Atria Publishing Group

Last updated

Atria Publishing Group
Atria Publishing Group Logo.svg
Parent company Simon & Schuster
Founded2002
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location Simon & Schuster Building
New York City
Publication typesBooks
Imprints Below
Owner(s) Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Official website www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/atria/

Atria Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster. The publishing group launched as Atria Books in 2002. The Atria Publishing Group was later created internally at Simon & Schuster to house a number of imprints including Atria Books, Atria Trade Paperbacks, Atria Books Espanol, Atria Unbound, Washington Square Press, Emily Bestler Books, Atria/Beyond Words, Cash Money Content, Howard Books, Marble Arch Press, Strebor Books, 37 Ink, Keywords Press and Enliven Books. [1] Atria is also known for creating innovative imprints and co-publishing deals with African-American writers as well as known for experimenting with digital or non-traditional print formats and authors.

Contents

As of 2021, Libby McGuire is the Publisher and Senior Vice President of the Atria Publishing Group. [2]

Early years

The Atria Books imprint was launched in 2002 by Judith Curr. [2] According to a Publishers Weekly interview with Curr marking the imprint's 10th anniversary, the name Atria is "plural for a place where things grow and flourish." [3] Curr wanted a name that embodied their intentions to build a bridge between the reader and the writer. [4] Because she was starting a new business inside an old established one (Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924), Curr also gave it an "A" name so it "would be at the top of everyone's memo and everything is in alphabetical order at a publisher." [4]

In 2005, Simon & Schuster acquired Strebor Books International and publisher of popular fiction by African-American writers including Black Erotica by Zane. [5] [6] Zane would remain the publisher of the imprint with an office in Maryland. [6] [7] The publisher had been founded independently in 1999. [6] In 2013 it was announced that publisher Kristina Laferne Roberts had declared bankruptcy. [8]

In 2009, Atria was the first publisher to partner with Vook. Curr took on publishing the first four of them as she wanted to integrate digital practices into Atria. Curr recognized that digital and traditional printing practices would go "hand in glove." [4] The work with Vook lead to the creation of the Atria Smartbook—a physical piece of paper with QR codes throughout the text for enhanced content. [4] Curr told the Digital Book World, "every week I get a report that tells me how many people have interacted with those pieces of content. And now I've got this whole idea of how to turn the book itself into a store." [4]

2010s

Atria Books publishes a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction and strives to publish a diverse set of books and authors. This includes programs for diverse voices, Internet personalities and self-published authors with proven track records. [4] In some cases, an editor is given their own imprint with their name on it as with Emily Bestler in 2011. [4]

In 2011, Atria signed a co-publishing deal with Cash Money Records founders Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams for an imprint called Cash Money Content. Birdman's intention was to cross-promote books at music events. The imprint is headquartered in Miami. [9]

As of 2012, 25% of the Atria Books list of 98 titles was part of an African-American publishing program overseen by Malaika Adero, Vice President and Senior Editor. [3] [10] Notable authors include Walter Mosley, Faria Chideya, Blair Underwood and Vickie Stringer. [3] Strebor Books an imprint founded in 1999 by author Zane is also under the Atria Publishing Group. [3] In an interview on NPR, Adero described the African-American market for books as quite varied. [11] Atria Books Espanol publishes titles aimed at Hispanic readers in both English and Spanish. [3]

In 2012, Simon & Schuster reorganized their adult publishing imprints into four main groups with Atria Publishing as one main group. Howard, a religious imprint based in Nashville was placed under the Atria Publishing Group. [4]

In 2012, Atria partnered with the UK publisher Short Books' list to form Marble Arch Press to introduce international authors to American readers. [10]

In 2013, Atria Publishing Group launched 37 INK to focus on a diverse list of books and authors including a focus on African-American voices. [12]

In 2014, Atria Books launched Keywords Press to publish books by Internet personalities. The first set of authors included YouTube personalities, Shay Butler (aka ShayCarl), Shane Dawson, Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine), Connor Franta and Joey Graceffa. The launch was part of a deal between Atria Books and United Talent Agency (UTA) who represents a number of Internet personalities. [13] Curr stated that many of the books from the imprint would be crowdsourced with authors working directly with their fans. [13] The New York Times called the move an "acknowledgement by traditional media companies that YouTube celebrities are more than just niche entertainmers with quirky appeal, and can be marketed to a broader audience. [14]

Atria Books demonstrated in 2014 its ability to build a bridge between the reader and the writer. Fans of Colleen Hoover, a romance author, took to social media and successfully persuaded Atria Books to publish a free e-novella by Hoover into a print book. Atria Books had received 5,000 tweets, posts and memes under the #FindingCinderella campaign. [15]

Atria Books has also focused on finding and publishing successful self-published authors. In 2013, they signed 18 books by 8 self-published authors. Atria signs on a self-published author, reworks the previously published ebook if necessary, and then republishes them in new e-book and paperback editions. [16] When looking for at a potential author they look at how emotionally connected the online reviews are with the storyline and characters. [16]

In 2015, Atria launched Crave (ThisIsCrave.com), an application and subscription service for romance readers where subscribers receive one audio installment from a book each day. [17]

Atria also launched Enliven Books in 2015, an imprint launched from author and tea entrepreneur, Zhena Muzyka, and focused on publishing spiritual and wellness books. Muzyka runs the publishing imprint from a yurt in Ojai, California. [18] Muzkya reported to Publishers Weekly that the name for the imprint was the result of a phone call with her mother. Her mother told her, "As soon as you hang up the phone you are going to hear a word in your head." Muzkya said that the first word she heard was Enliven which means "to add color, to uplift." [18]

Imprints

Notable authors

The following are notable authors who publish under Atria Books. A more detailed list of authors can be found at List of Simon & Schuster Authors.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regnery Publishing</span> Conservative book publisher based in Washington, D.C

