Penguin Books associate publisher Stephen Morrison will serve as the new publisher at Macmillan’s Picador Books. He starts on April 30th.

Henry Holt publisher Stephen Rubin and FSG publisher Jonathan Galassi welcomed the new editor in a memo: “Stephen brings exactly the right combination of enthusiasm, fortitude, resourcefulness and experience to grow Picador into a dynamic division committed to publishing a wide range of paperback reprints, paperback originals , hardcover works of fiction and nonfiction and digital-only publications.  Stephen’s mandate is to make Picador one of the industry’s most undaunted, aggressive marketing machines, culling books from all of Macmillan’s divisions, including St. Martins, FSG and Holt.”

Picador publisher Frances Coady departed last month in a company restructuring. Previously, Morrison served as executive editor at Bloomsbury, a senior editor at Penguin and a senior scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates.

The O’Reilly Factor anchor Bill O’Reilly has landed a book deal to co-write Killing Kennedy: The
End of Camelot with Martin Dugard. It will be the second book in his series about presidential history, following up on the success of Killing Lincoln.

William Morris Endeavor agent Eric Simonoff negotiated the deal with Henry Holt and Company publisher Stephen Rubin. Henry Holt EIC Gillian Blake will edit.

O’Reilly had this statement in the release: “As with most baby boomers, the murder of JFK was a signature moment in my life … Killing Kennedy will answer many questions about the president and why his life was cut short.”

Read more

Based on the “meteoric sales” of his latest book, Henry Holt and Company has inked a two-book deal with Fox New anchor Bill O’Reilly. According to the publisher, O’Reilly (pictured, via) has sold 950,000 copies of his most recent book, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever.

Here’s more about the deal: “Holt now owns the next three books by O’Reilly including Bolder and Fresher: The Factor Years, his next memoir, which Holt signed in the spring. Of the two new books, one will be another presidential history. Publication dates are yet to be announced.”

Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor negotiated the deal with Holt publisher Stephen Rubin. Holt editor-in-chief and Killing Lincoln editor Gillian Blake will handle all three books. Rubin added in the release: “The fantastic sales velocity of ‘Killing Lincoln’ is every publisher’s dream,”

Gillian Blake been named editor in chief of Macmillan’s Henry Holt and Company. She will report to publisher Stephen Rubin.

Blake joined Henry Holt in 2009 as executive editor, months after HarperCollins shuttered the division in a massive restructuring.

Here’s more from the release: “She recently edited the runaway bestseller STORIES I ONLY TELL MY FRIENDS by Rob Lowe. Prior to joining Holt, she held positions at Scribner, Bloomsbury and Harper Collins publishers where she edited best-selling authors Harold Bloom, Robert Sullivan, Peggy Orenstein, Steven Johnson, Russell Brand and award-winning author Adrian LeBlanc.”

Politician Mark K. Shriver has signed a deal with Henry Holt & Company to pen a tome about his father, sargent Robert “Sarge” Shriver. The book will be titled A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sarge Shriver.

Publisher Stephen Rubin acquired North American and audio rights in the deal. Executive editor Gillian Blake will edit the book.

Here’s more from the press release: “After he eulogized him in January, Mark wanted to know what made his father ‘tick.’ He found the answers in the simple and poignant gestures over a lifetime – in the frequent notes and daily talks, trips and prayers together – all based in Sarge’s unwavering devotion to his family (he and Eunice were married for 56 years); his devout Catholicism, which included attending daily Mass; his innate sense of duty and service to his country.” (Photo Credit: (C) 2003 Susan Warner)

Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program director Jill Lamar will serve as the next editor-in-chief at Henry Holt. She will start on March 14th.

Lamar has lead Barnes & Noble’s program since 1999. Her publishing career began at Dell, where she served as an associate editor in the 1990s.  She also worked as an acquisitions and project editor at BDD Audio–acquiring 100 titles a year.

