The Revolving Door

Former William Morrow publisher Lisa Gallagher has joined Sanford. J. Greenburger Associates as a literary agent, months after the publisher lost her job in a massive restructuring at HarperCollins.

In 2000, Gallagher moved from London to help found the U.S. offices of Bloomsbury Publishing. Founded in 1932, the SJGA agency represents a number of authors, including Dan Brown, Nelson DeMille, and Robin Preiss Glasser.

Here's more from Heidi Lange, vice-president of the agency: "Gallagher is that rare publishing professional whose talents include a strong editorial insight, marketing expertise, and keen business sense. She has a reputation for being extremely pro-author, working closly with writers on all aspects of a book's publication, and yet she never loses sight of the realities of the marketplace."

Today Macmillan CEO John Sargent announced that Steve Rubin will become president and publisher of Henry Holt at the beginning of November.

The current Henry Holt president Dan Farley will turn his attention towards managing the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. In September, Rubin resigned as executive VP and publisher-at-large for Random House, a position he assumed in February following massive restructuring at the conglomerate. Before that, he had served as Doubleday Broadway Group's former publisher.

Here's Rubin's statement, from the subscription-only article: "Throughout my career, I have always strived to publish those exceptional books that bridge the gap between commerce and literature. I believe that Holt is the perfect place to do this, given that its sister companies are the distinguished Farrar Straus and the powerhouse St. Martin's Press, I can't wait to work more directly with books and authors in developing a tight, powerful, focused list."

Less than a year after joining Penguin Press as a nonfiction editor, Nick Trautwein is leaving to become a senior editor at The New Yorker.

According to the NY Observer, Trautwein will replace Emily Eakin--despite a hiring freeze at Condé Nast. As we noted yesterday, the literary magazine also hired a managing editor this year as well.

New Yorker editor David Remnick had this emailed statement, from the article: "Anyone whose resume includes playing sax in Chubby Checker's touring band has got to have something going on. And from everything I have seen, Nick Trautwein, really does." You can find out more about his jazz experience in this exclusive GalleyCat video from last year...

Former Zagat Survey SVP of marketing and interactive John Boris will now serve as managing director of Lonely Planet Americas, All Things Digital reports.

The article also explores the famous travel guidebook company's digital efforts this year, noting that 75 percent of the company's profits still come from the print side. Nevertheless, digital efforts are growing as the company interacts 700,000 registered users and will launch Amazon Kindle editions of guidebooks that include "all or part" of 600 guidebooks on the international version of the digital reader.

Here's more from CEO Matt Goldberg, interviewed in the article: "Goldberg--who came to Lonely Planet early this year from Dow Jones, where he was SVP of digital strategy and operations, including for WSJ.com–noted that Lonely Planet’s digital businesses have doubled their revenues to $20 million this year via premium pricing and advertising."

The publishing world lost two pillars of academic support this week, as Stanford University shuttered a publishing program and a Columbia University professor has postponed his book review seminar.

According to a Publishers Marketplace (subscription only) report, the Stanford Publishing Course for Professionals has ended after more than 30 years of teaching publishing. Here's more form the gloomy article: "Longtime director Holly Brady is leaving Stanford--saying she 'expects to continue the conversation from another vantage point here in Silicon Valley'--and her staff has been dismissed."

On the other side of the country, Columbia English professor James Shapiro has put his book reviewing seminar for undergraduates on "infinite hiatus." Blaming the rapidly-eroding pay scale for book reviewers in the age of blogs, Shapiro explained in a NY Observer article: "[W]hat's no longer there is the possibility of training a generation of book reviewers since, as you know, newspapers around the country are shedding their book reviews, or shrinking these sections."

Author and journalist Mary C. Hickey is returning to Ladies' Home Journal, filling a new editorial spot that includes curating book features at the magazine.

Besides writing for a number of magazines, including People, More, Life, The Washington Post, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and Working Mother, Hickey is a published author. In 1992 she co-authored the Penguin title, The Working Mother's Guilt Guide.

