More Troubling News From HMH: Becky Saletan Resigns

Becky Saletan, senior vice president and publisher of adult trade books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) since January, has resigned. Her last day will be December 10. The resignation was confirmed yesterday by Josef Blumenfeld, vice president of communications for HMH.

The announcement follows the disconcerting news last week that HMH had placed a temporary freeze on new acquisitions. HMH is reportedly deep in debt and the recent credit crunch has squeezed Education Media and Publishing Group, HMH’s parent company, eliciting speculation of a possible sale. Education Media has acknowledged that other publishers have expressed interest in HMH.

Saletan was the publisher of adult trade books at Harcourt before being promoted when Houghton Mifflin acquired Harcourt in 2007. She has also held positions at Yale University Press, Simon & Schuster, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux’s North Point Press.

The promotion was given to Saletan over Houghton Mifflen publisher Janet Silver who then left to join Random House’s Doubleday division as an editor-at-large. But trouble in the publishing world is not isolated to HMH. Last month Silver was among sixteen employees laid off at Doubleday.