sports/cooking/travel categories.

Amanda D’Acierno has been promoted to SVP, Publisher at Random House Audio, Fodor’s, and Living Language.

At HMH, Ken Carpenter, currently VP Editorial Director, Mariner and also Director of Tolkien Projects, now adds Editorial Director, CliffsNotes to his title, with Cliffs Executive Editor Greg Tubach reporting to him. Also at HMH, Deanne Urmy has been promoted to Senior Executive Editor. Rux Martin has assumed the title of Editorial Director, Rux Martin Books.

Also at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Michaela Sullivan has been named VP, Creative Director, taking on the responsibility for the design of the Culinary line, CliffsNotes, and Webster’s New World Dictionaries in addition to the general interest list. In addition, Rebecca Springer has been named Managing Editor, Digital Cookbooks, while Marina Padakis moves up to Managing Editor, Cookbooks.

At Chronicle Books, Liz Rico has been promoted to Design Director, Marketing Communication, and Kim Lauber moves up to Associate Director, Children’s Marketing.  Kristen Hewitt has been promoted to Design Director.

At Knopf Books for Young Readers, Michele Burke has been promoted to Senior Editor and Allison Worchte moves up to Editor.

Maria Ribas has been promoted to Assistant Editor at Harlequin Nonfiction and Harlequin Kimani.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Workman Publishing founder, Peter Workman, 74, died of cancer on Sunday, April 7 at his home in New York. A memorial service will be planned for a future date, to be announced at another time. Anyone wishing to honor Peter is asked to consider making a donation in his name to the Goddard Riverside Community Center.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Mar 28 – Apr 8
Bangkok International Book Fair
Bangkok, Thailand

Apr 29 – May 5
PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
New York, NY

Apr 12
New York Antiquarian Book Fair
The Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY

Apr 13 – 15
Museum Store Association Conference and Expo
Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

Apr 14
LBF Digital Minds Conference 2013
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center, London, UK

Apr 15 – 17
London Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Turkey
Earls Court, London, UK

Apr 25 – May 13
Buenos Aires International Book Fair
Guest of Honor: Amsterdam
Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 1
29th Annual Literacy Partners Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner Dance
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York, NY

May 1 – 5
Geneva International Book Fair
Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland

May 16 – 19
Bookworld Prague 2013
Guest of Honor: Slovakia
Prague-Holesovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague, Czech Republic

May 19 – 22
National Stationery Show
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
BEA Bloggers at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Publishers Launch Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29
New York Library Association (NYLA) Conference at BookExpo America
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29-30
IDPF Digital Book Conference
Javits Center, New York, NY

May 29 – Jun 1
BookExpo America
Guest of Honor: Mexico
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 1
uPublishU at BEA
Javits Center, New York, NY

Jun 12 – 15
Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

Jun 18 – 20
Licensing Expo
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV

Jun 27 – Jul 2
ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition
Chicago, IL

Jul 3 – 6
Tokyo International Book Fair
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Jul 10 – 14
Southampton Writers Conference, Session 1
Stony Brook Southampton, Southampton, NY

Jul 14 – 26
Yale Publishing Course: Magazine/Digital (Jul 14 – 19)
Yale Publishing Course: Book (Jul 21 – 26)
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Jul 17 – 20
Romance Writers of America Conference
Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, GA

Jul 18 – 21
San Diego Comic-Con West
San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Aug 17 – 23
International Summit of the Book
Singapore

Aug 18 – 21
The Gourmet Housewares Show at NYIGF
Javits Center, New York, NY

All children’s publishers in these smaller territories conceded their relative good fortune in contrast to non-children’s publishing colleagues, due to parents’ (and even some governments’) unwillingness to cut corners on what they see as children’s cultural education. In Greece, says Dominique Sandis, Commissioning Editor at Psichigios Publications, juvenile “hasn’t felt the full extent of [the financial crisis’] wrath on publishing,” despite lower production numbers. Children’s publishers in those hardest-hit markets have suffered most in terms of the value of advances they are able to offer, agree Sandis and Hana Whitton, the Director of Oxford Literary in the UK , which represents many Hungarian and Baltic publishers. Several US Scouts and Rights Directors report that it’s only within the past 6 months that Greek publishers have started buying again, suggesting a hopeful upturn in business.

There is also concern over the production cost of small, four-color print runs, and over publishers’ attempts to absorb more costs by offering large discounts. “I’m worried people won’t recognize these prices as low anymore…and it will become impossible to produce good books, especially picture books, anymore,” says Eefje Buenen, Editor at Leopold in the Netherlands. In Finland, the number of children’s/YA titles has seen significant growth, but in a tiny country with tiny (expensive) print runs, the size of the market itself has held steady even as the variety of titles has increased, reports Outi Mäkinen, Director of Children and Juvenile Publishing at Tammi, Bonnier Finland.

Despite the strain of production costs for many of Europe’s small-territory children’s publishers, picture books continue to deliver where other genres can’t. Scandinavia’s legacy of excellent illustrators, with international franchises like Tove Jansson’s Moomins, remains the region’s international calling card. And for Greece, with a historic difficulty selling rights internationally, new picture book versions of internationally beloved classics—especially Greek mythology—are often the only properties which will catch an international publishers’ eye, says Dominique Sandis. For Hungarian and Baltic Countries’ publishers, the importance of a distinctive house style of illustration remains such that most show little interest in licensing international picture books, preferring YA and non-illustrated middle grade, says Hana Whitton.

In contrast to the tried and true legacy of picture book publishing, the drive to keep up with the latest trends in YA remains a compelling one for anyone headed for Bologna. Despite the allure of the next big thing, though, the maturation of the YA market is stirring an interest in distinctive approaches to the saturated fantasy/dystopia genre. As a group, Scandinavian countries report rising international interest in their YA offerings, with a big leap in sales to Korea and China. Suzanne Öhman, Senior Editor at Rabén & Sjögren in Sweden reports that YA has recently replaced picture books as their biggest export item, and Heli Hottinen-Puukko, Editorial Director, Children’s and Young Readers at Otava in Finland, sees Nordic mythology as Scandinavia’s growing asset on the international stage, as publishers out seek as-yet unexhausted corners of the YA Fantasy genre.

At the other end of the spectrum, illustrated narrative nonfiction series have been a big hit in Finland, and have gotten plenty of pre-Bologna attention. From Denmark, Kaya Hoff, Editor at Gyldendal, reports global interest in Danish trademark “raw realism/social realism” in YA. Strong “home-grown” YA has an additional importance in countries like the Netherlands, where high rates of English and digital literacy mean that much of the target 13-25 year-old readership “has already bought the original [international] titles from Amazon by the time they’re translated into Dutch,” says Eefje Buenen. “It’s a real problem Dutch publishers have to face.”

For Europe’s smallest countries, the ability to maintain a unique literary culture—rather than to just efficiently process international bestsellers—becomes all the more important as new markets open and digital access grows. A distinctive list obviously stands out when it comes to international rights sales, but also keeps a small domestic audience coming back for more, even if they can read the next Hunger Games in the original English edition. One such success story is Slovenia, where sales of original Slovenian titles have boomed within the past 12 months. The success has touched all genres (even poetry), and children’s books are no exception. As Slovenian publishers prepare to head to Bologna, it seems rather fitting that for the past two months, every other book in the country—Fifty Shades of Grey included—has been playing second fiddle to Bor the Beaver (published by Mladinska knjiga), a Slovenian picture book with a small but industrious hero.