Lou Aronica

Lou Aronica started the Spectra imprint at Bantam when he was 27 years old. His first acquisition for Bantam Spectra, David Brin’s Startide Rising, won a Hugo and a Nebula award. Bantam Spectra went on to publish New York Times bestsellers for Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Raymond Feist, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Neil Gaiman.During this phase of his career, Aronica acquired five consecutive winners of the Nebula award.

His Full Spectrum anthology series ran 5 volumes. Full Spectrum 4, co-edited with Amy Stout and Betsy Mitchell, won the 1994 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. He also started the Star Wars book publishing program. As Mass Market Publisher for Bantam, he launched the Crime Line mystery imprint and worked with bestselling authors Elizabeth George, Robert Crais, and Diane Mott Davidson. After leaving Bantam in 1994, he became Publisher of the Berkley Publishing Group, where he started two imprints, Boulevard and Signature. During this time, he acquired and edited futuristic mysteries by J.D. Robb (a penname of author Nora Roberts).