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Jeremy Trevathan, managing director of adult publishing at Pan Macmillan, is to retire at the end of March 2024 after more than 30 years in publishing.
Trevathan started his career in production, moving to rights and then to editorial.
After achieving his postgraduate diploma in publishing from what is now Oxford Brookes University, he worked in production teams in academic publishing before moving to the role of production manager at Viking, then the hardback arm of Penguin.
In 1989 he moved into the rights team at Penguin selling serial and book club rights and from there, in the early 1990s, he was approached first by Time-Life Books and then by Reader’s Digest to develop and publish lists of books for their large mail order audiences.
Later, in 1995, he was persuaded to join Macmillan and Pan as rights director and before the end of his first year with the company he had concluded a major million-dollar US auction for Robert Redford’s authorised biography in a “heated and ground-breaking” auction that Pan Macmillan says invented a new auction strategy which – Trevathan says – has “come back to haunt him over the years”. Pan Mac says that this was then – and “probably still is” – the biggest single deal ever done by its rights team.
In 1998, Trevathan moved into editorial and up through the ranks, first as publishing director and then publisher of the Pan and Macmillan divisions. In that time, he has edited and published fiction and nonfiction authors such as Valerio Manfredi, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Shirley Conran, Roy Jenkins, Ann Cleeves, Robert Service, China Miéville, Max Hastings, Ken Follett, James Comey, Jeffrey Archer, Elizabeth Jane Howard, James Herbert, Elton John, Wilbur Smith, Peter F Hamilton, Lian Hearn, Edward Snowden and Lucinda Riley.
Trevathan joined the leadership team of Pan Macmillan in 2012 and moved to a more strategic role as publisher of the adult division. He was subsequently promoted to managing director of the division in 2021. Pan Macmillan says that during his stewardship in both roles, adult division sales reached an apogee in 2019, “perhaps not coincidentally the year of Bluebird’s biggest sales (and of Elton John’s memoir, one of Jeremy’s proudest publishing moments).”
In 2021 Pan achieved its highest ever recorded sales and Picador achieved the same milestone in 2022. In 2023 Bluebird starts a new chapter with a new publisher and both Pan and Picador are budgeted to break their previous sales records. Adult division sales will have grown by more than 70% in the period from 2012 to 2024 according to the publisher.
Trevathan said: “Through almost three decades of publishing adventures, I’ve had the privilege and honour of working with some incredible people, from wonderful authors, whose words ignite all our imaginations, to truly fantastic colleagues who make things happen. And an added bonus is that many of these people have become dear friends in the process. This very large chapter of my life has been a real tapestry of creativity, camaraderie and truly unforgettable moments. As I start on the next chapter, I carry with me cherished memories of the incredible individuals who made this whole experience so fulfilling and fun. So, here’s to the next story, the next chapter, and the next adventure."
Prior said: “I’ve only had the pleasure of working with Jez since last April – so just a short paragraph really in his long Pan Macmillan chapter – but I already find it hard to imagine the place without him. So much of the friendly warmth and inclusivity of Pan Mac emanates from Jez’s style of leadership and his irrepressible sense of fun.
“His relationships with some of our most important brand authors cannot be overstated and his engagement with international publishing colleagues has helped create a strong Pan Macmillan across the world. I’d like to thank him for his service to this company over the years, for his kind, good humoured support of me since I arrived and I wish him every happiness as he embarks on his new adventures. We have some time to get used to his retirement and I promise there will be a great party next March to send him off in style.”