In a deal that more than doubles the number of titles it publishes, Fox Chapel Publishing has bought rights to 1,400 books from New Holland Publishers U.K. The deal includes Cadogan travel titles, cooking, gardening, craft, history, reference and lifestyle books. The deal does not include the New Holland series of natural history titles that Bloomsbury U.K. bought last year or the South African, New Zealand, and Australian assets of New Holland.
According to Fox Chapel president and publisher Alan Giagnocavo, the purchase moves the company, which has specialized in craft titles, into a number of new areas. To house the New Holland books, Fox Chapel is forming a new imprint, IMM Lifestyle Books, which will be under the director of editorial director Peg Couch. The first order of business, Giagnocavo said, is to bring back into print books that had fallen out-of-print. About 2/3 of the list is aimed on the U.S. with the balance directed towards the U.K. Over time, Giagnocavo said, he wants to offer all titles in the U.S. He also noted that many of the titles have not yet been released as e-books and he hopes to soon release about 100 titles in digital form. To help it launch the IMM Lifestyle Books imprint, Fox Chapel is looking to hire two editors in crafts and illustrated nonfiction.
Another part of the transition will involve moving the distribution of the books in the U.S., Effective June 1, distribution done by Midpoint will move to Fox Chapel and any titles distributed by Interlink will switch over to Fox Chapel September 1. Fox Chapel is looking to hire an international sales rep and add more representation to special accounts, Giagnocavo said.
"The New Holland is a wonderful line that has never been sold as such in North America. Between co-editions, one-offs and split distribution the books have appeared in a fragmented way in the past. With the new imprint of IMM Lifestyle Books, we'll attempt to fix that in the minds of both wholesale buyers and general readers," noted Ray Wolf, v-p of sales.
After Fox Chapel gets the existing New Holland books into the market, the company will look to acquire new books.
