Julia Sommerfeld, publisher of Amazon Publishing in the U.S., has expanded her scope to take on the role of worldwide publisher. In that position, she will work closely with Amazon's publishing businesses in the European Union and with Sana Chebaro, who has been appointed head of Amazon Publishing for the U.K. and Germany. The organizational change follows the departure of Eoin Purcell who had headed Amazon's U.K. publishing business. "This is a broader remit and more of an opportunity for me to connect between teams and processes and lists and authors" globally, she told PW.
Sommerfeld said that the goal of her appointment is to broaden the international readership for all of Amazon's publishing groups. "There's a lot of things working really well in international markets and I am very excited to see how we can scale different strategies and programs globally," she explained. Sommerfeld is looking not only to do more original publishing in different markets, but to increase the company's rights sales as well. She noted that for Rebecca Yarros's two novels with Amazon Publishing, Variation and In the Likely Event are being translated into 26 languages "and counting."
During her nearly 10-year career with Amazon, Sommerfeld has overseen the launch of Amazon Original Stories and Amazon's Mindy Kaling imprint, Mindy’s Book Studio. In that light, it isn't a surprise Sommerfeld sees overseas expansion possibilities for its Original Stories business. "We're really excited about opportunities to expand more in Germany and the U.K.," she said. "We've got some really exciting books in the works there and I think these short stories are really fitting into people's lives."
Another Amazon initiative Sommerfeld would like to see go worldwide is the publishing group's strong relationship with Amazon Studios. She noted the upcoming "multi-format, multi-language release" of actor Diego Boneta's debut novel, The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco, which Amazon Crossing will publish in May in English and Spanish. Amazon Studios is simultaneously developing the novel as a series starring Boneta. Amazon's Audible Studios is also releasing an audiobook version, narrated by Boneta, in English and Spanish.
"Our ultimate goal here, our North Star, is helping authors reach their widest possible audience by building their readership beyond borders," Sommerfeld said. "We want to mint international best sellers across languages and formats."
