No publishing imprint had the kind of commercial and critical success in 2015 that Riverhead Books did. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins could very well finish the year as the top-selling book of 2015, having already sold more than 3.5 million copies, and in October A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize, while Lauren Goff’s Fates and Furies was a National Book Award for Fiction finalist. In addition, a slew of other Riverhead authors released new books this year that were well received by critics and consumers: Carrie Brownstein, Ivan Doig, Elizabeth Gilbert, Nick Hornby, Emma Straub, and Sarah Vowell. Any way you look at it, for an imprint that publishes about 30 titles annually, Riverhead had an extraordinary run in 2015. Its success was recognized in early November by parent company Penguin Random House when Riverhead’s publisher, Geoff Kloske, was given the additional title of president of the imprint. Those working at Riverhead note that collaboration, creation, and innovation are the keys to its success. In announcing his promotion, Penguin Publishing Group president Madeline McIntosh praised the talented members of the imprint and cited Kloske’s ability to bring all the aspects of Riverhead together. “It does take one [person] in particular to bring the team together and pave the way for them to shine, and that is what Geoff does every day. Inspiring and guiding everyone at Riverhead to take an innovative, no-stone-unturned approach to their work, he models an inclusive and entrepreneurial style that makes the group greater than its parts,” McIntosh wrote in a memo to company employees. McIntosh further noted that under Kloske’s leadership, “Riverhead’s books and authors are selling faster, and earning more awards and accolades, than at any time in the imprint’s illustrious history.”

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