Steve Rubin, best known as the publisher of John Grisham and Dan Brown, announced yesterday that he is stepping down as executive vice president and publisher-at-large of Random House, effective next Friday. The sixty-seven-year-old Rubin, a former journalist, said he was moving on to pursue other opportunities, including a book deal of his own with “one of the finest publishers in the industry.”
“I leave Random House after twenty-five years with a great sense of accomplishment and pride, as well as a bit of sadness,” Rubin wrote in a brief statement. “It has been a tremendous ride. I have had the privilege of publishing and working closely with some of the greatest authors in the world.” Rubin, who joined Random House imprint Bantam Books as an executive editor in 1984 and rose to become publisher of the conglomerate’s Broadway Doubleday Group, has worked with authors Tina Brown, Pat Conroy, Bill Moyers, and Bill O’Reilly, among others. He took his current post in February after his old job was eliminated by restructuring in late 2008.
In a memo also released yesterday, Random House chairman and CEO Markus Dohle called Rubin’s tenure at the publisher “one of the most accomplished and distinguished careers in our company’s history.” Rubin’s recent acquisitions include a collection of short fiction by John Grisham and a memoir by former president George W. Bush.
As for Rubin’s own book, literary agent Robert F. Levine declined to reveal the prospective publisher but told the Associated Press that the work “has absolutely nothing to do with New York publishing.”
