Fox Chapel Publishing has completed a three-company shopping spree adding roughly 300 titles and continuing to broaden its reach in the DIY and hobbyist woodworking market. The largest acquisition was of Design Originals, a publisher of craft, sewing and beading titles. Fox Chapel acquired over 260 backlist titles from the Texas company, including Design Originals Zentangle series. Fox Chapel president and publisher Alan Giagnocavo said Fox Chapel will continue to operate Design Originals as an imprint from its Texas office.
The publisher has done 20 to 25 new titles annually but has had no distribution into the book trade. “We're going to focus very heavily initially on optimizing sales through the existing specialty stores and specialty craft distribution channels,” Giagnocavo said. “For the book, gift and library trade - these will essentially be brand new titles for them.” And since Design Originals had no digital offerings, Giagnocavo sees lots of growth opportunity in that market.
The second purchase was for the publishing arm of Heliconia Press and involved 17 book titles and 18 DVDs. Heliconia specializes in kayaking and other outdoor activities. The new editions will be reprinted as Fox Chapel books. The final purchase was of Plain White Press and included 12 parenting titles. Plain White Press founder Julie Trelstad will continue to work on new Plain White titles, which will be published under the Fox Chapel imprint. The company’s most successful project is the Simple Solutions for Busy Families series.
