Little, Brown has made changes to its Jimmy Patterson Books imprint, the children’s publishing unit created by the company and its mega-selling author James Patterson five years ago.
Under the reorganization, the imprint will focus on publishing Patterson’s children’s books as well as looking for collaborations and partnerships. When the imprint released its first titles in March 2016, its goal was to publish titles by Patterson—often with collaborators—as well as to publish books written by different authors. As a result of the switch in publishing philosophy, however, titles by other authors acquired by the Jimmy Patterson team since the imprint's launch will now be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as Jimmy Patterson Books, “with James Patterson’s full engagement and support,” LB said in a statement. No new outside authors will be acquired for the imprint. One Jimmy Patterson staff member will be leaving the company later this year.
The first Jimmy Patterson book written by an outside author was Stalking Jack the Ripper, a debut YA novel by Kerri Maniscalco, which was published in September 2016 and became a bestselling series. Other YA titles published by the imprint include Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, You're Next by Kylie Schachte, and 96 Words for Love by Rachel Roy and Ava Dash.
The most recent release from the Jimmy Patterson imprint was Becoming Muhammad Ali by Patterson and Kwame Alexander. Published October 5, the hardcover edition made PW's children's fiction list at #20 after its first week of publication.
