Marysue Rucci, who has been v-p and editorial director of Penguin's Putnam imprint, has been named v-p and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster's flagship imprint. Rucci, who will start at S&S on April 2, was at S&S for 13 years before decamping for Penguin, where she has overseen Putnam since 2010. Speaking to her appointment, Jonathan Karp said she will be "the leader and architect of Simon & Schuster's fiction list."
One of Rucci's most successful acquisitions is Chris Cleave's Little Bee, which she bought at Simon & Schuster, and which spent more than a year on the Times bestseller list. She also discoverd and acquired the bestselling series by Lisa Lutz, The Spellman Files,and bought Betty White's bestsellers, If You Ask Me and Betty & Friends. Another career highlight, which happened early in her editorial rise, at Villard Books, Rucci acquired Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. Some of Rucci's other acquisition include Helene Cooper's The House At Sugar Beach, Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves and Carol Cassella's Oxygen. As an editor, Rucci's worked with authors ranging from Hunter S. Thompson to Lauren Weisberger.
