To completely dispel the idea that it is a regional publisher, Harper San Francisco is changing its name to HarperOne. "We still get proposals to do California cookbooks," said Mark Tauber, deputy publisher of the house that specializes in religion, spirituality and personal growth. Frontlist titles bearing the new logo will start appearing in June and the new name will be added to backlist titles as they are reprinted.
To publicize the name change, as well as to commemorate its 30th anniversary, Harper has planned a seven-month campaign that will kick off at BookExpo America. A featured part of the promotion will be a special discount on 70 "classic" backlist titles. Harper is putting 12 of those books—including bestsellers The Alchemist, Mere Christianity, The World's Religions and Celebration of Discipline—in a display that it will begin offering to accounts in the fall.
The Harper California outpost went through several incarnations before settling on its current mix of titles around 1995. Harper SF now has about 26 employees, does 85 titles annually and has a strong-selling backlist of approximately 800 titles. "We're not a niche publisher. We do major bestsellers," Tauber said. The company is on a bit of a roll with the Oprah-anointed The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier now up to more than 900,000 copies in print, with Poitier's appearance on Oprah still to come. The Jesus Tomb, which asserts that Jesus' tomb has been found, received lots of media attention earlier this month, capped by a two-hour Discovery Channel presentation March 4. The title has 100,000 copies in print.
Other promotions for HarperOne include consumer and trade ads, an anniversary mailing to key accounts and the launch of a podcast program. In addition, Harper will initiate an annual award, the Huston Smith Publishing Prize, later this year. The award is named for the author of The World's Religions, which has sold more than two million copies since it was first released in 1958. Writers who have not been previously published by trade houses can submit completed manuscripts in November. Books will be judged on their effectiveness in promoting religious understanding. The winner will receive a $25,000 advance for a book to be published by HarperOne.
