Perseus Books, the former trade arm of Addison Wesley Longman, has left its previous life behind in more ways than one. Acquired by the Perseus Books Group 18 months ago, Perseus has moved even further from its suburban Boston roots by taking office space with the group's newly acquired Da Capo Press in Technology Square in Cambridge, Mass. Just minutes away from both MIT and Harvard, the new offices bring the two imprints, which together represent the largest segment of the Perseus Books Group's revenues, closer to their authors and collaborators, such as Henry Louis Gates Jr., editorial director of Perseus's Basic Civitas Books imprint.
According to David G hring, v-p and publisher of Perseus Books, the reason for the move "wasn't just that we needed new offices. I could have rented space in the suburbs. It was a strategic decision. We were missing connections. We really had to be here." To illustrate his point, he cited an MIT lecture held just days after the move in honor of Richard Feynman, whose newest collection of pieces, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, was just released. For G hring, it means he and his staff are now within walking distance of such energizing events.
Looking back over Perseus's first 25 years, G hring singles out a number of important titles, ranging from the company's very first book, Born to Win: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt Experiments by Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward, published in 1975, to Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, by H.G. Bissinger, which will be reissued as a Da Capo paperback next year.
"We have some great books here," said G hring, "but they're all over the map. Three years ago we decided to concentrate on business, science, the triumvirate of health, parenting and psychology, and general narrative nonfiction." He characterizes today's Perseus releases-some 100 to 110 books annually-as "strong, solid midlist books. Many sell a lot beyond midlist, but they certainly were bought with that idea."
Looking ahead, G hring is especially excited about this fall's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. The title serves as "our slogan here," he remarked, referring not just to Perseus but to the group as a whole. Other books on the Perseus winter list include three business titles: The Arc of Ambition by James Champy and Nitin Nohria; Simplicity by Bill Jensen and The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine et al. In fall 2000, the company will publish, under the Merloyd Lawrence imprint, a comprehensive encyclopedia called The Parents' Guide to Children's Health, written in conjunction with Children's Hospital in Boston.
The now Cambridge-based Da Capo Press is also about to mark its 25th anniversary. It, too, began publishing in 1975, and will issue its first list as a member of the Perseus Books Group this winter. Among its initial releases are a paperback original by Christopher Sandford, Springsteen, and the paperback reissue of Gary Giddins's Riding on a Blue Note.
G hring, who was instrumental in the acquisition of both the Plenum backlist and Da Capo Press, oversees the imprint. John Radziewicz, v-p and publisher of Da Capo, who reports to G hring, regards his mandate for the newest member of the group as "upgrading the look of the books and the marketing of the books. While we're able to cover Da Capo's two core areas-performing arts and history-we're poised to fit into the interests of the whole Perseus Books Group. All three of us," said Radziewicz, referring to himself, marketing director Kevin Hanover, and art director Steve Cooley (senior editor Andrea Schulz is based in New York), "were with Mariner Books at Houghton Mifflin. What we're intending to do is to bring that same panache to Da Capo. What Da Capo did, we will do, and we will also do selected hardcovers."
Da Capo will begin by publishing roughly 65 to 70 books over the coming year, before growing to the same size as Perseus, or 100 titles annually. "We are respecting every contract struck by the old Da Capo," said Radziewicz. "If something was almost under contract, we're continuing that, too."
Although Radziewicz acknowledged that the imprint will reach out to national accounts, he credits independent booksellers with making Da Capo "a name to reckon with in jazz, theater and film." With the Perseus Book Group's new sales structure in place (News, Oct. 4) and the recent move, both Perseus Books and Da Capo are ready to begin a push for the next quarter century as what CEO and president Jack McKeown calls the "unconglomerates."
