Gillian Flynn, Lena Waithe to head their own book imprints

“Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn and Emmy-winning writer-producer-actor Lena Waithe will each run new book imprints at Zando

NEW YORK -- “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn is a familiar name on bestseller lists, but her personal reading tastes run to books most haven't heard about.

“I start every conversation about books with 'What's the weirdest things you've read this year? What's the book that you read and later thought, what the hell was that? What an interesting, quirkly little book,'" she told The Associated Press during a recent Zoom interview.

Flynn will now be using her judgment in a more official role. She and Emmy-winning writer-producer-actor Lena Waithe will each run imprints at Zando, a new house headed by Molly Stern, who helped establish Flynn when she was the publisher of Crown. Stern founded Zando in 2020 as a platform for publishing its own books and for launching imprints by others.

“Lena Waithe and Gillian Flynn are dream publishing partners for Zando,” Stern said in a statement. “I’m no different from millions of other readers who know what these remarkable creators stand for, respect their unique vision and trust their taste. Lena and Gillian are cultural pioneers who devour and celebrate exciting new literary work and share my desire to support new voices.”