Simon & Schuster has unveiled a new imprint called Skybound Books, which its Atria division is launching in partnership with the multi-platform entertainment company Skybound Entertainment. The imprint will focus on science fiction, fantasy and horror titles.
Skybound, which was founded in 2010 by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert, has created a number of TV shows including those based on Kirkman's graphic fiction, such as The Walking Dead (on AMC) and Outcast (on Cinemax). The new Skybound imprint, which will publish four to six titles a year, will release original fiction and nonfiction, and works based on existing Skybound properties.
Michael Braff, formerly at Penguin Random House, will help oversee the new imprint as senior editor, based in Los Angeles. Braff will report to Sean Mackiewicz, senior v-p and editor-in-chief of Skybound Entertainment. Atria v-p and editor-in-chief Peter Borland and Atria senior editor Jhanteigh Kupihea will serve, S&S said, as editorial liaisons for the imprint.
Judith Curr, president and publisher of Atria, who negotiated the deal to launch the imprint, said the co-publishing partnership with Skybound "provides an opportunity to build a publishing home within Atria for writers with bold, new voices and creative visions.”
Skybound, has developed properties for gaming, digital media and, more recently, virtual reality. (Among other projects, Skybound produced the first--of-its-kind narrative VR series, called Gone, for Samsung.) Speaking to Skyboud's involvement with Atra, Kirkman, who is chairman of the company, said: "We are on a relentless search to find different ways to tell the stories from some of the most creative minds out there, and Skybound Books imprint is a very important component of that endeavor."
