Bruce Nichols to join Hachette Book Group as SVP, Publisher of Little, Brown and Company

New York-April 15, 2020

Michael Pietsch, CEO of Hachette Book Group, announced today the hiring of Bruce Nichols as Senior Vice President and Publisher of Little, Brown and Company. He will join the company on May 4.

Nichols has been SVP and Publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt since 2009, during which time he has led significant expansion of the company’s range of publishing and grown revenue more than 65%. In 2019, Nichols took on the leadership of HMH’s new audiobooks division.

At HMH, Nichols oversaw the full range of adult publishing which includes fiction, nonfiction, and lifestyle books. He is recognized for publishing bestselling books in politics, history, and science, among other categories, and he has overseen publishing programs for major commercial brands including The Whole30 and the Tolkien estate. Under his leadership HMH has also built their fiction list and notched commercial successes including Rachel Kadish’s The Weight of Ink, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black, Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway mystery series, and The Chosen Ones, the first novel for adults by Veronica Roth, #1 bestselling author of the Divergent series.  And Nichols has led the creation of a powerful catalog of lifestyle titles from diverse voices such as Antoni Porowski, Urvashi Vaid, and Maangchi, among others.

Notable and bestselling authors Nichols has worked with in his career include Douglas Brinkley, Tim Ferriss, Adam Hochschild, Eric Lichtblau, Tim O’Brien, Cynthia Ozick, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, James Risen, Paul Theroux, and Esther Wojcicki.  Prior to HMH, Nichols held publishing and editorial roles at HarperCollins and Free Press. Nichols started his publishing career at Little, Brown, in the company’s former College Publishing division.

Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group CEO, said, “As Little, Brown’s publishing range has expanded significantly, it was important to find someone with the proven ability to publish brilliantly across many categories.  Bruce has worked with great writers in literary fiction and commercial fiction and in narrative nonfiction, history, cookbooks, business, inspiration, and more.  It’s rare to find someone with such editorial breadth and strong business skills.  I’m thrilled that Bruce has agreed to come lead Little, Brown, and I’m excited to see all he will do in concert with the superbly talented LB editorial, marketing, publicity, and design teams.”

Bruce Nichols said, “I have long admired the range and strengths of the publishing program at Little, Brown, its enormously talented staff, and the spectacular writers they have brought into the world.  Continuing their remarkable programs, and finding new opportunities for growth and innovation, is the challenge of a lifetime that I’m honored to accept. It’s a thrill to come full circle and rejoin Little, Brown, and to lead such a sterling team.”

‘Nichols will report to Michael Pietsch and will join HBG’s Executive Management Board.