Thursday, October 11, 2012

Quercus makes second US push with 'start-up'


Quercus is to make a second move into the US with a "startup operation" that will begin publishing titles in autumn 2013. The company announced today that it was opening a New York office in preparation for the launch of this North American publishing programme, a step-up from its previous US publishing efforts through Silver Oak, a joint imprint co-owned by Barnes & Noble's Sterling.
Quercus has also agreed a multi-year sales and distribution partnership with Random House Publisher Services, which will provide exclusive sales and distribution for all physical and digital titles in the US and Canada.
Quercus created the US list Silver Oak in an initial three year deal with Sterling, which launched in January 2011 with Three Seconds by Swedish authors Roslund & Hellström . But since then Barnes & Noble has put Sterling up for sale its chief executive Marcus Leaver has left to join Quarto in the UK. Quercus c.e.o. Mark Smith said that its agreement with Sterling would continue until "June 2013". He added: "It is business as usual until the agreement expires."

In a prepared statement, Smith said: "We have been planning this move into the US for some time now and see great opportunities in this most vibrant of markets. This is a start-up operation and we plan to take things one step at a time to grow our offering organically and learn, alongside our partners RHPS, what we as a company can bring to such an exciting marketplace. "Our team will focus on publishing commercial titles with broad appeal and giving each title and author the marketing, publicity and outreach support they will need to maximise their potential. We could not have a better partner than Random House and we look forward to a long and successful partnership."
The US list will include "a diverse mix" of 40 titles including commercial and literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, children's, non-fiction and giftbooks. The company highlighted titles including Roberto Constantini's The Deliverance of Evil and Philip Ziegler's biography of Laurence Olivier. Other titles on the list include Mikhail Shishkin's The Light and the Dark; Frank Schatzing's thriller Limit; and Gregory Hughes' children's book Unhooking the Moon.

 Jeff Abraham, president of RHPS, said: "We have followed Quercus' dramatic growth and success over the last few years and are impressed with their aggressive plans to expand into North America. The quality and breadth of their publishing program nicely complement those of our robust roster of clients. We look forward to working on this exciting new venture as Quercus' trusted full-service distribution partner."
Quercus intends to produce 125 titles in 2014, the first full year of the new partnership, rising to 200 during 2016.
Last month, the publisher revealed dips in profit and turnover in its interim results for the first half of the year, blaming declining sales of the Steig Larsson trilogy, and the success of the Fifty Shades series.


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