Simon & Schuster’s religious imprint Howard Books has signed a multi-book world rights deal co-publishing agreement with bestselling Christian fiction author Karen Kingsbury. The deal, negotiated by Becky Nesbitt, v-p and editor in chief of Howard Books and Rick Christian, president of Alive Communications, involves 10 books with the first to be released in June 2012.
Kingsbury’s most recent novel, Unlocked, was released last October by Zondervan. She has published more than 50 novels during her career with 15 million copies in print. S&S said the co-publishing deal is similar to ones it has made with Glenn Beck, Stephen King and Dave Ramsey. “With this agreement Simon & Schuster has shown a tremendous commitment to me, my reader friends and my fiction,” said Kingsbury in a statement. “I am thrilled to be working with such a talented team and the novels ahead will be some of my biggest and best ever.” “This partnership signifies our dedication to bringing quality fiction to the marketplace,” noted Jonathan Merkh, v-p and publisher of Howard Books.
Under the agreement, mass market paperback editions of Kingsbury’s books will be released by Pocket Books. Simon & Schuster Audio will produce the audio editions.
