Hyperion will team up with Time Warner Trade Publishing to launch an audio division, Hyperion AudioBooks, this fall. The two publishers are also working together to form Hyperion eBooks, which will release e-books beginning in July.
Jill Sansone, director of subsidiary rights and special markets for Hyperion, will head both divisions, working closely with Maja Thomas, executive director of Time Warner AudioBooks, and Claire Zion, editorial director of TWTP's iPublish.com division. Time Warner, which already distributes Hyperion books, will handle production, sales and distribution for the audiobook operation, while iPublish.com will distribute Hyperion's e-titles.
The audio unit, which will release 10 to 12 titles a year, plans to coordinate the marketing and packaging of audio versions of lead Hyperion titles with the book versions. Titles slated for the first list include Don't Sweat the Small Stuff titles by Kristine Carlson and Richard Carlson; The Best Loved Poems of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; Extreme Success by Survivor TV producer Mark Burnett; and two new novels by Candace Bushnell.
The e-book unit will publish about five titles each month in a variety of formats. The debut list will include Shopgirl by Steve Martin, When You Get to a Fork in the Road, Take It by Yogi Berra and Special Agent by Candice DeLong.