Henry Holt publisher Stephen Rubin praised Lamar in a memo: “Given this diverse background and the current volatile marketplace, Jill’s often uncanny and savvy knowledge of what makes a book sell will, I believe, be brought to a higher level of fruition as she helps shape the Holt editorial profile, making us a major player in the publishing of literary and commercial books of both fiction and nonfiction.  Her warm and engaging personality and her can-do enthusiasm, combined with her publishing smarts, has impressed the publishing, agenting and book buying communities for more than a decade.”

World Trade Center attack survivor  Lauren Manning has landed a book deal with Henry Holt and Company to publish her memoir, Every Day, a Choice.

Here’s more about the book, from the release: “Ten years ago this September 11, Ms. Manning was headed to her office at Cantor Fitzgerald in Tower One of the World Trade Center. As she entered the lobby’s revolving doors the first plane hit the upper floors and a wall of fire exploded into the lobby and engulfed her body in flames, launching her into a wrenching battle with catastrophic injury. She would spend the next six weeks in an induced coma and endure countless surgeries and the rigors of physical rehabilitation. The pain lasted for months on end, as did the memories and scars – both physical and mental – of the day that recast her life, but not as a victim, as a survivor.”

Henry Holt publisher Stephen Rubin acquired the title and Rob Weisbach of Rob Weisbach Creative Management negotiated the deal. Macmillan editor at large John Sterling will edit the book. In 2002, her husband (Greg Manning) documented her recovery in the book, Love, Greg & Lauren.

Today Holt announced that they will publish Bill O’Reilly‘s first history book, Killing Lincoln.

Along with co-author Martin Dugard, the host of Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor will study the murder of Abraham Lincoln and the life of assassin John Wilkes Booth. The talk show host has a genre-spanning career–there are many titles currently sold on his website, from Culture Warrior to The O’Reilly Factor for Kids.

Here’s a statement from Henry Holt and Company publisher Stephen Rubin: “O’Reilly is going to surprise everyone again…. He and Martin Dugard are going to reinvigorate what we think of as familiar history. Bill’s last book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, is still on the bestseller list for more than a year and I am looking forward to topping that success … And personally it is a joy being reunited with Bill. Publishing him has been one of the proudest achievements of my career.”

The complete release is embedded after the jump.

Read more

PW Daily reports that Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has signed with Doubleday to publishe her memoir. The deal for North American rights was made by Doubleday president and publisher Stephen Rubin, who acquired the untitled work from a trio of the William Morris Agency‘s top executives: chairman Norman Brokaw; vp and co-head of the agency, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh; and senior vp and president Mel Berger.

The memoir will be published in the summer of 2008 and Pelosi’s collaborator is yet to be determined. It will focus on the Speaker’s remarkable life both personally and professionally. “When Nancy Pelosi, surrounded by her six grandchildren, took the gavel as the first female Speaker of the House in January 2007, it was an historic moment in our nation’s history,” Rubin said. “She stood there as wife, mother, grandmother and political leader; her ascension and remarkable career have put the lie to the notion that those roles are in any way in conflict. How she managed to serve her country without compromising her family is a story both fascinating and inspirational, and Doubleday is proud to be publishing it.”

The New York Times’s Motoko Rich reports on what may seem to be an unusual collaboration between an author and its subject. Susan Casey, a former creative director at Outside magazine, has just signed a book deal for about $1 million with Broadway Books to write about the science of giant waves and the surfers who try to ride them. To research the book, she needs help getting to the center of oceans where these waves erupt and where surfers try to catch them – an undertaking that often requires helicopters, wave runners and exquisite timing. So she is paying Laird Hamilton, the celebrity surfer who will be a central character in her book, to put her at the center of the action.

“I’m asking him to put me in the middle of his dangerously and logistically complex undertaking,” said Casey, whose previous book was about great white sharks. “It was inevitable that we would have to have some kind of incentive for him to do that.” She added: “He doesn’t need the exposure, and he’s past the point in his career when he’s going to do this out of the goodness of his heart.” And Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, said he had no problems with the arrangement, unusual but not unheard of in publishing circles. “He is giving her access to things that she would never have and taking time,” he asked. “Why shouldn’t he get paid?”