Saturday Books, an imprint specializing in new adult fiction, will launch at St. Martin’s Publishing Group next fall, publishing 10–12 titles annually. A sibling imprint of Wednesday Books, the young adult shingle launched at SMPG in 2017, Saturday will be led by that imprint’s leadership team: VPs Sara Goodman and Eileen Rothschild, as editorial director and associate publisher, respectively.
SMPG has long been a pioneer in the new adult category, arguably coining the term in 2009. In a release announcing the new imprint, Macmillan characterized the YA-adjacent category as specializing in books for younger adults or 18–30-year-old readers just entering adulthood who still enjoy YA.
“We’ve been publishing crossover YA at Wednesday Books for seven years,” Goodman and Rothschild told PW, “and have noticed an ever-growing gap in the marketplace for books that speak to an audience who grew up reading all of the truly excellent YA that has come out over the last decade but who now want themes that address their adult lives a bit more.”
The Saturday list will focus on “commercial and voice-driven fiction,” the publisher said, with a particular special focus on fantasy, romance, speculative, “genre-adjacent” fiction. It will include “a few projects” moved over to the imprint from Wednesday, although Goodman and Rothschild noted that “those are special cases.” They added that the imprint’s launch will have no effect on Wednesday’s title count.
Authors who have signed with Saturday to date, including a number of Wednesday Books authors, include Betty Cayouette, Kristen Ciccarelli, Talia Hibbert, Isabel Ibañez, Julia Jones, Kim Liggett, Elle McNicoll, Stephanie Perkins, Christine Riccio, Rebecca Ross, Kasie West, and Adrienne Young.
“This team has a passion for connecting authors and their books with readers, and a proven track record of bestselling success,” said SMPG president and publisher Jennifer Enderlin in a statement. “We are very excited to launch Saturday Books with the same spirit of innovation and ingenuity.”
This article has been updated with further information.
