Melanie Fried, Executive Editor

Melanie Fried joined Putnam in 2025 and acquires high-concept fiction for a crossover audience—juicy domestic dramas; layered suspense or mysteries with enigmas; historicals or dual-narratives with a mystery element; love stories with nostalgic tones; book club novels with a central romance, magical twist, or darker edge; and romcom-thriller or romance-suspense hybrids.

Prior to Putnam, she worked at St. Martin’s Press and HarperCollins, where she acquired books like Today Show Read with Jenna pick Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown, Indie Next pick The Housekeepers by Alex Hay, Target Book Club pick Miss del Rio by Barbara Mujica, and Agatha Award winner The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski. Other novels she has published include bestsellers The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little, The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable, The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan, and Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely.