ABOUT MEL PARKER

Mel Parker has worked in virtually every aspect of trade book publishing, from mass
market and trade paperback to hardcover and book clubs.

Before launching Mel Parker Books, Mel was Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of Bookspan, the book club partnership between Time Warner and Bertelsmann AG, where he directed the editorial acquisitions programs for all of Bookspan's general interest, lifestyle and specialty book clubs, including Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Mystery Guild, Quality Paperback Book Club, History Book Club, Black Expressions and One Spirit. At Bookspan, Mel also played a key role in consolidating the book club businesses of Book-of-the-Month Club and Doubleday Direct into Bookspan; launching a number of successful new book clubs such as Mosaico, the Latino book club; and leading Bookspan's highly profitable original publishing program for book club members.

Mel came to the book clubs from Time Warner Trade Publishing, where he was Senior Vice President of Warner Books and Publisher of its paperback division. During his more than eleven years at Warner, Mel acquired and edited his own hardcover list of bestselling fiction by Dean Koontz, David Morrell and Larry Bond, as well as hardcover bestsellers in a variety of nonfiction categories, from narrative nonfiction and biography to business books, health, inspiration and pop culture. Some notable hardcover nonfiction bestsellers include SELLING THE INVISIBLE by Harry Beckwith, FIRST YOU HAVE TO ROW A LITTLE BOAT by Richard Bode, SUNDAY NIGHTS AT SEVEN by Jack Benny and Joan Benny, THE GRATEFUL DEAD FAMILY ALBUM by Jerilyn Brandelius, FLIGHT OF THE BUFFALO by James Belasco, THE I LOVE LUCY BOOK by Michael McClay, GOOD NEWS FOR BAD DAYS by Paul Keenan, and WAYLON by Waylon Jennings and Lenny Kaye. Mel was also responsible for Warner's mass market paperback publishing program, including major bestselling authors such as Nelson DeMille, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Scott Turow, Elmore Leonard, James Patterson, P.D. James, Carl Hiaasen, Sidney Sheldon, Brad Meltzer and Sandra Brown. And he developed a trade paperback list featuring critically acclaimed authors such as Jeffrey Eugenides, Rick Moody, Alan Lightman, James Ellroy, Lorrie Moore, Ethan Canin, Calvin Trillin, E.O. Wilson, Edna O'Brien, Robert Hughes, and Sherman Alexie.

Prior to joining Warner, Mel was Editor-in-Chief of the Berkley Publishing Group, where he played an instrumental role in helping build the company into a major paperback publisher featuring 10 continuing New York Times bestselling authors. He also acquired a number of major bestsellers, most notably THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy, which set the stage for his bestselling career at Putnam and Berkley.

Mel was chairman of the Executive Trade Committee of the Association of American Publishers, where he launched the industry group's national Get Caught Reading Campaign, which secured millions of dollars of free print advertising to promote books and reading. Mel also lectured on publishing at the Stanford Publishing Course, and his essay on paperback publishing appears in EDITORS ON EDITING (Grove Atlantic).