Effective January 21, Jon Anderson becomes executive v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster's children's division. He has been president and publisher of Running Press, a division of Perseus, since 2004, in charge of both the children's and adult publishing programs.
In a statement, Carolyn Reidy, S&S president and CEO, said that Anderson "is a truly original thinker who brings great creativity, financial and business acumen, and managerial skill to all his publishing endeavors, and he is the right person to build upon our rich legacy in children's publishing."
Writing under the nom de plume William Boniface, Anderson has written the Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy series, the third installment of which, The Great Powers Outage, came out in November 2008 (see his December 11, 2008, Book Brahmin in Shelf Awareness).
Anderson was credited with the expansion of Running Press's children's program to include middle grade and young adult fiction, including Cathy's Book. Also under his watch, the company published the revised 25th Anniversary edition of Marlo Thomas's Free to Be . . . You and Me, the Skinny Bitch and the Sneaky Chef series and revitalized Miniature Editions.
Anderson began his career at B. Dalton Bookseller, where he worked in retail and as a buyer.