Author Simon Sinek will launch a new imprint, Optimism Press, under the auspices of his longtime publisher, Portfolio.
Sinek, who has written a number of bestsellers in the entrepreneurial business space including Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and Find Your Why, will serve as "chief optimist" at Optimism, while Adrian Zackheim, Sinek's editor and president and publisher of Portfolio, will also serve as publisher of the new imprint. (Sinek's backlist books and future books will continue to be published under the Portfolio imprint.)
"Optimism Press is focused on sharing the ideas that will help us advance the greater good, to build a world in which people feel inspired, safe and fulfilled in their professional and personal lives," Sinek said in a statement. "We will look to the business world, the nonprofit world, the military, politics, education, the clergy, or elsewhere to find authors who can both inspire us and offer us direction on how to build a more optimistic world."
The new imprint is expected to publish three to five books in 2019, while leaving room for further growth. Books are forthcoming at the imprint from former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Matthew Barzun, founder of Atlanta’s City of Refuge Bruce Deel, and activist and environmental scientist Summer Rayne Oakes of Homestead Brooklyn. Portfolio, an imprint of the Penguin Publishing Group within Penguin Random House, will handle the editorial, production, sales, and marketing functions for Optimism Press.
In a separate announcement, Portfolio executive editor Bria Sandford has acquired world, audio, and e-book rights to a book about the early years of Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, called The Education of Brett Kavanaugh, by New York Times journalists Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin, from P.J. Mark at Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
The Kavanaugh book, Portfolio said, will expand upon the news broken by Pogrebin and Kelly during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing that "helped inform the line of questioning about his behavior in high school and beyond, which became pivotal to the political battle that ensued." The book, the publisher added, "will attempt to address the many unanswered questions that remain."
In a statement, Zackheim said: "Together Kelly and Pogrebin will pursue the threads of reporting that were left unfinished, go deeper into the seemingly irreconcilable versions of Kavanaugh presented during the hearings, and provide a necessary exploration of the difficult questions that the confirmation process raised for our culture.
Editor's note: This story has been modified from the original article.
