Wednesday, November 10, 2010

It's Official: Rosenthal to Start Imprint at Penguin US in 2011

PublishersLunch

Former publisher of the Simon & Schuster imprint David Rosenthal will indeed join Penguin, where he will set up a new, unnamed general trade imprint. He will start there on January 10, reporting to president Susan Petersen Kennedy. Launching in fall 2011, the imprint will comprise "an eclectic mix" of hardcover fiction and nonfiction, including suspense fiction, popular biography, literary novels, humor, music, and contemporary politics. The goal is to "ultimately publish between 24 and 36 original titles per year."

How many of those will be former Simon & Schuster authors? Kennedy says to the NYT, "he has a lot of people he's been working with for many, many years. And perhaps at some point, some of them will join him." Rosenthal adds, characteristically, "I'm going to make lots of trouble. They're going to let me go after the kind of -- I wouldn't say quirky -- but the peculiar stuff that I sometimes like. What they want very much is for me to be able to indulge my passions, indulge my taste."

In the announcement Rosenthal remarks, "Publishing is personal. This imprint will allow me to work on titles I'm passionate about and give me the opportunity to be extremely hands on with every book we publish.... I also envision it as a kind of 'publishing laboratory,' where we may from time to time experiment with new ways of promoting books and connecting readers with writers."

Kennedy says in the announcement, "His imprint will represent and reinforce what we at Penguin believe: that people will always want to read great books, and that the ability of a publisher to find and mold these great books matters more now than ever before."

Read more at NYT.

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