Responding to Shelf Awareness questions, Mauro DiPreta, Jessica Williams, and Emily Krump discuss the many qualities that distinguish William Morrow, its numerous notable authors and titles, and plans for William Morrow's next century.
What is the focus of your publishing program?
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| Mauro DiPreta | |
Mauro DiPreta: The nonfiction program looks to both anticipate and reflect society's interests and concerns with a list of leading and diverse authors whose work offers provocative perspectives in a broad range of categories. Backlist staples include Freakonomics, Marley & Me, American Sniper, The One Minute Manager, Hidden Figures, The Pioneer Woman and the Magnolia Table series. Recent bestsellers include The Greatest Beer Run Ever, The Boys, One Damn Thing After Another, Feeding the Soul, and Strange Planet.
Jessica Williams and Emily Krump: The fiction list is distinguished by its depth and range, quality writing, immersive storytelling, and wide appeal. It reflects the rich, nuanced complexity of our world while also providing escapist entertainment. Including world-renowned classics by Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, Nikki Giovanni, bell hooks, Elmore Leonard, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and current bestselling and award-winning authors such as Tessa Bailey, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Jenna Bush Hager, Joe Hill, Greg Iles, J. A. Jance, Paulette Jiles, Christina Baker Kline, Rebecca F. Kuang, Jean Kwok, Laura Lippman, Brad Meltzer, Kate Quinn, James Rollins, Karin Slaughter, Neal Stephenson, Peter Swanson, Brad Taylor, Susan Wiggs, Don Winslow, and many more.
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| Jessica Williams | |
What areas and genres are you especially strong in?
MDP: Narrative nonfiction, memoir, pop culture, politics, and cookbooks.
JW/EK: We particularly excel at book club fiction, suspense, women's fiction, and genre-bending stories.
What plans do you have for your part of Morrow as it begins its second century?
MDP: Some things will never change: for instance, finding writers whose work you fall passionately in love with and want to share with the world. What has changed is how they consume that work across physical and digital formats, and the ways in which we help connect readers with authors. Of course, there are challenges in an increasingly fractured media and news landscape, but they also present exciting opportunities that we are constantly testing, exploring, and evaluating with each title we publish.
JW/EK: We believe it's vitally important that the books we're publishing reflect the world we live in now in all of its richness and diversity in experience and point of view.
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| Emily Krump | |
What current reading and publishing trends stand out and how will your part of Morrow adapt and thrive in connection with them?
MDP/JW/EK: With the changing media landscape, we're thinking more strategically about ways to connect directly with readers to better support our authors.
Please describe Morrow's important series.
JW/EK: Being asked to identify our most important series is sort of like being asked to choose a favorite child; it's impossible. All of our series are important to us and we're proud to be the publishing home of world-renowned classics by Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, Nikki Giovanni, bell hooks, Elmore Leonard, and J.R.R. Tolkien, along with current bestselling and award-winning authors such as Lucy Foley, Joe Hill, Rebecca F. Kuang, Kate Quinn, Karin Slaughter, Philippa Gregory, Neal Stephenson, Don Winslow, and many more.
What are the highlights of Morrow's history?
MDP: Established in 1926 by William Morrow. Scott, Foresman & Co. acquired it in 1967 and then sold it to Hearst Corp. in 1981. News Corp. acquired it in 1999, and it has been a thriving division within HarperCollins ever since. But the story of William Morrow is better told through the books it has published. Look at the top 100 in nonfiction and you will find books that had a huge impact and influence on the industry and readers, among them: Freakonomics, Marley & Me, The One-Minute Manager, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, American Sniper, The Summer of '49, Influence, Mommie Dearest, Black Elk Speaks, The Chez Panisse Café Cookbook, Understanding Comics, Hidden Figures, and much more. And writers such as David Halberstam, Bill Bryson, Margaret Mead, bell hooks, Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Lidia Bastianich, and a who's who of others.
JW/EK: And on the fiction side, in addition to some of the franchises noted above, we've been proud to publish an extensive list of titles that have made a lasting cultural impact like Paulette Jiles's News of the World, Dennis Lehane's Mystic River, Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train, Gregory Maguire's Wicked, John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, as well as launching beloved and bestselling recent debut novels like Nikki Erlick's The Measure, Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa, Kate Quinn's The Alice Network, and so many more.