Job Moves: February 1, 2011

Kevin Moran has been named director of marketing at Skyhorse Publishing. He was formerly operations director at Overlook Press and prior to that, publisher of Hatherleigh Press.

Comings and Goings: January 31, 2011

If you've been laid off recently, left your job or landed a new position and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@reedbusiness.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Erika Imranyi, former editor at Dutton, can now be reached at eimranyi@gmail.com.

Job Moves: January 31, 2011

Mary Allen has been named director of events and publicity at Vermont's Northshire Bookstore. Allen is replacing Zachary Marcus, longtime events director, who is returning to his writing and production work at Maverick Media Projects. Allen was promoted from her position as marketing assistant at Northshire.

Memorial Service Set for Manie Barron

A memorial service will be held February 5 for literary agent Manie Barron, who passed away January 8. The service will be held at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Ave. in New York City.

Job Moves: January 27, 2011

Larry Hughes is joining Free Press as associate director of publicity, reporting to Carisa Hays. Hughes, who has worked at various houses including HarperCollins and Penguin (for their NAL imprint), was most recently an independent consultant. Hughes has also blogged for the Huffington Post and writes the personal blogs Classics Rock! and Book Flack at Large.

At Harlequin, Toye Retires, Moggy Rises

After more than 27 years at Harlequin, Randall Toye, v-p of series editorial, has decided to take early retirement and will leave the company on March 31. Additionally, longtime Harlequin staffer Dianne Moggy has been appointed v-p, series editorial and sub rights, effective January 31.

Media Coalition Elects Platt as 2011 Chair

Media Coalition has elected Judy Platt, director of communications/public affairs and Freedom to Read at the Association of American Publishers, as its 2011 chair. Platt has been at AAP for more than 30 years and joined the board of Media Coalition in 1996.

Job Moves: January 26, 2011

Planman Technologies has appointed Orville Dykes director of publishing services in its Cincinnati office. Dykes has been in educational publishing and manufacturing for 40 years and his appointment is part of Planman’s expansion in the U.S. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, Planman is a content solution provider in all aspects of developing and managing content in books, digital media, scholarly works, newspapers, journals, and magazines.

Job Moves: January 24, 2011

Anna Erickson has joined the Minnesota-based Creative Company as v-p of retail sales, managing the Creative Editions and Creative Paperbacks imprints. Erickson was previously director of distribution client services at Chronicle Books and, before that, director of marketing at Ten Speed Press.

Job Moves: January 21, 2011

Pamela Paul has been named children's books editor of the New York Times Book Review. Paul is a journalist and book critic, is the author of three nonfiction books, and is a columnist for the NYT’s Style section. She has also been book critic for the Economist, and began her career at Scholastic, where she was an editor and managed a book club.

Karen Thomas Leaves Grand Central

Karen R. Thomas, former executive editor at Grand Central Publishing, left her position at Grand Central at the end of the year to concentrate on freelance editorial projects, including digital publishing and agenting.

Job Moves: January 19, 2011

Tamara Crabtree has joined Abingdon Press as executive director, marketing. Crabtree, who has more than 20 years of management and marketing experience, was most recently v-p, sales and marketing at FiledBy, Inc. In her new role, Crabtree will lead marketing, public relations, research, and trade sales support for all books, Bibles, curriculum, church programs, and web-based resources developed by Abingdon, which is the publishing imprint for The United Methodist Publishing House.

Gompertz to Leave Simon & Schuster

Mark Gompertz, executive v-p and digital publisher at Simon & Schuster since April 2009, will leave the house March 15. The announcement was made Tuesday afternoon in a memo from S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy. Before being appointed digital publisher, Gompertz was the longtime publisher of S&S's Touchstone Fireside imprint.

Job Moves: January 18, 2011

Erin Kottke has been promoted to publicity director at Graywolf Press. Kottke joined Graywolf in 2005 as marketing assistant, and was later promoted to marketing and publicity manager. During her time at Graywolf, Kottke orchestrated publicity campaigns for such authors as Per Petterson, Tiphanie Yanique, and Tony Hoagland.

Sporkin to Handle Communications for AAP

Andi Sporkin has been named v-p of communication at the Association of American Publishers. In the newly created role Sporkin, who will be based in AAP's Washington, DC, office, will handle everything from media relations to industry branding initiatives. She will start on February 9 and report to Tom Allen, president and CEO.

Editor and Publisher Ruth Cavin Dies

Editor and publisher Ruth Cavin died Sunday in White Plains, N.Y., after a short illness. She was 92. For the past 22 years, Cavin was associate publisher of Thomas Dunne Books, where she acquired and edited some 900 books, mostly mysteries.

Job Moves: January 12, 2011

Seth Kaufman has joined Copia, the social reading eBookstore, as v-p of marketing and merchandising. Kaufman was most recently at BN.com, where he was v-p of merchandising.

Lehman Replaced With Goldstein at Twelve

In a quick changing-of-the-guard at Twelve, Hachette has replaced publisher Susan Lehman with Cary Goldstein. While many were surprised when Lehman was picked in September to head Jonathan Karp's boutique imprint at Hachette, after Karp decamped for Simon & Schuster, a mild shock ran through the industry on Tuesday when word broke that Lehman's tenure had been cut that short.

Sarnoff Leaving Bertelsmann for KKR

Longtime Bertelsmann and Random House executive Richard Sarnoff will step down from his position as president of Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments at the end of the month to join one of the country's largest private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Although he has not had an active role at RH in several years, Sarnoff played a key part in constructing the country's largest trade house, having been one of the architects of Bertelsmann's purchase of Random.