Melanie Fried, Executive Editor

Melanie Fried joined Putnam in 2025 and acquires female-driven, high-concept fiction for a crossover audience—atmospheric domestic suspense; juicy dramas; historicals with a mystery or gothic element; edgy or emotional upmarket fiction; glossy Ripley-esque thrillers; romcom-thriller hybrids; and book club novels with a romantic thread, speculative twist, or timely hook.

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.