Mark Smith to join Bonnier Publishing

Mark Smith, the founder and former c.e.o. of Quercus, is to join Bonnier Publishing as c.e.o. of its fiction department.

Smith left Quercus after the formerly independent publisher was bought by Hachette UK’s Hodder & Stoughton earlier this year.

He will now become c.e.o. of Bonnier Publishing Fiction in London, covering both adult and children’s books.

Smith’s company Zaffre Publishing will also be brought into the Bonnier Publishing, for an undisclosed fee.

Bonnier Publishing Fiction will house Hot Key Books, Piccadilly Press and Zaffre. Hot Key Books and Piccadilly will remain focused on children’s fiction, while Zaffre will build an adult fiction business around women’s fiction, romance, historical fiction, crime, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror and fiction in translation.

Zaffre also has an imprint, Twenty7, which focuses exclusively on debut authors across all fiction categories.

Richard Johnson, c.e.o. of Bonnier Publishing said: “The move we are announcing today completes our strategy of covering all types of publishing by the end of 2014. Bringing someone of Mark’s reputation and standing in the industry to the group is a marker of our ambition to be a major player in the fiction market in the UK, USA and Australia.

“Mark’s experience will help, too, in all other areas of our group and he will immediately join the board of our US company, Little Bee, which starts to publish next month.”

Smith said: “I’m very excited to be building another publishing business and having Zaffre as part of the Bonnier Publishing Group feels like a perfect match of know-how and ambition. I greatly admire the quality of Bonnier’s current children’s fictionpublishing and look forward to working with the team to navigate the future. The industry is changing rapidly, which brings opportunity for new entrants and I’m looking forward to finding great stories from brilliant authors and connecting them with readers around the world.”