Atria Co-Founds Imprint for Internet Entertainers

Shelf Awareness

Simon & Schuster's Atria Publishing Group and United Talent Agency have founded Keywords Press, an imprint that will publish books by Internet entertainers, the New York Times reported. The focus is on YouTube stars, and already Keywords has signed deals with Shane Dawson, Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine), Connor Franta, Joey Graceffa and Shay Butler, creator of the ShayTards, who together have, the Times said, "about 20 million YouTube subscribers and have posted videos generating two billion views."

Atria president and publisher Judith Curr said that Keywords will publish six to 10 titles a year, ranging from "serious to comedic, fiction to nonfiction, practical advice to personal memoir. Not to be too grand about it, but books are coming to YouTube for the first time. It gives us access to a whole new talent pool."

Most Keywords books will be crowdsourced, and the publishing process should be much faster than for traditional books.

Asked about her book, future author Ezarik said, "I have so many random, behind-the-scenes stories to tell, and I really want it to be inspirational. But I also want to know what my fans want my book to be like." She added that she hopes the book will be successful enough to turn into a movie or TV series.