Fifteen years in British publishing was neatly segmented for Melanee Winder into five years each with HarperCollins, Penguin and Little, Brown ending up as deputy group sales director for Little, Brown.
So what brought her home? “My family are here and I wanted life to calm down a bit and not live with grey skies. They say it is the British weather that gets you in the end!” As compensation, Melanee, her husband who is an academic and their children have arranged for two summers back to back.
A graduate of the then fledgling Whitireia course in its second year, Melanee worked for HarperCollins here before taking off on her OE.
Highlights of her UK career have been working on the Stephenie Meyer books, and before that the Harry Potter series at its height. “To have that sort of phenomenon happen twice in a career is incredible – I must have just been in the right place at the right time.”
She returned to New Zealand without a job in mind, but has now been appointed Sales and Marketing Director for Hachette New Zealand.
Kevin Chapman said Melanee brings marvellous experience with companies and authors inside the Hachette group. “It is important that she also brings a fresh outlook, different experiences and a different point of view back to New Zealand – it can be difficult to get outside of the accepted way of operating in our small industry.”
