After a 17 year affiliation that began in1998 when Farrar, Straus and Giroux bought a controlling interest in Faber and Faber’s Boston subsidiary, the two companies have ended their formal agreement.
Effective immediately, FSG will no longer publish new titles under the Faber and Faber Inc. imprint. Mitzi Angel, the New York-based publisher of Faber and Faber Inc., will now have the title v-p and executive editor at FSG, publishing her authors and and acquiring new projects, under the FSG banner.
Stephen Page, chief executive of the U.K.-based Faber and Faber Ltd., said that while the partnership had worked well, the changing publishing business climate made it necessary for Faber to look for a different approach to the U.S. The market for English-language publishing, Page said, “has become increasingly global and digital, and it has become important for us, as a U.K.-based publisher, to be able to operate under our strong brand in all English language markets." He added that "of course, the United States is the largest of these.” Faber is expected to announce its new plans in the U.S. shortly.
Faber and Faber has been best known for its performing arts list. Although under Angel the imprint has had success with literary fiction, including David Means’s The Spot, Paul Murray’s Skippy Dies, and Ben Lerner’s 10:04. In recent years, the imprint has also published a distinguished nonfiction list. All new titles currently under contract to Faber and Faber, Inc., will become FSG titles, and FSG will retain the rights to all previously published Faber titles, which will migrate to the FSG colophon over the next 18 months.
