Jenna Bush Hager, who turned some of the influential figures in publishing when she began a guide membership on the “At present” present almost six years in the past, mentioned Wednesday that she now plans to do extra than simply advocate books: She’s going to publish them.
Hager has introduced that he’s beginning his personal publishing enterprise with Random Home Publishing Group known as Thousand Voices x RHPG. By way of the partnership, Hager will publish 4 to 6 books a 12 months in numerous publishers underneath Random Home, which is a part of Penguin Random Home.
She is trying to purchase books in quite a lot of genres, together with memoir, literary fiction, romance and historic fiction, she mentioned.
“I really like books which can be propulsive and humorous and folks cannot put them down, however are additionally dialog starters,” she mentioned in an interview.
Hager – who earlier than her rises as a literary influencer was greatest referred to as one of many daughters of former President George W. Bush — turned a well known guide booster in 2019 when he co-hosted NBC’s “At present” present and launched his month-to-month guide membership.
In doing so, she joined the ranks of superstar guide membership hosts reminiscent of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Emma Roberts and gave the authors a uncommon platform in entrance of a mass tv viewers. Her first alternative, The Last Romantics by Tara Conklinit instantly turned a New York Instances bestseller.
Since then, she’s picked up 74 books for her membership — together with debut novels like The Faculty for Good Moms by Jessamine Chan and The Cloisters by Katy Hays, in addition to older works like Sandra Cisneros’ 1984 novel. “The Home on Mango Avenue”—and shot lots of them up the bestseller lists.
Amongst her choices, 47 titles turned New York Instances bestsellers and 34 have been chosen for the display screen, together with 9 that Hager chosen for her personal manufacturing firm, Thousand Voices. In 2024 Hager’s guide membership outsold your entire grownup fiction market by greater than 30 p.c, based on Circana BookScan.
Beginning her personal imprint felt like a pure evolution from selecting books for the membership, she mentioned. When weighing choices for the guide membership, Hager usually needs she may make editorial solutions and alter a few of the books.
However the imprint is a separate undertaking from Learn with Jenna, and Hager won’t choose books for her membership that she has revealed, she mentioned.
“I nonetheless need the guide membership to have its personal ethos,” she mentioned. “However every part we have realized from the guide membership, I can apply to those authors.”
The imprint launch will take a look at how far Hager’s affect extends amongst readers with out the built-in viewers of the At present present. Lately, publishers searching for to seize the eye of readers in a crowded market have tried launching celebrity-led imprints, with blended outcomes.
Nonetheless, Hager has benefits over different first-time publishers. She has constructed a community of connections with authors, brokers and booksellers. And with the file gross sales of her membership choices, she has earned a repute for recognizing books which have the potential to turn into industrial hits.
Along with her imprint, Hager plans to be carefully concerned in every part from buying books and giving editorial notes to deciding on cowl designs and arising with advertising and marketing and promoting plans. She additionally intends to have joint tv and guide appearances with authors, she mentioned.
“She is aware of how aggressive it’s for brand spanking new writers to get consideration, so she’s strategic and considerate and keen to be artistic to assist them,” mentioned literary agent Christy Fletcher, co-head of publishing at United Expertise Company, which had early conversations with Hager about her imaginative and prescient for the imprint.
Hager acknowledged that it is going to be a problem so as to add publishing to her different jobs, which embody co-hosting the At present present, in addition to operating her guide membership and her manufacturing firm. However she’s been studying proposals and manuscripts for months and has already acquired six books, managing to squeeze in early morning conferences with authors in her workplace at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
“My assistant will say, Jenna, you have to go, you are about to be on TV,” she mentioned.
The primary guide to be revealed by Ballantine in October is Ariel Sullivan’s debut novel Conform, a dystopian romance set in a post-apocalyptic future. Hager describes it as so compelling that she reads it at 5:30 a.m. on the treadmill. Different upcoming releases embody Anna McCully’s debut, Abbey Offsides, a novel a few lady who falls in love with a married Scottish soccer star, and Emma Brodie’s Into the Blue, about two lovers separated by a tragic secret.
Hager will think about the books she publishes for potential display screen variations for A Thousand Voices, however that is not her main purpose, she mentioned.
“The purpose is to develop writers — to search out the subsequent Emily Henry, to search out the subsequent Sarah Maas — and to help them,” she mentioned. “That is what I have been most obsessive about.”
