Martinovic leaves Picador after restructure

Paul Martinovic, former associate editor of backlist and non-fiction at Pan Macmillan, has left the company due to a restructure within the Picador team.

The Bookseller understands Martinovic is the only staff member to lose his job during the restructure. His last day was on 31st December 2022.

Martinovic joined Pan Macmillan in 2016 as a non-fiction communications manager and in December 2019 began a new role as associate editor in non-fiction at Picador.

During his time at Pan Mac he launched and produced the smart thinking podcast “Shaun Keaveny’s Not So Simple”, ran the marketing campaigns for Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt and The Secret Barrister, winning Book Marketing Society awards for both, and ran the publicity campaigns for Crudo by Olivia Laing, My Life in Rugby by Eddie Jones and Wilding by Isabella Tree.

He also oversaw the launch and publishing of the Picador Collection, the new backlist imprint to celebrate Picador’s 50th anniversary that published more than 30 titles in its first year, and as part of the Picador Collection brought original Picador authors Jamaica Kincaid and Charles Johnson back to the imprint after a period of absence.

Martinovic also acquired and published Twelve Percent Dread by Emily McGovern, Picador’s first literary graphic novel; A World on the Wing by Pulitzer Prize-winner Scott Weidensaul; a 25th-anniversary edition of Bridget Jones’s Diary with more than 100 pages of new material; Nevada by Imogen Binnie; and David Milch’s memoir Life’s Work.

Other acquisitions include Is This OK? by Harriet Gibsone, The Last Action Heroes by Nick de Semlyen and Party Lines by Ed Gillett, coming in 2023, and The Endless Country by Sami Kent and Basic Pistol by Harel Shapira.

Publisher Mary Mount said: “I am sorry to announce that Paul Martinovic is leaving Picador as a result of a restructure within the Picador editorial team. Paul first came to Pan Macmillan in 2016 to join the comms team as a non-fiction communications manager. In that role he created excellent campaigns for many of Pan Macmillan’s leading authors.

“In December 2019 he began his role as associate editor in non-fiction at Picador. We are enormously grateful to Paul for his brilliant work on the Picador Collection. He has created a beautiful and stylish format in which to showcase Picador’s incredible backlist and this work has set us up very well for the future. As seen at the Picador New Voices showcase, Paul is much beloved by his authors and he will be missed by all of us. Paul leaves with all our very best wishes for the future. He can be reached at Paulmartinovic@gmail.com.”

Martinovic told The Bookseller: “I feel very grateful to Picador and Pan Macmillan for some incredible opportunities over the past six years, first as a marketer, then as a publicist, then as an editor. I’ve had experiences and successes since joining the company that I never would have thought possible when initially entering the industry. I’m now looking forward to a break but am hopeful that I will return to publishing in some capacity again in the near future.”