Susan Reich, who stepped down last year as president of Publishers Group West, and David Lamb, a partner at STM Advisers LLC with experience in financial advisory, strategy consulting and publishing operations, have formed Book Advisors LLC, which will advise publishers on mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures, financings and valuations in addition to providing consulting on strategic planning, digital publishing, distribution and operational issues.
"In the course of my career, I've had the pleasure of working with a wide range of publishers," Reich said. "I've known David for 20 years and worked with him on the sales of PGW (2002) and Avalon Publishing (2007). Combining my operational experience with David's financial advisory background will give Book Advisors clients the best of both worlds."
Before becoming president of PGW in 2007, Reich was COO of the Avalon Publishing Group and held executive positions at Harper San Francisco, Random House and Simon & Schuster. She was formerly a consultant at BMR Associates.
As president of GSL Publishing Associates for 15 years, Lamb handled the sale of consumer publishers, including Motorbooks, Avalon, PGW, Timber Press and Sterling Publishing. His buy-side clientele has included Chronicle Books, Workman Publishing, Penguin Random House and HarperCollins. He also owned and operated self-publisher Vantage Press for three years and worked at Veronis Suhler Stevenson. At STM Advisers, where he continues, his consulting clients last year included the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Book Advisors is located at 232 Madison Avenue, Suite 1400, New York, N.Y. 10016. Reich, who lives in Oakland, Calif., may be reached via e-mail here; Lamb, who is in New York City, may be reached here.