Nathan Rostron, Publisher

I have a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Pomona College, and a Master’s degree in English and Fiction Writing from the University of Texas at Austin, where I received a James A. Michener Scholarship.

Currently I’m the Editorial and Marketing Director of Restless Books, an independent, nonprofit publisher based in Brooklyn, specializing in international fiction, narrative nonfiction, and books for young readers. Joining the company as Marketing Director soon after it was founded in 2013 as a digital publisher, I shepherded our transition into print publishing via a distribution partnership first with Simon & Schuster and Regan Arts, and later with Publishers Group West. We’ve now published more than 100 titles from over forty countries and translated into English from twenty-six languages.

In 2016, my role at Restless expanded to encompass editorial. I now run our editorial and acquisitions meetings, manage publishing strategy and operations, oversee marketing and publicity, and act as foreign rights director. I helped to shape our flagship literary prize, The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, our Yonder imprint of international books for young readers, and our transition into a 501(c)3 nonprofit. And I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of editing many wonderful books, including recent successes by Rivka Galchen, Grace Talusan, Yishai Sarid, and Giacomo Sartori.

Before Restless, I worked at the literary startup Bookish, which launched in 2013 with a curated recommendation engine hailed as the “Netflix for books,” original content about new and notable books and authors, user-generated virtual bookshelves, and retail of books in all formats from all major publishers. As the literary editor of Bookish, I curated four daily content verticals—Literature and Fiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Mysteries and Thrillers, and Cookbooks—commissioning and editing articles, conducting interviews, writing original pieces, programming content, and brainstorming digital strategy.

Prior to Bookish, I was an Assistant Editor at Little, Brown and Company, where I worked alongside Editor-in-Chief Judy Clain from 2007 to 2012.  I did extensive editorial work on many Little, Brown titles, several of which have been award-winners and New York Times bestsellers, including Emma Donoghue’s Room, Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, and Ayad Akhtar’s American Dervish. (See my Books Edited list.)

Since 2012, I’ve worked as a freelance book editor, bringing my extensive publishing expertise to bear as well as my experience being “on the other side of the desk” as a writer. I assist writers at all stages of their careers, from aspiring novelists, to journalists and memoirists working on their first books, to established authors of fiction and nonfiction.

• Google Suite and Analytics
• Microsoft Office
• Asana and task management software
• Squarespace and website CMS
• Title management
• Mailchimp and newsletter software

Business Strategy, Content curation, Digital Marketing, editing, Leadership, Marketing strategy, mentoring, Nonprofit development, operations, Public programming

Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, Literary Hub

Conversational Spanish, English, German (Limited Working Proficiency)