Penguin International president Andrew Phillips has been named the next CEO of Author Solutions, the self-publishing business purchased by Penguin.

He will start in July. Current CEO Kevin Weiss “will leave to take up a new position which will be announced separately next week.”

A number of publishing promotions were also announced this week…

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Over the weekend, romance author Shiloh Walker (author of “No Prince Charming” and 50 other books) made waves with a post knocking some self-publishing companies, addressing a letter directly to the CEO of Author Solutions.

As GalleyCat reported, Author Solutions CEO Kevin Weiss issued a video statement asking the leaders of the Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers Association to meet with him and discuss their standards for self-published authors. Walker’s post went through Author Solutions’ website, criticizing different offerings.

In this excerpt, Walker imagined what would have happened if she used a self publishing company as a young writer: “I probably would have wasted money I didn’t really have to waste…I doubted I would have sold more than 10-15 books, because I am not a salesperson, and with self-pub/vanity pub/assisted self pub, you have to be and none of your marketing choices change that. So after I spent all that money and sold less than nothing, watched as my dreams crashed and burned, I might have given up … the thought of that shiny, sparkly thread of a promise being offered to another gullible, hopeful writer who has a lot of promise? Turns my stomach.”

In the YouTube video statement embedded below, Author Solutions CEO Kevin Weiss asked the leaders of the Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) to “engage in a direct conversation with me and some of the other folks at Author Solutions at their convenience.”

In recent months, members of some writing associations criticized major publishers for creating partnerships with Author Solutions–believing that the self-publishing company should not mix with traditional publishers. Weiss identified these three writers associations as “the three writers guilds who have expressed the greatest objections” to Author Solutions’ partnerships with major publishers.

On Twitter, SFWA president Russell Davis had this statement: “We will be responding in an appropriate manner as soon as possible.” Scores of Twitter writers have already weighed in for and against the video.

Here’s an excerpt from Weiss’ speech: “The 9.99 electronic book was not the creation of the traditional publishing industry. It was the creation of the world’s largest book distribution company, Amazon.com … with these and other publishing dynamics, traditional publishers are trying to figure how to change their business models so they can not only survive, but get back in the mode of thriving as business and not shrinking.” (Via Self-Publishing Review)