Penguin will roll out its Portfolio business imprint in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa this fall, under the name Portfolio Penguin. (The line already has a presence in India.) Viking UK editorial director Joel Rickett will add responsibility for the UK list, and Richard Lennon joins the UK office as communications manager. (He was sales director for Dow Jones Consumer Media.) Portfolio founder and publisher Adrian Zackheim says, “With the addition of the Portfolio Penguin international imprint, we will be able to greatly expand our worldwide offerings in the business category, while complementing the business […]
New Imprints
As Expected Harper Studio Will Fold
Following the departure of founding executive Bob Miller, Harper’s Michael Morrison announced that “we have decided that in the interest of what’s best for our Harper Studio authors and employees, our last batch of titles to be published under the Harper Studio imprint will be on the Summer 2010 list.” All titles scheduled for beyond that season will be absorbed by one of Harper’s other imprints. Morrison says they “will be contacting agents and authors to discuss the best editors and imprints for each of these titles.” He also indicates that “all our imprints are happy to discuss profit sharing […]
Looking Back On Studio
We were interested in Bob Miller’s own take on the Harper Studio experiment, which he offers below: “The Harper Studio experience has been a gratifying and educational one. I think that the large publishing conglomerates of the future should have units devoted to experimentation, and I think we need to keep trying as an industry to find ways to share risks and rewards differently with authors on the one hand and retailers on the other. Authors need to be treated as partners both creatively and financially; booksellers also need to find ways to share the risk, especially on new authors. […]
Bloomberg Press to Become Imprint of Wiley
Bloomberg Press, reported last November as slated for closure on an unspecified schedule while the company explored all options for what to do with the line, will become an imprint of Wiley. Wiley says they will work with Bloomberg to “extend the Bloomberg and BusinessWeek brands to long-form content in books and other formats” and they plan to “publish the content using all media platforms including print, e-books and digital.” Wiley president of professional and trade publishing Steve Kippur says, “This is a powerful alliance that leverages Wiley’s vast experience in publishing business and finance books. The relationship takes advantage […]
Penguin Adds Science Imprint
In July Penguin will debut their newest imprint, Current, focused on science books for general readers. Portfolio and Sentinel president and publisher Adrian Zackheim will have the same titles for Current as well, and the line will share editorial, marketing and publicity staff with Portfolio and Sentinel. They plan to publish five to eight new titles a year. Zackheim comments in the announcement, “Once Current gets ramped up, we aim to publish in every subcategory from genetics to quantum physics to neuroscience.” The first title is a July release by journalist David Stipp, THE YOUTH PILL: Scientists at the Brink […]
Announcements: Imprints
Lerner Publishing’s Carolrhoda Books is launching a young adult line this fall, Carolrhoda Lab. Speaking of young adult books, yesterday’s Automat link to an LAT piece on the rising popularity of YA novels among adult readers was so heavily re-tweeted that it’s worth a separate link. “Authors may gear their novels toward the junior and senior high crowd, but adults are snapping up the books, often about misfit teens or fantasy worlds…. Attracted by well-written, fast-paced and engaging stories that span the gamut of genres and subjects, such readers have mainstreamed a niche long derided as just for kids.” Kris […]