Speigel & Grau make some news

Remember back in November when former Riverhead publishers Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau shocked the publishing world by jumping to Doubleday Broadway to start their own imprint? Well time passed, and things got quiet as they set things up slowly. But today, PW Daily reports, they announced the imprint’s name — Spiegel & Grau, how original! — their staff (Gretchen Koss will be director of publicity, reporting to Alison Rich) and their inaugural acquisitions.

First up is WOMEN + MONEY by Suze Orman (who Grau edited at Riverhead), due out in March 2007. Later on S+G will publish Ed Conlon’s first novel (which was to have been edited by Spiegel at Riverhead, but presumably she bought the contract out and took him with her) plus nonfiction works by Leslie Chang and Ta-Nahesi Coates.

All well and good, but I can’t help but nitpick Spiegel & Grau’s mission statement, which claims that “naming a house after its (female) founders feels both old-fashioned and radical.” Gee, wanna tell that to Nan Talese and Shaye Areheart?

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