VP and editorial director Sara Goodman and VP and associate publisher Eileen Rothschild are the visionaries behind Saturday Books. A sibling to Wednesday Books, Saturday Books is a new imprint dedicated to new adults with some spectacular titles on its inaugural list. The pair discuss the birth of the imprint, the type of books readers can expect, and their vision for the imprint.

Congratulations on the launch of Saturday Books! What inspired the creation, and why is this the right moment?

Sara: For as long as we’ve been publishing crossover YA on the Wednesday Books list, we’ve noticed how many of our readers are true young adults, or readers in their 20s. We wanted to create a list specifically for them and to publish books that speak to people in that very transitional time of life.

Eileen: And have fun doing it! We like to say that the type of book we're looking for is genre adjacent. We aren’t looking for one type of category/genre—our list contains romance, horror, thriller, romantasy, dark academia... you name it! What is most important is speaking to that audience and meeting them where they are and where they are going.

How do your respective roles complement each other in shaping the imprint's identity and strategy?

Sara: Sometimes we say I’m front of house, Eileen's back of house. I'm often attending book fairs, meeting agents, spreading the word about Wednesday Books and Saturday Books while Eileen's running our sales conferences and ensuring our books are getting printed. But there’s so much more to it than that. Eileen has such a brilliant publishing mind. She really understands commercial fiction and how to market it to readers. She understands the very complicated industry that is publishing and how to navigate it. She’s fierce and dedicated and a good friend to me. I couldn’t do this without her.

Eileen: I joke that Sara is the front of the horse costume, and I'm the back. Ha! In all seriousness I've just read Sara’s response four times and am getting a little emotional. We started as assistants together sitting next to each other in a busy corner of the Flatiron, becoming close colleagues, then friends, and now we run two imprints together. Sara has been the driving force of young adult acquisitions and success at St. Martin’s Press and the reason Wednesday and Saturday Books exist. I'm lucky I was in the room—corner!—where it happened. There's a bit of magic when it comes to our partnership and vision.

You’ve previously mentioned a “growing gap” between YA and adult fiction—what kinds of stories or themes do you believe best fill that space for 18-to-30-year-old readers?

Sara: I think all of the wonderful YA of the past 20 years has really shaped the 18-to-30-year-old reader’s appetite in a big way. From Twilight to Hunger Games to Six of Crows, new adult readers still yearn for big plots, steady beats, high stakes, and strong romance. We’re here to give them those types of stories but with themes that better reflect their current time in life.

The imprint focuses on romance, fantasy, and speculative fiction. Why do you think these genres resonate so strongly with new adult readers?

Sara: Like I said before, the explosion of the YA category in the last 20 years has absolutely shaped the avid readers of today.

What types of stories or voices are you most excited to spotlight with Saturday Books?

Sara: We want big feels, big love, big plots, and pages that turn themselves. We want robust, diverse voices that sparkle on the page. We want books that help you escape.

Many of your launch authors—Talia Hibbert, Rebecca Ross, and Adrienne Young—already have strong followings. How important is author platform in your acquisitions, and what opportunities do you see for debut voices?

Sara: There’s no denying that when an author has a nice platform our ears perk up. It absolutely helps with preorders and spreading the word about a book. But we are editors, and nothing gives us a thrill like debuting a new author and helping build a career from the ground up. We are addicted to that and will never stop wanting to try.

Eileen: Some of the launch authors have strong followers now but started as debut authors with Wednesday Books. As Sara said, we are editors. We fall in love with the story first and foremost and want to create author careers, whether that is growing an author or starting from the ground up.

What are your hopes for how Saturday Books will evolve over the next five years, both in terms of scope and influence in the publishing world?

Sara: Currently, our vision is to keep this new list small—four to five titles per season—publishing lead titles only with the aim to best sell each one. Lofty goal, we know, but that is truly our vision. Over time, it may grow, especially as our backlist builds, but we really do want to offer a chance for every book, on each season, to feel the warmth of the spotlight.

Can you share the inspiration behind the name and its connection to Wednesday Books?

Sara: Wednesday Books is named after our St. Martin’s Press editorial meeting, which happens on Wednesdays. It's a place where young editors build their careers, so I thought it was a fitting name for an imprint that publishes young adult, coming-of-age stories. When thinking of names for the new imprint, we kept thinking of it as Wednesday’s cool older sibling who’s now old enough to go out on a Saturday night, thus the name, Saturday Books. Plus, Saturdays are for reading and relaxing.

Eileen: Naming an imprint is hard! Lots of steps. Sara had lists of names when creating Wednesday. Looking back on it now, I can’t imagine a name other than Wednesday Books, and Saturday felt organic. We have plans for the rest of the days of the week! Ha, just kidding. Maybe...

Finally, what do you hope readers feel or experience when they pick up a book from Saturday Books?

Sara: I think *feel* is the operative word. We want them to have big feelings. We want tears, we want laughter, we want readers to finish our books, then go and beg their friends to read them.

Eileen: The biggest compliment for us is when we hear a reader say, “Oh, I saw that book was from Wednesday Books, so I picked it up.” That feels like magic. Everyone from the authors that work with us to the amazing teams that design, market, publicize, produce, and everything is between wants the same thing—for readers to, as Sara said, feel! For us to know readers pick up our books knowing that's what they'll get... is the absolute best. I want that for Saturday books as well!