Since acquiring U.K. publisher Carroll & Brown’s parenting list in June 2014, Octopus Publishing Group has been planning the relaunch of several of those titles in the U.S. This spring, the first C&B books will be released under Octopus’s Hamlyn imprint.
Four books in Hamlyn’s new pregnancy and parenting series will be published in June, with two following in July and another in August. Initial offerings include Your New Pregnancy Bible, which Octopus group publishing director Denise Bates, who is based in the U.K., says has more than one million copies in print worldwide. Four more releases are planned for 2016; titles are being prioritized, Bates says, according to their sales records and the continued relevance of their themes.
Covers have been revamped, except for marquee titles Your New Pregnancy Bible and Your Babycare Bible. “The cover design has remained constant on these [titles] throughout their various editions and is part of their identity, so we are retaining the C&B design,” Bates says. But none of the books will be referred to as Carroll & Brown titles, she adds.
C&B books have been available in the U.S. before, most recently through a 2012 deal with Midpoint Trade. That same year, Weldon Owen published a version of Your Babycare Bible adapted for the U.S. market. Octopus bought back the rights to that paperback co-edition and will be publishing its updated version in hardcover. New York City pediatrician Harold Raucher, credited as general editor on Weldon Owen’s edition of Your Babycare Bible, retains that role for Hamlyn on the updated edition.
Hamlyn is working closely with other U.S.-based authors and editors too, so even though the books did not require major work to suit a U.S. audience, Bates says several titles have been updated to reflect, for instance, the most current medical guidelines and a more active role for fathers; the July title A Dad’s Guide to Babycare, she points out, no longer assumes that the mother is the stay-at-home parent.
Marketing plans, which have not yet been finalized, will be comprehensive. “We’re implementing wide media outreach across all channels, including the all-important mommy bloggers, to gain exposure to the parenting community,” says Elizabeth Hermann, who oversees U.S. publicity and marketing for Octopus. Efforts will focus on the books’ track records and highlight the updates and new editions.
