Putnam books Held as publisher's prexy

Warner Books veep to bring in new talent

By IAN MOHR

Publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons has tapped Warner Books veep and associate publisher Ivan Held as its new president.

Held will oversee the imprint and scout for promising talent to add to Putnam's stable of fiction and nonfiction authors.

Held will report to Susan Petersen Kennedy, prexy of the Penguin Group's domestic arm.

Move comes on the heels of Putnam's establishment of a new exec board.

Kennedy said Held's primary focus will be to expand the direction of the publishing program by bringing in and nurturing a new generation of writers that will complement the existing stable of internationally known talent on Putnam's list.

Putnam's authors already include Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Robert B. Parker, Amy Tan and Kurt Vonnegut as well as nonfiction scribes Lance Armstrong, Maureen Dowd, Linda Ellerbee, Goldie Hawn and Spencer Johnson.

Move marks a return to the Penguin Group for Held, who worked at its Viking imprint from 1997-2000.

While at Warner, Held helped publish such recent bestsellers as Nelson DeMille's "Nightfall," David Baldacci's "Hour Game" and the "Daily Show" humor tome "America the Book: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction."

Held was previously founding publisher of Random House Trade Paperbacks. He has worked with authors including John Berendt, Colin Powell, E.L. Doctorow, Mario Puzo, Norman Mailer, James Carville, Jeffrey Toobin, Christopher Buckley and Caleb Carr.