Martina Arzu will join Embla Books, Bonnier Books UK’s digital-first imprint, as editorial director in January 2024.
Arzu joins from Head of Zeus, where she commissioned for the Aria imprint. Earlier this year she published propulsive thriller Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman, which has just been selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club; alongside titles by the likes of Kate Forster, Linn B. Halton and Heather Burnside. Prior to joining Head of Zeus, Arzu worked at Bookouture for a couple of years.
Arzu will join at a time of high growth for the imprint, which is celebrating a milestone one million copies sold this year to date – achieved in just its second full year of trading. With an impressive track record of sales and strong presence in the charts, Embla Books is home to bestselling authors Patricia Wolf, Sarah Yarwood-Lovett, Lucy Coleman and Caroline Mitchell to name but a few.
Emilie Marneur, director of audience and business development at Bonnier Books UK, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Martina will be joining our team! She has a wealth of experience in digital publishing and is incredibly talented, creative, and very committed. She has such great energy and will be a great addition to our growing team. I can’t wait to work with her to take our authors and our books to new heights next year, and to continue to build on our success to date.”
Arzu said: “I am very thankful for my time at Head of Zeus, and to my authors and colleagues especially, for teaching me so much about creative and dynamic publishing. Although I will miss both greatly, I couldn’t resist the chance to join the brilliant team at Embla. I have been hugely impressed by how much they have achieved in such a short amount of time and can’t wait to work with them to continue finding talent and creating even more bestsellers in 2024!”
Arzu will join the company on the 22nd of January, reporting into Emilie Marneur.
