Adero to Join Pocket Books
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 3/11/2002
As one African-American editor exits Pocket Books, another is stepping in to take her place. Malaika Adero, a freelance editor and former Simon & Schuster editor, is joining Pocket Books as a senior editor and will take over the list of former Pocket senior editor Tracy Sherrod, who is leaving S&S to start her own literary agency (News, Mar. 4).
This is a homecoming of sorts for Adero, who started her publishing career as an editorial assistant at Fireside Books in 1985. She went on to publish a series of books by Spike Lee, moving up the editorial ladder at S&S before leaving after six years to become executive editor at Amistad Press. In recent years, Adero has worked as a freelance editor and has edited books for the New Press, John Wiley and Oxford University Press.
Asked about the replacement of one African-American editor with another, Adero acknowledged that "yes, it is related." And while she will be taking over Sherrod's former list, Adero was quick to note, "I've got some ideas of my own, and not strictly for titles of African-American interest. I'll be acquiring titles for health and fitness and spirituality as well as serious and popular fiction."
