Starting early next year, Simon & Schuster will be reorganized into a new team-based structure. Each team will include “two editors, two publicists and a marketing specialist,” according to Michael Cader at Publishers Lunch. In his announcement, publisher Jonathan Karp wrote that each team will “propose, develop, and execute their own publicity and marketing plans, from the moment of acquisition through paperback publication, in consultation with associate publisher Aileen Boyle and me.”
Cader speculates that the changes “may answer the question of how you take the focused publishing model of the Twelve imprint and apply it to a larger operation” — a question that has loomed since Karp took over the imprint from David Rosenthal back in June, leaving behind his 12-book-a-year operation for the much larger S&S.
“Our authors will benefit from having a dedicated team working on their behalf early in the process,” according to Karp.
Executive Director of Publicity Victoria Meyer will be a casualty of the new system, however. The 20-year company veteran’s position has been eliminated, and she will be leaving October 15th. She’s not the first to lose her job under the new leadership: Senior Editor Amanda Murray was fired last month as Karp began assembling his own editorial team.
