Crown Publishing Group EVP Aaron Wehner has announced the expansion of Ten Speed Press’s children’s publishing program, including a top-level hire and plans to build the team. Wehner, publisher of Ten Speed Press and Clarkson Potter, said Crown has hired Kelly Barrales-Saylor to be Ten Speed’s executive editor. Barrales-Saylor came on board July 29, joining Ten Speed VP and editorial director Ginee Seo, who was hired last November.
“With an eye to the scaling of the program and ensuring workflows between the broader children’s and adult teams are aligned and optimized, we will be integrating the growing children’s editorial team into Ten Speed’s main editorial department, led by VP and editor in chief Molly Birnbaum,” Wehner wrote in the memo. “We are looking forward to announcing further additions to the children’s team in other areas of the business in the coming months.”
Barrales-Saylor comes to Ten Speed from Sourcebooks, where she launched and served as the editorial director of the children’s nonfiction imprint Sourcebooks eXplore. She acquired the picture book P Is for Pterodactyl (the Worst Alphabet Book Ever) by Raj Haldar, Chris Carpenter, and Maria Beddia; the Baby University series by Chris Ferrie; and the Butt or Face? photo book series by Kari Lavelle. “Kelly started the imprint from scratch and developed the list not just through the traditional submissions process but using data-driven decision-making to guide creativity in collaboration with authors, design, sales, marketing, and consumers—resulting in a list that has generated over $13 million annually,” Wehner said.
"I have always admired and been inspired by the Ten Speed list, so it is thrilling to be a part of such an innovative and collaborative group," Barrales-Saylor told PW. "It's also a dream to have the opportunity to work directly with Ginee Seo, who is responsible for publishing so many of my favorite children’s books."
