The launch of Molly Stern’s Zando has all gone according to plan—or at least to her financial plan. Announced in 2020 and releasing its first books in 2021, the independent publisher ended last year as a profitable company. “We hit my financial projections right on the nose,” Stern told PW. “And they were ambitious.”
How the company got there, however, was a bit surprising. Stern founded Zando after an eight-year stint at Crown, where she worked with Gillian Flynn and Michelle Obama, among many other prominent authors. Inspired by her work with Sarah Jessica Parker to launch Parker’s SJP imprint at Crown, Stern went about setting up imprints at Zando run in concert with high-profile personalities and institutions. The publisher now hosts nine such imprints, including those topped by Flynn and Parker.
What put Zando over the top last year financially was Stern’s decision to enter the adult romance market in a major way early last year through its Slowburn imprint. Stern appointed Hayley Wagreich, Zando’s director of original development, and Sierra Stovall, its director of rights, to head Slowburn, which had an immediate hit with Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love series. The three titles in the series—October 2023’s Butcher & Blackbird, last June’s Leather & Lark, and Scythe & Sparrow, which hit shelves in February—have sold 1.5 million copies across all formats to date. Stern credited Wagreich and Stovall with “recognizing what was possible” with the series—its first title was previously self-published and praised Weaver for “creating whole worlds that really connect with readers.”
Stern was also pleasantly surprised by the depth of sales Zando has racked up through mass merchandisers serviced by ReaderLink. “We have seen some big sales numbers there,” she said, crediting Andrew Rein, her head of publishing and sales, for developing deep contacts within the channel while he too was at Penguin Random House. Zando also has “a great relationship” with Barnes & Noble, Stern said, noting that in one recent week, the publisher placed seven books among the chain’s top 50 bestsellers.
Zando has also benefitted from consumer interest in deluxe and special editions, particularly where trade paperbacks are concerned. In 2024, the publisher had five trade paperbacks hit PW’s bestseller lists, where they stayed for a total of 79 weeks—the biggest share of slots claimed by any independent publisher last year. “I love that people are loving these highly designed book covers,” Stern said.
Fiction was the big sales driver for Zando in 2024, but Zando had a nonfiction bestseller with Democracy or Else, published in partnership with the political media company Crooked Media via the jointly run imprint Crooked Media Reads. Stern has high hopes for a new book coming from Crooked Media, When We’re in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership by Run for Something founder Amanda Litman, as well as WNBA superstar Candace Parker’s debut, The Can-Do Mindset, coming in June from the Get Lifted imprint led by John Legend, Mike Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius.
While Slowburn was fueling growth, the partners program found its rhythm. “Every imprint has its own color,” Stern said, which she and Zando editors explain in detail whenever agents show interest. Stern remains committed to keeping the number of titles published under the partner program relatively limited. “We don’t want to overpublish,” she said. “Each partner commits a lot of time promoting each of their titles.”
The newest partner imprint at Zando is 8th Note Press, which was originally envisioned by TikTok owner ByteDance as an e-book publisher. Zando put out the imprint’s first print book, Caitlin Cross’s Hollywood romance On Screen and Off Again, in February, followed by Syed M. Masood’s The Last Man in Paradise last month. Two other books are set for release this spring—and despite the uncertainty surrounding the fate of TikTok in the U.S., 8th Note continues to acquire new titles.
To date, Zando has published 80 titles across all its imprints, and since Stern had assumed that the company would be frontlist-driven for at least its first few years, the success of its backlist has come as something of a pleasant surprise. That success has helped Stern build an infrastructure that she knows the publisher will need in order to become a sustainable business, including investments in marketing, sales, promotion, and distribution. To wit, beginning with its fall list, Zando’s distribution will move from Ingram Publisher Services’ Two Rivers division to Penguin Random House Publisher Services—marking something of a homecoming for the Crown veteran.
It was that infrastructure that convinced Tin House founder Win McCormack to sell the literary publisher, along with its backlist of some 200 titles, to Zando in mid-March. Stern said her interest in Tin House was sparked by her admiration for its publisher and editorial director Masie Cochran. “Masie is an amazing editor,” Stern said. “I am looking forward to working with her to build on Win’s legacy.”
The Tin House purchase is just one part of her growth plan. Zando produces its own audiobooks, and Stern said she will continue to invest heavily in that format. The addition of Tin House lifts Zando’s staff to 33, and she said she wouldn’t be surprised if the number of employees topped 40 by the end of the year. Stern is also interested in making another acquisition—though she added that a new deal won’t happen too soon, as she knows all too well “how distracting integrating a company can be.”
At the moment, Stern is operating out of a temporary workspace while she waits for Zando’s new Manhattan offices to be finished. While a number of key employees live outside the New York City area, Stern said she believes it is important for the publisher to have a central space for team members to meet. (New York–based employees are currently required to go to the office three days a week.)
Stern said Zando has grown enough that it is now able to be selective in choosing new partners—a lesson learned after suffering what she called some “near misses” in signing a few major deals. “My ambition is for Zando to be a muscular player in a new way,” Stern said. “We still have some tricks up our sleeve.”
