Simon & Schuster

Media Mob got an e-mail a few minutes ago from a publicist at Simon & Schuster informing us, in the subject line, that "Facebook is subject of new S&S acquisition." Holy cow, we thought! Mark Zuckerburg finally agreed to sell? To Simon & Schuster? They've had a pretty good year, sure, but what would a publishing house want with Facebook? Maybe someone up high thought they were really buying a book?

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Liz Perl has resigned her post as the publisher of Rodale Books and taken a senior marketing position at Simon & Schuster's adult publishing group. Ms. Perl, who served at the helm of Rodale from the spring of 2006 until last March when former Bloomsbury USA head Karen Rinaldi was installed as general manager and publishing director, became well-known in the publishing community during the 1990s, when she worked at Penguin as director of publicity and later as director of marketing.

In her new capacity as senior vice president of marketing, Ms. Perl will oversee advertising and promotion at S&S's flagship imprint, as well as Atria, Free Press, Pocket Books, Scribner, and Touchstone-Fireside. She will report to Michael Selleck, S&S's executive VP of sales and marketing.

Calls to Ms. Perl and Ms. Rinaldi have not yet been returned.

Memo to Rodale staff from Ms. Rinaldi after the jump.  read more »

The Culture Czar is never one to pass up a hearty dose of ‘90s nostalgia. And what’s more nostalgic than a Guided By Voices tribute band pumping out lo-fi jams at the paperback release party for John Sellers’ Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life? The event, which goes down March 1 at Don Pedro in Williamsburg, will also feature performances by Times New Viking, Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, and Guided By Voices member Doug Gillard (Mr. Sellers is a massive fan, natch), Pitchfork reports. The hardcover edition of Mr. Sellers’ fan memoir was published last March by Simon & Schuster, which will release the paperback version on March 4. More: Mr. Sellers, whose journalistic credits include contributions to GQ, The Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times, as well as a TV editor stint at Time Out New York, will read from the book on March 26 at Book Court in Cobble Hill, where he will be accompanied by Luna’s Dean Wareham.

About a week after ex-Time editor Priscilla Painton was named the new editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, three editorial staffers at the imprint have been promoted, according to industry newsletter The Book Standard.

Both Kerri Kolen--who has been at the imprint since 2002-- and Sarah Hochman--who has been there since 2004-- have been made full editors, while Nina Schwartz, who was hired in 2006 as S&S publisher David Rosenthal's assistant, has been made an assistant editor.

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Priscilla Painton, who was most recently the deputy managing editor of Time, has been named editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint, it was announced today. Simon & Schuster has been without an editor-in-chief since Michael Korda left a little over two years ago; during that time, editorial director Alice Mayhew was the highest ranking person at the imprint below publisher David Rosenthal.

Ms. Painton, who will start on March 3, spent almost 20 years at Time, where she started as a reporter in 1989. She served as the magazine's national editor for six years before becoming assistant managing editor and then executive editor in 2002. She quit this past October; according to a memo from Time editor Rick Stengel sent to staff at the time, Ms. Painton said she wanted a "Second Act."

The press release from Simon & Schuster quotes her as saying, "After a lifetime in journalism, it is a grand opportunity to enter the world of book publishing."

After weeks of speculation, it's finally official: Karl Rove's memoirs will be published by Threshold Editions, the conservative-minded imprint of Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books overseen by GOP strategist Mary Matalin.

Earlier this week, Mr. Rove and his representative in the deal, DC lawyer Robert Barnett, were deciding between Threshold and Free Press, another imprint of Simon & Schuster.

In the press release announcing the deal, Mr. Rove is quoted as saying, "I look forward to writing about my role in George W. Bush's campaigns and in his consequential and contentious Presidency. The book will be a candid, careful look at how he got there and what his Administration did once in office. It will tackle and shed light on important events and big controversies, spell out their implications for America and set the record straight."

Naturally, the announcement made no mention of how much Threshold is paying Mr. Rove for the book, but you can be sure there will be plenty of guessing in the next few days.

The reason Karl Rove's memoirs do not have a publisher a full week after the auction ended last Wednesday is that Mr. Rove and his representative, DC lawyer Robert Barnett, want to meet with the editors who are pursuing the book and are running into scheduling difficulties because of the holidays, according to a publishing source who would not speak for attribution.

Mr. Rove wants to ask questions about their intentions regarding promotion, timing, editing, etc.--questions he has already asked in prior meetings, but is revisiting now that he's faced with a decision.

Because the holiday season is so busy, the source said, meetings have been hard to arrange.

As previously reported, Mr. Rove is considering two imprints, both of which are part of Simon & Schuster: Threshold Editions, a conservative shop run by GOP strategist Mary Matalin, and Free Press, which used to be aggressively conservative but has since refashioned itself as a general interest operation.

Reached for comment this morning, Mr. Barnett said, "Mr. Rove is taking the time to make an informed decision."  read more »

Bestselling presidential historian Michael Beschloss, most recently the author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How they Changed America, has left Simon & Schuster to sign a deal with Crown, a division of Random House, according to several publishing sources.

Mr. Beschloss' last book for Simon & Schuster was edited by Michael Korda, who has since retired. Before that, he worked with Alice Mayhew. At Crown, sources said, he will be edited by Sean Desmond.  read more »