Kerri Kolen will be moving to G.P. Putnam’s Sons at Penguin Group (USA).

Kolen will serve as executive editor and specialize in popular nonfiction. She will start her new position on February 25th.

Throughout Kolen’s career, she has worked at Simon & Schuster and Hyperion. Some of the titles on her list include A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard, Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher and HODA: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee by Hoda Kotb.

Simon & Schuster has launched a book club site on Facebook called “Something to Read About.” The club will open on October 12th with a discussion on Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir, A Stolen Life. Readers can join in from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

Follow this link to browse the site. Here’s more: “This new page is designed to enhance readers experience with books and authors by featuring a variety of activities and events including a spotlight ‘Book-of-the-Month’ title, moderated conversations about favorite books, a listing of authors from all Simon & Schuster’s imprints who are available to call into reading groups, favorite book club selections, and daily updates. Fans of the page will also have direct access to videos, photos, a book-specific discussion forum, and excerpts as well as opportunities to interact with some authors and enter contests for free books.”

October’s book-of-the-month title will be Alice Hoffman‘s The Dovekeepers. Jodi Picoult‘s Sing You Home will follow in November and Kathleen Grissom‘s The Kitchen House in December. The site also has two book club samplers available with excerpts from popular authors including Phillipa Gregory, Chris Cleave and Samuel Park.  What do you think?

Tracey Guest, director of publicity at Simon & Schuster, has been promoted to vice president, director of publicity.

Guest has been with Simon & Schuster since 1998. In her time at the publisher, she has worked on a wide range of books by authors including: Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Woodward, Don Rickles, Mike Birbiglia, Bob Dylan, Paula Deen and Sylvia Nasar. Guest’s most recent publicity campaign was for Jaycee Dugard‘s bestseller, A Stolen Life. Guest began her career at Dutton/Plume in 1991.

In an email, Adam Rothberg, SVP, corporate communications at Simon & Schuster, wrote: “Through it all, Tracey has demonstrated excellent judgment, warmth, spirit, and an ability to make good things happen for our authors in all forms of media.”

As we head home for the weekend, we’ve collected the ten most  popular publishing stories of the week–ranging from the worst time to pitch your book, Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir and a bookstore filling with books (video embedded above).

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3. Charlaine Harris To End Sookie Stackhouse Series
4. Worst Times To Pitch a Publishing Professional
5. Should Schools Still Teach Cursive?
6. Jaycee Dugard’s Memoir Tops Amazon Bestseller List
7. Google eReader Takes on Kindle
8. Watch a Bookstore Fill with Books
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10. Google+ Could Kill the Author Email Blast

Jaycee Dugard sold a total of 175,000 copies of A Stolen Life in print books, audiobooks and eBooks yesterday. Those sales included 100,000 ebooks, a new record for Simon & Schuster.

The memoir recounts how Dugard spent 18 years of her life confined to a tent behind Phillip Craig Garrido‘s home.  A portion of the proceeds Dugard earns will be donated to The J A Y C Foundation.

Publisher Jonathan Karp commented: “Clearly, the book has touched a nerve.  The millions of people who read the excerpt in People magazine and watched Jaycee Dugard’s interview with Diane Sawyer want to hear more of her voice, on the page, and the comments we’re seeing online indicate that readers are finding inspiration in Jaycee Dugard’s strength and resilience.”

Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir, A Stolen Life, has hit the number one spot on Amazon’s bestseller list. The book will officially be released tomorrow, but Dugard spoke with television journalist Diane Sawyer last night (video embedded above).

Dugard had spent 18 years of her life imprisoned by Phillip Craig Garrido. She was confined in a tent behind his family home. Dugard bore him two daughters and was finally freed in 2006. A portion of the proceeds Dugard earns will be donated to The J A Y C Foundation Inc.

Here’s more from Jacket Copy: “Dugard had only a fifth grade education when she was kidnapped, but she tried to create a school for her children. She also hid away pages on which she wrote a diary. Her spokeswoman Nancy Seltzer has said that Dugard did not have a ghost writer when working on A Stolen Life.”

On July 12, Simon & Schuster will publish a book by kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard.

Entitled A Stolen Life, the book will provide a “stark, compelling narrative” about her tragic story. Last year, Dugard and her mother appeared in an ABC News feature. Her mother concluded with this statement: “As a mother I am pleading for our privacy in this very public story.”

Here’s more from the release: “Dugard, who was kidnapped at the age of 11 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and held captive for 18 years, during which time she bore him two children, tells the full story of her ordeal in the book … [It] been written by the 31-year-old Dugard herself and will cover the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present.”