Paula Wiseman, VP and publisher at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, where she has headed her eponymous imprint Paula Wiseman Books since 2002, will be retiring at the end of the year. She will transition to an editor-at-large role in January 2025 and continue to edit a select number of books on a freelance basis, to be published as “A Paula Wiseman Book.”
Also beginning in 2025, titles that had originally been acquired for Paula Wiseman Books will be published under S&S’s Beach Lane Books imprint, which will also subsume the Paula Wiseman Books backlist. Paula Wiseman Books senior editor Catherine Laudone and assistant editor Danielle Collins will move to Beach Lane Books full-time and will report to VP and publisher Allyn Johnston.
Wiseman joined S&S from Harcourt Children’s Books, where she was executive editor and launched and led the Silver Whistle imprint. Prior to her stint at Harcourt, Wiseman worked at Philomel, where she rose to VP and editor-in-chief over an eight-year span. She began her publishing career at Dial Books for Young Readers in 1982 as assistant to publisher Phyllis Fogelman.
The list of award-winning and bestselling authors and illustrators Wiseman has worked with over the years includes Jill Biden, Bryan Collier, Raúl Colón, Derek Jeter, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, Anita Lobel, Toni Morrison, Patricia Polacco, Rosemary Wells, and Ed Young. She has also collaborated with novelty book author-illustrator Matthew Van Fleet for more than two decades.
Reflecting on her latest career chapter, Wiseman said in a statement, “Simon & Schuster has been a world of creativity, fresh ideas, and constant support for me and my team for the last 22 years. My authors and illustrators and I have thrived here, and I am grateful to the very smart team at Simon & Schuster whom I have collaborated with from art direction to marketing and selling our books.”
In a statement, Jon Anderson, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, praised Wiseman’s significant accomplishments during her tenure at the company and added, “While I’ll miss seeing Paula in the office, I’m incredibly happy that she’ll be continuing to produce books for Simon & Schuster in the years ahead.”
