Michael Jacobs, who retired as CEO of Abrams Books in late 2022 after a long career in publishing, has teamed with writer, editor, and teacher Sheridan Hay to form Filmore Projects. The Washington County, N.Y.–based company “will focus on executive coaching, organizational development and board governance, structure and strategic advice for profit and non-profit enterprises in publishing and the creative arts,” according to an announcement.
Filmore Projects will also offer literary advice for writers and creative artists, as well as marketing and sales strategies for book publishers and other "content producers."
The third leg of the new firm will also have its own book publishing and packaging imprint, Galpón Press. The Galpón list will comprise “projects of passion—local, seasonal and literary,” per the announcement. First titles are expected to be out this fall and the press will have national distribution.
In addition to holding executive roles at Abrams, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic, Jacobs served on the boards of the Academy of American Poets and the National Coalition Against Censorship and is currently on the board of governors of Yale University Press, the Corporation of Yaddo, and Binc.
Hay holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the author of the 2006 novel The Secret of Lost Things (Doubleday/Anchor). She also worked as an editor at Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin Books in New York and in Sydney, Australia. She is currently leading the Metropolitan Opera’s first reading group in collaboration with the Center for Fiction.
“Having had successful and long careers in book publishing and literary endeavors, we’re excited to bring our years of experience to clients and colleagues, new and old," Jacobs and Hay said in a statement, "and to have the opportunity to work with a select group of partners and friends on projects that matter to them and to us."
