After announcing it would publish romance novels through a new imprint called Montlake, Amazon has unveiled its next genre imprint, Thomas & Mercer, which is focused on mysteries and thrillers. Thomas & Mercer will release its first four titles in Fall 2011: D.M. Annechino's Resuscitation, J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch's Stirred, Kyle Mills' The Immortals and John Rector's Already Gone. As with Montlake, Amazon will be releasing the titles as Kindle editions but also promises to place the books in stores by distributing them on its own.
The new imprint should come as no shock to those in the book community, as its rollout is part of the larger plans Amazon said it has for its publishing program. When the e-tailer announced Montlake, it said it would be expanding into category publishing in mystery, thriller and science fiction. Amazon called Thomas & Mercer its fifth imprint, addding it to AmazonEncore (the company's flagship, general imprint), AmazonCrossing (dedicated to literature in translation), Powered by Amazon (a self-publishing platform and less of an imprint per se) and Montlake.
