Twelve, an imprint at Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, got its name from its publishing mission: to turn out 12 books a year—one book each month, no more, no less. Each Twelve book would be carefully chosen and would receive “boutique” attention by all on staff for one full month. Twelve books would be given the best chance possible to succeed in the competitive, cutthroat bookstore world.
The vision of publishing veteran Jonathan Karp, who moved over to Simon & Schuster as publisher last year, Twelve is now headed by Cary Goldstein, who earned his publishing chops in the publicity department at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. “Even there,” Goldstein says, “with its highly focused list, I’d work on six or seven books in a four-month period, and one would have longer legs than the others, the best opportunity to break out, and you didn’t have a choice but to put your energy with the book that would have the best chance.”
Goldstein embraces Karp’s vision and is committed to a highly selective list, but he also sees a crucial change for the imprint. It’s still 12 books a year, but not necessarily one per month, Goldstein says. “Last fall we did Christopher Hitchens’s Arguably, a collection of essays, in the same month as Stéphane Hessel’s Time for Outrage (Indignez-vous!), a tiny book. One was 7,000 words long, the other 800 pages long. We did both in September. I want the flexibility to move books to where I think they belong.”
Another change, Goldstein says, will be a greater emphasis on literary fiction. Among Twelve’s forthcoming novels are Amity Gaige’s Schroder (Feb.), which recounts the seven days a father spends on the road with his daughter after kidnapping her during a parental visit, and Howard Anderson’s Albert of Adelaide (July), which has a platypus as its protagonist. “Gaige is the real deal,” Goldstein says. “She will appeal to mainstream fiction readers, but she also has serious literary credibility.” Albert is “a gender-bending debut.... I’m passionate about literary fiction. I’d like to make 25% of our books fiction.”
Another change is Goldstein’s plan to introduce more e-publishing. “This will be apart from our 12 titles,” he says. “Magazine length or books that are in-between lengths, on topical subjects, and by writers on our list or not. Books we can turn around quickly on relevant issues in the news. This is a great environment for that kind of publishing program. We’re just getting this off the ground.”
Goldstein compares Twelve to an indie record label, with the support of formidable publishing house Hachette. “We have incredible backing but can publish more guerrilla style. We have a very porous environment that allows for a unique, intimate, collaborative environment. Agent, author, publicity manager, editor—everybody’s involved from beginning to end. This kind of publishing environment was Karp’s vision, and that won’t change. We are people working together, not pumping product through a machine.”
Publisher Cary Goldstein and associate publisher Brian McLendon will be on hand each day at the Hachette booth (3621–3626) to talk about the fall list, which includes not only Schroder and Albert of Adelaide (there will be galley giveaways of both) but also Christopher Hitchens’s Mortality (Sept.), about his ordeal with esophageal cancer. “This is an important book for his readers and for the imprint,” says McLendon. “Hitchens represents the best of what we hope to do—create some kind of larger public conversation. Nobody could get people talking like Hitchens. All three books are representative of what we stand for.”
