Ira Silverberg will join Open Road Media April 22 as a strategic adviser for author brands. In that role, Silverberg will work with authors and agents to mine catalogs to find titles which have not yet appeared in digital format. The well-connected Silverberg was most recently literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Before joining the NEA, he spent 15 years as a literary agent, was the editor in chief of Grove Press, and publisher and founding co-editor of High Risk Books, an imprint of Serpent’s Tail.
Silverberg told PW he was looking forward to working with authors and agents to identify backlist print works that can benefit from Open Road’s marketing efforts for e-books. He will look to acquire digital rights both for books that have gone out of print as well as to in-print books where digital rights exist.
Silverberg will report to Open Road publisher Tina Pohlman. "I have always admired Ira's love of literature, his generosity of spirit, and his professional integrity. He cares about writers first and foremost, and brings a backlist savoir faire to Open Road that will be a great asset in our mission to preserve the legacy of the greats in the digital future,” Pohlman said.
