In the ever changing landscape that is publishing, information is currency. The more you know, the better chance you have of selling your own work to the right people at the right time. I’ve made a point through the years of keeping abreast of news items, both big and small, that can effect how I run the business that is my writing career.
Yesterday, one of those interesting little news tidbits caught my eye. It was a statement from HarperCollins, on behalf of their Avon imprint, that noted the following:
HarperCollins has acquired several frontlist and backlist titles from Dorchester publishing and has also extended its distribution partnership. Authors include titles from Victoria Alexander, Nina Bangs, Christine Feehan, Sandra Hill, Marjorie M. Liu, Katie MacAlister, Lynsay Sands and CL Wilson. We are currently scheduling the Avon release of these books, and will sell, market and publish all acquired titles by these authors on a go-forward basis. We look forward to working with these talented authors to futher grow their brand recognition.
Now, I don’t have any behind-the-scenes information. I don’t know what prompted this move or really what to make of it. But it caught my eye because several of the names on that list are major earners for Dorchester and it seemed unusual to me that they would be transferring these writers to another publisher.
Dorchester also happens to be the only publisher with a dedicated horror line and while I haven’t written for them before, I’d hate to see them run into problems.
At any rate, it bears watching. I hope the eight writers mentioned in the note from Avon are happy with their new home!
