Aaron Wehner, EVP of Crown Publishing Group, has announced the expansion of Ten Speed Press’ children’s book publishing program, including the hiring of a top executive and plans to build the team. Wehner, publisher of Ten Speed Press and Clarkson Potter, said Crown has hired Kelly Barrales-Saylor as Ten Speed’s editor-in-chief. Barrales-Saylor came on board on July 29, joining Ten Speed’s vice president and editorial director Ginee Seo, who was hired last November.
“With an eye toward scaling the program and to ensure workflows between the broader kids and adult teams are aligned and optimized, we will integrate the growing kids editorial team into Ten Speed’s main editorial team, led by Vice President and Editor in Chief Molly Birnbaum,” Wehner wrote in the memo. “We look forward to announcing additional additions to the kids team in other areas of the business in the coming months.”
Barrales-Saylor comes to Ten Speed from Sourcebooks, where she founded the children’s book imprint Sourcebooks eXplore and served as editorial director. She acquired the picture book P stands for pterodactyl (the worst alphabet book of all time) by Raj Haldar, Chris Carpenter and Maria Beddia; the Baby University series by Chris Ferrie; and the Butt or Face? photo book series by Kari Lavelle. “Kelly built the label from the ground up, developing the list not only through the traditional submission process, but also through data-driven decision-making to guide creativity in collaboration with writers, design, sales, marketing and consumers – the result is a list that brings in over $13 million annually,” Wehner said.
“I have always admired and been inspired by the Ten Speed List, so it is exciting to be part of such an innovative and collaborative group,” said Barrales-Saylor PW“It’s also a dream to have the opportunity to work directly with Ginee Seo, who is responsible for publishing so many of my favorite children’s books.”
