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John Pitts

My Story

I was born and raised in Providence and Little Compton, RI, bounded by three sisters. There were many pets. I attended a Quaker school through 9th grade, and then was sent off to acquire a semi-successful boarding school education.

Flip ahead to May, 1980. I graduate from the University of Vermont. Within a month I find myself a Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Niger where I would spend two years teaching English at a CEG in Mayahi, a tiny sub-Saharan village. No running water, no electricity, not all that much to eat aside from rice, beans, tomatoes, and the occasional goat’s head. It was a life-shaping experience.

Back in the States, in Boston, I cajole the august publisher, Houghton Mifflin, to give me a shot. Their offices were in a town house on Park Street along the Commons. There was a bird cage elevator (with an operator) and conference rooms outfitted with chandeliers, drapes, antique furniture, and Persian rugs. I took to this situation and my career took off.

Within a few years, I heeded the call to the mecca of publishing to take a job in the Park Avenue offices of Doubleday, at that time the Ford of publishers. When, in 1988, Bertelsmann acquired Doubleday and folded it in with Bantam and Dell, I moved into marketing which is where, for thirty-three years, I happily applied my passion and my skills to “stoking the star-maker machinery” behind the popular novel and many other kinds of books.

I was instrumental in shaping Doubleday’s marketing department into the author-centric powerhouse that it would become. Here’s a small sampling of authors with whom I have worked:

Mitch Albom, Carl Bernstein, Larry Bird, Chris Bohjalian, Bill Brands, Bill Bryson, Thomas Cahill, Joseph Campbell, Pat Conroy, J. California Cooper, Jennifer Egan, Susan Faludi, Mia Farrow, Bob Gibson, Martha Graham, E. Lynn Harris, Reggie Jackson, Michio Kaku, Kitty Kelley, Jon Krakauer, Jeff Lindsey, Naguib Mahfouz, Mickey Mantle, Ian McEwan, Walter Mosely, Bill Moyers, Leslie Nielsen, Chuck Palahniuk, Arnold Palmer, Carly Simon, Gore Vidal, Naomi Wolf, and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

There is one author with whom I have been associated since the very beginning: John Grisham. My dedicated, hands-on work was essential to the Grisham brand—conceiving of and implementing marketing campaigns; writing flap copy, managing Grisham’s social media, web presence, and newsletters; writing and designing marketing collateral; and arranging inventive partnerships, all specifically tailored to each title.

From 1995’s The Rainmaker to 2021’s Sooley, I worked directly on every Grisham novel, nonfiction, and short-story collection, each title a #1 New York Times bestseller.

I retired in May, 2021, having attained the title of Vice President, Executive Director of Marketing.

Kind
Words

I have known and worked with John Pitts for roughly thirty-five years. We began our careers together as young kids at Doubleday. I worked in editorial, and John worked in publicity and marketing.

When I left Doubleday twenty-five years ago to start my own company, a literary agency, John Grisham was my first client — at that time the bestselling author in the world. John Pitts became a critical part of what we called “Team Grisham,” the small but essential crew at Doubleday who planned and executed the publicity and marketing for each and every one of John Grisham’s string of #1 bestsellers. John was an integral part of Mr. Grisham’s success, owing to his highly effective and always innovative marketing plans and his diligent management of the Grisham brand.

In addition to being a voracious and insightful reader and an outstanding writer — for my money, the two most important skills anyone can have — John has all the specific marketing and promotion skills he fine-tuned over the course of his high-profile career. In short, he knows every aspect of how to publish a book effectively, from editorial and production to sales, publicity and marketing — from soup to nuts.

Beyond his professional credentials, I know well that John is thoughtful, kind, caring, patient, curious, generous, well-informed and open-minded. Indeed, he is one of the very few genuinely virtuous people I know.
David GernertPresident, The Gernert Company
For eleven years, I had the great pleasure and privilege of working with John Pitts when he was at Doubleday. Between 2010 and 2021, he crafted brilliant marketing plans and implemented ingenious marketing schemes that helped turn eight of my novels into national bestsellers. Among them? The Flight Attendant, now a hit TV series starring Kaley Cuoco, The Sandcastle Girls, and my most recent New York Times best seller, Hour of the Witch.

There are myriad reasons why I loved working with John, but paramount among them certainly are:

• The way he thinks so creatively out of the box. Whether it’s finding ways to reach flight attendants or the Armenian community or readers interested in historical fiction, he finds the path.
• He crafts positioning and marketing messages that sell a book – or , I imagine, any project or product he is working on.
• He is always so much fun to work with.
• His enthusiasm is infectious and his patience is preternatural.

I really can’t imagine my career the last decade and change without him. He is a great marketer and a great person to have in the room. He gets things done and he builds bridges. That’s a rare combination.

Truly, I cannot say enough good things about John. Anyone who has the privilege of working with him will be the better for it, and their project much more likely to succeed.
Chris Bohjalian#1 Bestselling author
It is difficult to imagine publishing a book without the involvement of John Pitts. John was always ‘in the room.’ Always with fresh ideas, and new marketing strategies, and even editorial comment on the sly. I listened to John with every book. He is an integral team player, and a loyal friend.
John Grisham#1 Bestselling Author
For nearly thirty years, I have worked with some of the best marketers in publishing in my capacity as the CEO of EMG, an entertainment marketing agency. John Pitts stands apart. He is super creative, collaborative, analytical, exacting, and fixed on acing the execution. He has a very simple credo: expect the best and that’s what you get.

What really puts John in his own class is his openness to novel tactics and opportunities and his willingness to take chances in order to maximize marketing impact. He has always been the first to ride new and innovative waves, and as we know, novelty in marketing is very compelling.

Perhaps most important of all, John is a good and honest man. He can be tough, but in every sense he’s a gentleman at heart, and I cannot recommend him enough.
Phil AlexanderFounder and CEO, EMG
A marketing genius named Pitts
Could sell Kool-Aid at the Ritz
And once for Hanukah
Sold a harmonica
To the great Vladimir Horowitz.
Garrison KeillorRaconteur and novelist

Marginalia

  • In the US alone, Amazon “stocks” nearly 27 million unique titles
  •  675 million print copies are sold in the US every year
  • 191 million ebooks are sold in the US every year
  • 65% of Americans claim to read at least one book a year
  • The average audiobook listener is male, 18 to 34
  • Hot water freezes faster than cool water
  • The Earth’s fungi produce around fifty megatons of spores every year—equivalent to 500,000 blue whales

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