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With a wide range of titles–including thrillers, women’s literature, children’s books, translated literary fiction, narrative and illustrated nonfiction, and sci-fi, fantasy, and horror–Quercus is launching its first U.S. list in September. The company aims to replicate its success in the U.K. by creating a publishing house here that is just as diverse in its offerings, with a mix of both U.S. and international titles. Quercus CEO Mark Smith said of the venture, “We are truly excited to be bringing both our new and established authors to this dynamic and fast-moving marketplace.”

Publishing director Richard Green said, “Quercus is starting with some 40 titles in the U.S. this fall.” Next year, Quercus will publish 90 titles here, with plans to publish an increasing number of titles over subsequent years. As Green put it, “We’re here for the duration. We have been planning this move for over two years and have carefully researched the market and listened to advice from a range of industry experts. The list has been carefully hand-picked for the North American market, and we will be supporting all our titles with substantial marketing and publicity campaigns.”

Eric Price

Nathaniel Marunas

The current publishing program consists of about two-thirds fiction, another third nonfiction. In time, the company aims to increase the number of American authors on the list to around half of the total. Smith said, “We want to keep an international flavor, take on American authors like Brian Freeman, Corban Addison and Richard North Patterson, as well as find debut authors here and nurture them.”

Random House Publisher Services is distributing Quercus in the U.S. and Canada. Both Smith and Green praised RHPS, noting that having to tie into the distributor’s systems and meet its deadlines has helped Quercus improve its own internal processes–lessons about business practices that it will take back to the U.K. “Random’s supply chain and inventory management systems are really impressive,” Green said. Smith added: “I’m surprised at how much they share. They’re very enlightened. They say, ‘If you’re successful, we’re successful.’ It really is a partnership.”

The Quercus team in the U.S. includes Eric Price, director of sales, marketing and publicity, who worked at Grove/Atlantic for more than 20 years, most recently as associate publisher and COO. Quercus associate publisher Nathaniel Marunas was executive editor-at-large at Sterling Publishing and before that was associate publisher at Black Dog & Leventhal. Anna Hezel is digital marketing manager and an editorial assistant. The team will expand, and Green promised, “You won’t hear a British accent. This is absolutely going to be an American operation.”

Quercus sees a lot of potential in the U.S. market. “We are well aware that these are challenging times for book publishers everywhere,” Green said. “But coming from a tough U.K. market, we see an enormous upside to operating in the U.S. This is a tremendous opportunity to establish a flexible and proactive publishing business in North America. We have amazing books, are hiring a great team, and will work closely with RHPS to develop the business into one that has scale, diversity and ambition.”

Read the Full Article at Shelf-Awareness: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2016#m20186

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy