Nearly six months after the Perseus Books Group dismantled its Perseus Publishing imprint and divided the list between Da Capo Press in Cambridge, Mass., which took the parenting, health and relationship books, and Basic Books, which took the science, business and general nonfiction, the reorganization on the Da Capo side is almost complete.
To separate out the former Perseus titles, many of which date back to the purchase of Addison-Wesley's trade division in 1997, and add new books in those categories, Da Capo is forming the Da Capo Lifelong Books imprint.
"While we pride ourselves on being eclectic, we didn't want to confuse the issue," Da Capo publisher John Radziewicz told PW. "Da Capo Lifelong Books is the inheritance from two fine programs: Perseus Publishing and Addison-Wesley. One of the reasons we wanted to do this imprint is to signal to accounts and readers that this is not just being folded in. To me, the difference between Da Capo and Da Capo Lifelong is that Da Capo books are descriptive, while Lifelong books are prescriptive."
The imprint launches with the winter 2004 list and will comprise approximately one quarter of the 100 titles Da Capo publishes annually. The first Da Capo Lifelong list includes a new edition of the bestseller, Your Pregnancy Week by Week, which will kick off with an initial print run of 200,000 copies, and two new books in pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton's year-old The Brazelton Way series. Da Capo Lifelong will also include some books published under Merloyd Lawrence's eponymous imprint, as well as books acquired by senior editor Marnie Cochran.
