Ricky Cavallero on Book Publishing as Partying
Ricky Cavallero was CEO of the Spanish-language publisher Random House Mondadori for eight years.\xa0In 1995 he joined Mondadori as Director of Marketing Books; two years later he was appointed General Manager of the Spanish subsidiary and launched the Alexandros trilogy by Valerio Massimo Manfredi which\xa0became a huge best-seller.
In 1999 he inaugurated the Grijalbo Mondadori bookshop in Havana\u200b. \u200bIn 2000 he returned to Italy as director of Books Edizioni Mondadori.\xa0The following year, the Random House Mondadori joint venture was established\xa0\u200band\xa0Cavallero assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer\u200b initially \u200bbased in New York and then, from 2004, in Barcelona.\u200b \u200b
\u200bIn\xa02010\xa0\u200bhe was appointed \u200bGeneral Manage\u200b\u200br\u200b of\u200b\xa0Libri Trade Mondadori and Chief Executive Officer of Einaudi\u200b, under which the \u200bPiemme, Sperling & Kupfer and Frassinelli houses\u200b operated.\u200b \u200b\u200bIn 2016\u200b he launched a new venture,\xa0founding his own house,\u200b called SEM Societ\xe0 Editrice Milanese.\u200b He sold it in the Spring of 2023.\xa0
We met in Milan to talk about his take on book publishing. Topics covered include Libya, the Hoepli bookstore in Milan, Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, nipples, different ways of looking at Latin America, atlases, nationalism, the fun of hitting the big one, Sonny Mehta, buying Fifty Shades of Grey, the impact of Covid, travel and understanding the world, meeting people, diversity, Africa, new writers, exiles and revolutions, bars, interesting people, getting 'out there;' listening, and asking questions, participating in life, partying, SEM, weekly dinners being a better investment than advertising, jazz music, Verso Bar and Bookshop in Milan, jamming with Ken Follett, offering stages for new voices, and giving birth.\xa0