Diamond Book Distributors (DBD) has announced the formation of Diamond Kids Group and has hired Janna Morishima, formerly Scholastic Publishing's Editor at Large, to coordinate DBD's sales efforts of children's books to customers worldwide, including bookstores, libraries, online, mass merchants, and book clubs. Morishima will also work with DBD publishers to develop new properties for children.
Another new member of the DBD team is Donnie Lewis, who moves from Assistant Manager of Data Processing at Diamond Comic Distributors to Customer Service Manager for DBD.
In addition Josh Hayes, a former buyer at Waldenbooks, who became a DBD sales manager selling to the BGI Group, has been promoted to Associate Director of Sales and Marketing. His responsibilities will include worldwide sales reporting and inventory management, handling the toys/games merchandising program for bookstores, and strategic planning with manga publishers.
DBD has also expanded its international reach by working with the Manda Group in
In 2007 DBD will be representing a powerful slate of books including Stephen King's Dark Tower, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake graphic novels, and Civil War compilations from Marvel, as well as a number of potentially huge Hollywood tie-in titles, including Frank Miller's 300 (see 'Sales of 300 Soar'), Transformers, 30 Days of Night, and Spider-Man 3.