Here's more from the release: "she will be overseeing the magazine's books coverage, along with relationships, news stories and general features. Hickey was most recently Deputy Editor at Parents magazine, where she worked for nine years...Hickey has more than 20 years of experience in magazine, newspaper and academic journalism, and worked for Ladies' Home Journal from 1994-1996."

After serving as executive VP and publisher-at-large for Random House since February, former Doubleday Broadway Group publisher Steve Rubin has resigned from the restructured conglomerate.

According to Publishers Weekly, the executive decided to move on after 25 years at the company. In February Rubin took on a new position, serving as a "new business advocate" after the company rearranged its imprints and laid-off many employees--a move that altered his old Doubleday Broadway Group position.

Here's more from the article: "In his memo about Rubin’s resignation, Random chairman Markus Dohle praised Rubin for having 'one of the most accomplished and distinguished careers in our company's history.' Dohle said that since becoming publisher-at-large Rubin has contributed to shaping Random's global strategy and helped land several promising projects, including the book to be written by former President George W. Bush."

Steve Ross, the former president of president of HarperCollins' now shuttered Collins Division, has found a new calling as a regular blogger at The Huffington Post. It's been a literary week at HuffPo--Arianna Huffington just announced that she will lead a book club and launch a books section on her popular website.

Ross earned his creative writing MFA at New York University, and tested his writing chops with a piece of black comedy. Out of all the topics this award-winning editor and publisher could choose for his first post, Ross wrote about fashion. His satirical piece looks at New York City's Fashion Week during a recession that has hobbled every industry, from fashion to publishing.

Here's on fantastical riff from his inaugural post: "In keeping with the theme of this season's [Fasihon] Expo -- 'Donations: Past and Present' -- the audience of fashionistas and former financiers paid tribute to this year's movers and shakers in Downturn Fashion. Anna Wintour, her sunglasses dangling a Duane Reade price tag, welcomed Ben Bernanke, who brandished a bandolier of bailout funds strewn in an X across his hirsute chest."

New York Observer publishing reporter Leon Neyfakh has shifted beats, moving from the book world to the art scene--marking the change with a new article about a Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition.

During his publishing reporting days, Neyfakh profiled celebrated novelist Rivka Galchen, carefully tracked the state of Rob Lowe's memoir, and covered one of publishing's darkest days. GalleyCat caught up with the publishing reporter to find out more. Neyfakh explained: "I'm going to be covering the art world, which means I'll be writing about museums, galleries, collectors, and more. In general I love knowing and writing about how cultural institutions work and the people who run them or otherwise come into contact with them."

At the same time, Neyfakh stressed that he wasn't abandoning the publishing beat altogether: "I don't know how often I'll write about publishing but I think it'll be pretty regularly. I'll definitely do it if big important events occur, like if that detective Hachette hired figures out who leaked Ted Kennedy's book to the Times or Brian Murray decides to start a new non-fiction division at Harpercollins."

A few months after seeking its first submissions, the fledgling digital publisher Quartet Press has disbanded. The announcement came late today in a simple blog post entitled: "To Our Friends in the Bookish Community."

Kat Meyer wrote the release: "For a variety of reasons large and small, Quartet Press has decided to discontinue operations. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a hard-working team, and the support of the community, things just don't work out. This is one of those times. It's disappointing to all of us, but it's reality and we will all move on.

"We are truly grateful to all of you who have wished us well. Your support and enthusiasm for our venture was humbling, and we hope you will not see our company's disbanding as an indication that any of us doubt the viability of digital publishing. Far to the contrary--if nothing else, we have learned that the future of digital publishing, while overwhelmingly complex, will be bright indeed, and we will each be working toward that bright future via our individual efforts."

Earlier this year, GalleyCat interviewed Quartet publisher Don Linn about digital pricing and recession-era bookselling.