Jill Lamar, who has been overseeing Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers program, has been tapped to head Henry Holt. Lamar is replacing Marjorie Braman who recently left the house and is now a full-time freelance editor. Lamar, named editor-in-chief of the Macmilan imprint, has been at B&N since 1999. At Holt, executive editor Gillian Blake, senior editor Aaron Schlechter, and editor Sarah Bowlin will now report to Lamar.
Before joining B&N, where she conceived the B&N Recommends program, Lamar held a number of jobs in publishing. She started her career at Dell, and worked there until the early 1990's. She then worked at BDD Audio. In the announcement naming Lamar to the post of EIC, president of Holt Steve Rubin said: "Jill’s often uncanny and savvy knowledge of what makes a book sell will, I believe, be brought to a higher level of fruition as she helps shape the Holt editorial profile, making us a major player in the publishing of literary and commercial books of both fiction and nonfiction."
