Eoin Purcell to head Amazon Publishing UK

Eoin Purcell, formerly editorial director of New Island Books in Dublin, has been appointed to lead the London Amazon Publishing team.

Purcell, who has maintained a long-running blog on publishing and digital change, as well as writing occasional pieces for The Bookseller, including on Amazon Publishing, will join on 15th September.

Amazon has been recruiting for the role for some months, after saying it wanted to build “the world’s most author-centric publishing house”. It is still recruiting for an acquisitions editor  for Amazon Publishing in the UK.

Purcell told The Bookseller he was looking forward to joining the London team in the roIe of editorial leader this autumn.

Jeff Belle, vp of Amazon Publishing, has also announced the appointment of three staff in the New York operation: Tara Parsons, joining from MIRA Books as editorial director for fiction; Merideth Mulroney, joining as art director; and Adrienne Lombardo joining in September as acquisition editor for SFF imprint 47North, coming from Brilliance Audio.

Belle said Amazon Publishing still had positions open spanning editorial, marketing, operations, and business development, adding: "Our business continues to grow thanks to our authors – such as T R Ragan, author of the bestselling Lizzy Gardner series, who just surpassed 1m copies sold."