Publishers Lunch

Today's Meal

People, Etc.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, editorial director, lifestyle Deb Brody has been promoted to vp, editor-in-chief. (She joined the company a little under a year ago.) In her new role she "will expand her oversight and editorial work across the lifestyle and general interest teams," adding oversight for Alex Littlefield and a to-be-hired senior editor. Publisher Bruce Nichols notes that the lifestyle group has broadened its program and "there has been increasing overlap with general interest nonfiction," so "the two groups will work together more closely." Helen Atsma remains in charge of the fiction program as editorial director, fiction, and senior team members Rick Wolff, Eamon Dolan, Deanne Urmy, and Susan Canavan continue to report to Nichols.

John Kulka has joined Basic Books as an executive editor. He was an editor at Harvard University Press.

Sarah Landis and Elizabeth Bewley will join Sterling Lord Literistic as agents starting July 10th, both representing young adult and middle-grade fiction and nonfiction. They were previously editors at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's.

Sandra Cohen will join Little, Brown Children's as director of licensing and brand management starting July 5. Most recently, she was senior publishing manager for Latin America at Hasbro.

At Scribner UK, Rowan Cope has been promoted to associate publisher.

Daniel Ropers will join Springer Nature on October 1 and take over as CEO, as Derk Haank retires from the company at the end of the year. Ropers is the co-founder of online retailer bol.com, where he has been CEO since 2000. Chairman of the Springer Nature board Stefan von Holtzbrinck says in the announcement, "In Daniel, we have found a CEO who understands the importance of putting customers at the heart of a business and delivering products and services that they want, when they want them and in a way that suits them. From my days as an early investor in bol.com, I know him to be a great colleague with a personality that will be a good cultural fit with Springer Nature."

Among the wave of "best books of 2017 so far lists" you can add Christian Lorentzen's at NY Magazine and one from Harper's Bazaar (which includes four books from later this year not yet published).

Revealed
Doubleday released the jacket for Dan Brown's forthcoming ORIGIN, publishing on October 3, and revealed that the thriller will be set in Spain. The book puts his protagonist Robert Langdon at "the intersection of two of humankind’s most enduring questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going?" New pitch copy has the book opening at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, where a billionaire and futurist is ready to share a discovery that "will change the face of science forever."

Bookselling
Interabang Books, the new Dallas bookstore backed by Nancy Perot, will open July 1.

Two Sisters Bookery in Wilmington, N.C. has changed owners. New owner Christine Greer says she has "a lot of marketing ideas and a lot of event ideas" but doesn't plan "to make any drastic changes right away."

Indie publisher Two Dollar Radio plans to open a bookstore in Columbus, OH to sell its own titles as well as books by other small presses. The store will open in September, when the publisher moves to a new space containing offices, the bookstore, and a cafe and bar.