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!
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Interesting turn of events, Joe. Will want to see where this goes. I think the names mentioned are some of their top authors.
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I agree, Liz. Big names indeed. Makes we wonder what they got in return and how the intend to put it to use…
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All big name authors that I love and read book after book. Hope this doesn’t slow down the release of any of their upcoming books.
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According to friends, Dorch have been very, very slow in paying their bigger authors, probably because of cash flow problems. Maybe this deal will infuse some money into the system.
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Big names – bit most were no longer with Dorchester. Lynsay Sands has been with Avon for nearly five years now, so all they are doing is pulling her titles over so everything is under Avon’s control. Katie Macalister has been with NAL for six. Sandra Hill has been with another for around five, and is already moving to Avon — her first book comes out this year for Avon — so they are just getting control of her back list. Marjorie Liu was already writing for ACE. CL Wilson was expected to make the move from Dorchester. Nina Bangs has been with Berkley for about four years, though still did some titles with Dorchester. Christine Feehan has been gone for over six.
So what you are seeing is just Avon getting control of backlists of some NY Times bestselling authors that are now Avon authors, and some that are big names for publishers other than Dorchester.
Dorchester does the same thing. Connie Mason’s Avon books are reprinted by Dorchester.