Alcove Press is dedicated to publishing the stories and ideas that inspire, enlighten, and empower readers. From book club fiction and commercial novels to prescriptive and narrative nonfiction, our books embrace the joys, challenges, and diverse journeys that make up our human experience. Alcove Press champions the work of debut, established, and bestselling authors, providing a home for the voices and stories that bring us together and keep us talking.
Editors
Senior Editor Holly Ingraham is an award-winning editor with fourteen years of industry experience. During her career, she has worked at BookEnds Literary, spent ten years as an in-house acquisitions editor for St. Martin’s Press, and launched Holly Ingraham Editorial in 2018. She joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books in early 2022. Holly is looking for upmarket women’s fiction, high-concept book club fiction with a commercial hook, domestic suspense and witty rom-coms. She is especially drawn to complex family dynamics, female friendships, motherhood, and moral dilemmas. Holly would love to receive projects perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Colleen Hoover, and Emily Henry.
Senior Editor Jess Verdi joined Alcove Press in 2022, after well over a decade in women’s fiction and romance editorial, including six years as Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster and a recent turn in the cutting-edge world of mobile storytelling apps. An author herself, Jess has a 360-degree view of the publishing industry, and enjoys working with authors to bring exciting, thought-provoking, and heartstring-tugging stories to the world. In fiction, she’s especially drawn to laugh-out-loud rom-coms, stories exploring gender and sexuality in fresh ways, and novels featuring complex family and/or racial dynamics. In nonfiction, she’s looking for narrative projects about social justice issues, as well as feminist and LGBTQ+ perspectives. Jess would love to see projects ideal for fans of Casey McQuiston, Kiley Reid, Tia Williams, Emily Henry, Mia Sosa, and Ibram X. Kendi. And she’ll buy a giant oat milk latte for anyone who brings her a commercial, voicey take on Jane Austen, or an upmarket novel about adoption written by an adoptee or birth parent.
Laura Apperson joined Alcove Press in 2022 as editor. Previously, she was an editor at St. Martin’s Press and Callisto Media/Rockridge Press. Laura specializes in innovative nonfiction that helps readers live fulfilling lives, broadens their understanding of the world, and empowers them to become the best version of themselves. Laura has edited and published a wide range of successful prescriptive and narrative nonfiction throughout her career, including books by Lane Rebelo, Lindsey Smith, Alexa Shoen, Annabel Karmel, David Ariosto, and many others.
Laura is looking for prescriptive and narrative nonfiction in the areas of self-help/psychology, health & wellness, careers, parenting, relationships, inspiration, memoir, true crime, pop culture/humor, history, and mind/body/spirit. If a book takes the reader along a journey–whether it be a revelation about the world around them, a path to self-discovery and personal development, or a deeper understanding of the human experience–it is for her.
Senior Editor Faith Black Ross has been with Crooked Lane Books since 2016 after more than a decade in publishing. Previously she handled mysteries and historical fiction for the Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin Random House). For Alcove Press, she’s looking for projects with great voice that give her a good laugh (or a good cry, but nothing too mawkish or anything with dead pets), especially if it involves history, fun settings, or food.
Faith would love to receive projects perfect for fans of Paula McLain, Lauren Willig, Liane Moriarty, Graeme Simsion, Amor Towles.
Toni Kirkpatrick began her publishing career at St. Martin’s Press, where she worked for more than a decade acquiring crime and women’s fiction. Her titles won ALA, Anthony, Nero, Shamus, and RT Book Awards, were finalists for Agatha and Edgar Awards, and made best of year lists on Kirkus, Booklist, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Sun Sentinel. Toni joined Crooked Lane Books and Alcove Press in 2019. She serves on the board of Latinx in Publishing. She is looking for book club fiction that is provocative, humorous, and/or haunting. She would love to find stories that highlight contemporary women’s issues, family dynamics, friendship, motherhood, and the immigrant or multicultural experience.
Toni is very interested in novels by people of color, especially those writing from Latine, Afro-Latine, or indigenous perspectives. Works that step into speculative territory are welcome.
Tara Gavin has always loved books. She began her career very early—reading every book she could get her hands on. Her favorites were the classics, Women’s Fiction and mysteries.
She has spent years at Harlequin Books, where she pursued her love of Women’s Fiction, working with New York Times bestsellers Diana Palmer and Lindsay McKenna, as well as many others. Moving onto Kensington Books, Tara still worked with bestselling women’s fiction authors, but also was able to pursue her love of mysteries, suspense and diverse author voices.
She is excited to be working with Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books, where the best of all worlds come together—upmarket, commercial women’s fiction, suspense, and mysteries. She loves complex plots that entertain and have deep, emotional characterization. Her wish list when she acquires for Crooked Lane Books include books in the tradition of: Ruth Ware, Lisa Gardner, and Karen Rose. She loves cozy mysteries that contain humor, a community of interacting characters, and animals or crafts. Examples of her favorite types of stories can be found in the books by Anne Canadeo, J.C. Eaton and Mary Marks.
Editor Melissa Rechter joined Crooked Lane Books in 2019, after graduating with a BA in English Literary Studies from York College of Pennsylvania and a MS in Publishing from Pace University. For Alcove Press, she is looking for stories that center around found families and female friendships. She’s interested in book club fiction that sparks conversation, rom-coms, historical fiction from the ’20s, ’40s and Victorian era, and speculative fiction. She’s looking for authors in the vein of Katherine Center, Stacey Agdern, Kristin Hannah, or Kiley Reid.
Team
Director of Publishing Operations Doug White began his publishing career as a bookseller and soon moved into publishing operations, purchasing and sales. He has sold books to all major North American accounts while working for publishers and distributors including Macmillan, Diamond Book Distributors and Fox Chapel Publishing. Titles he has sold ranged from NYT bestsellers to graphic novels, science fiction/fantasy, children’s books/games/toys. At Bloomsbury Publishing, Doug ran the US operations group and managed distribution partnerships. He enjoys reading history and science fiction, keeping one eye on the past and another on the future. He is a proud alumnus of Penn State University.
Stephanie Manova oversees subsidiary rights sales for Crooked Lane Books and Alcove Press. She handles domestic audio, film, and large print rights as well as foreign rights. Before joining Crooked Lane and Alcove, Stephanie was a foreign rights agent at Trident Media Group. She has also held positions at Macmillan Learning, the Experiment, W. W. Norton, and GenZ Publishing. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University and a certificate in manuscript editing from the University of Chicago.
Marketing and Publicity Manager Madeline Rathle graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in journalism before completing her master’s in publishing at NYU. She has previously worked at Baton Rouge Parents Magazine, LSU Press, and Peter Lang Publishing. Her favorite genres to read are true crime and historical fiction, but she loves exploring other genres and finding new authors!
Marketing Assistant Dulce Botello graduated with a BA in Arts, Media and Entertainment from the University of Arizona, and with an MS in Publishing from NYU. During her undergraduate studies, Dulce interned at Kore Press, a nonprofit feminist press. She also interned with Macmillan Publishers in the subrights department where upon graduation she joined the special sales division. Dulce loves to read everything and anything that lands on her lap but has a special affinity for dystopian stories, thrillers and the occasional fantasy.
Editorial and Production Associate Rebecca Nelson graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BA in English and BS in Biology, and she has an MA in English from Kansas State University, where she was the editor in chief of the literary magazine Touchstone. She has interned for Dzanc Books, Amphorae Press, Creative Media Agency, and Ayesha Pande Literary. Her favorite genres include thrillers, true crime, and YA, and she also enjoys bookclub fiction and popular science.
