The head position at Amazon publishing, is not exactly cursed, but people tend not to last very long. A year into the job, Daphne Durham is leaving the company.
Daphne took over the reigns of the publishing division from Larry Kirshbaum, who had been with Amazon since 2011 and left at the beginning of 2013. Initially Larry served as the vice president and publisher of Amazon Publishing’s New York office and later as editorial director for imprints on both the east and west coasts. He was famous for bringing in big names such as actress and director Penny Marshall and best-selling writer Timothy Ferriss.
Daphne on the other hand had been with Amazon for over 15 years, prior to taking over Amazon Publishing. Instead of focusing on big names, Durham set her eyes on niche markets, such as mysteries, science fiction and religious titles. One of the most interesting things that was accomplished under her watch was looking at the big data of the Kindle e-Book business to find unsigned authors and push into untapped markets such as fan fiction.
In the past, Amazon has always had one person in charge of the publishing division. This obviously has not worked out very well, because the job has been, well cursed. In order to create more fluidity, Amazon is going to be spreading the duties out to two different people, one based in Seattle and one in the critical New York market.
Mikyla Bruder, who is based in Seattle, currently runs global marketing for Amazon Publishing. She will become publisher for Amazon’s Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, Skyscape, Lake Union, 47North and Jet City Comics imprints.
David Blum is based in New York and is best known for being the editor of Kindle Singles. He will take over control of Amazon’s Little A and Two Lions imprints. His mandate is to expand Amazon’s nonfiction publishing under Little A.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.