In a non-specific first quarter trading update–generally used to assure investors that everything is great–Bloomsbury announced that they will launch their own Australian division in January 2011. Current marketing director of Bloomsbury UK Kathleen Farrar will be managing director of the new unit. Their longtime Australian distributor Allen & Unwin will provide sales and distribution services to the new company. Update Sc-fi/horror publisher Night Shade Books is launching Pugilist Press, focused on “contemporary literary fiction with an edge.” Juliet Ulman is editor-in-chief of the new line, with Night Shade founder Jason Williams as publisher. Ulman had been at Bantam Dell […]
New Imprints
Angry Robot Imprint Sold to Osprey
In a strangely-worded press release that makes you struggle to sort out what has happened, Harper UK’s science fiction imprint Angry Robot Books, started a year ago, has been sold to Osprey Publishing. Osprey focuses on niche communities, like military history. Angry Robot publisher Marc Gascoigne says the publishing program will be unaffected–except for a delay and relaunch. “Our publishing programme for 2010/11 will be basically unaffected by these changes. There will be a short break while the transition is sorted out, but we will be re-launching in September 2010 and then it will be business as usual.” Terms were […]
Portfolio Expands Across the Commonwealth
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 […]
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 […]