Regnery Publishing is a politically conservative book publisher based in Washington, D.C. The company was founded by Henry Regnery in 1947,. In December 2023, Regnery was acquired from Salem Media Group by Skyhorse Publishing, with Skyhorse president Tony Lyons becoming Regnery's publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farrar, Straus and Giroux</span> American book publishing company

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, and Nobel Prizes. As of 2016 the publisher is a division of Macmillan, whose parent company is the German publishing conglomerate Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon & Schuster</span> American publishing company

Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017 Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

Macmillan Publishers is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. Founded in London in 1843 by Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander MacMillan, the firm would soon establish itself as a leading publisher in Britain. It published two of the best-known works of Victorian era children's literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Scribner's Sons</span> American publisher

Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon Holmes, Don DeLillo, and Edith Wharton.

Harlequin Enterprises ULC is a romance and women's fiction publisher founded in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1949. From the 1960s, it grew into the largest publisher of romance fiction in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Connolly (author)</span> Irish author, primarily of detective fiction

John Connolly is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.

Zane is the pseudonym of Kristina Laferne Roberts, author of erotic fiction novels. She is best known for her novel Addicted.

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Group. HBG was formed when Hachette Livre purchased the Time Warner Book Group from Time Warner on March 31, 2006. Its headquarters are located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hachette is considered one of the "big five" publishing companies, along with Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. In one year, HBG publishes approximately 1400+ adult books, 300 books for young readers, and 450 audiobook titles. In 2017, the company had 167 books on the New York Times bestseller list, 34 of which reached No. 1.

Diane Setterfield is an English author whose 2006 debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, became a New York Times No. 1 best-seller. Setterfield won the 2007 Quill Award, debut author of the year, for the novel. It is written in the Gothic tradition, with echoes of Brontë sisters' Jane Eyre (1847) and Wuthering Heights (1847).

Aladdin Paperbacks is one of several children's-book imprints owned by Simon & Schuster. It was established by Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Books where she was the founding director of the children's department (1961). Atheneum merged with or was acquired by Scribner's in 1978, then Macmillan in 1984, before the acquisition by Simon & Schuster in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atheneum Books</span> New York City publishing house

Atheneum Books was a New York City publishing house established in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr., Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn. Simon & Schuster has owned Atheneum properties since its acquisition of Macmillan in 1994 and it created Atheneum Books for Young Readers as an imprint for children's books in the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skyhorse Publishing</span> American independent book publishing company

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Threshold Editions is an imprint of book publisher Simon & Schuster, a division of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, specializing in conservative non-fiction. The imprint was co-founded by Mary Matalin, serving as its first editor-in-chief, and Louise Burke, who served as publisher until 2017.

Pronoun was a New York–based company that provided free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvel Press</span> Prose novel imprint for Marvel Comics

Marvel Press is the prose novel imprint for Marvel Comics jointly published with Disney Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penguin Random House</span> American multinational conglomerate publishing company

Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was originally founded in 1935 and Random House was founded in 1927. It has more than 300 publishing imprints. Along with Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers.

John A. Glusman is vice president and executive editor at W. W. Norton and Company, the largest independent, employee-owned publisher in the United States, and the author of Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945.

37 INK is an American publisher launched in 2013 focusing on a diverse list including African American authors. It is an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Gallery Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster which houses the imprints Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Scout Press, Gallery 13, and Saga Press.

References

  1. "About Us | Atria Books". www.simonandschusterpublishing.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "About Us: Libby McGuire". www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/atria. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Reid, Calvin (September 9, 2011). "Atria Books Marks Ten Years". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Atria Publisher Judith Curr: Publishers Need to Experiment With Digital Content - Digital Book World". Digital Book World. January 9, 2013. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017. I started Atria with the idea that I wanted to have a name that embodied our intentions. I wanted to create an environment where my authors and my staff could grow and flourish. I wanted to be a bridge between the reader and the writer and I wanted to have books that added purpose to people's lives. And I had to start up a new business inside of a very well-established one. So it was a very good idea to be on top of everyone's memo and everything is in alphabetical order at a publisher.
  5. "Strebor Books International LLC: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Joyner, Tom (July 31, 2013). "Erotica Mogul Zane Keeps it Coming With New Book, Movie, And Even A Pill". Majic 102.1. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  7. Patrick, Diane (December 9, 2011). "Partnership Models and the African-American Book Market". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  8. Brown, DeNeen L. "Author Zane filed for bankruptcy as her new movie, 'Addicted,' was in production". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
  9. "Partnership Models and the African-American Book Market". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017. I wanted to structure something compatible with my record company," he told PW. "Everything I do with music, I cross-support with the books.
  10. 1 2 "Atria Books Vice President Malaika Adero talks books - JETmag.com". JetMag.com. November 15, 2012. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  11. "Roundtable: Black Authors in Spotlight". NPR.org. February 20, 2006. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  12. "New Davis Imprint Named 37 Ink". PublishersWeekly.com. June 29, 2013. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  13. 1 2 Sun, Rebecca (May 22, 2014). "UTA, Atria Books Partner to Launch Publishing Imprint for Digital Celebrities". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  14. Barnes, Brooks (May 21, 2014). "Media Companies Join to Extend the Brands of YouTube Stars". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  15. Flood, Alison (January 31, 2014). "Colleen Hoover fans press publisher into print version of ebook". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  16. 1 2 Rinehart, Dianne (December 27, 2013). "2013: The year of self-publishing". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  17. "Atria Books Teams with Paragraph to Launch Crave, A New Way to Read". News and Corporate Information about Simon & Schuster, Inc. November 30, 2015. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  18. 1 2 Gross, Anisse (March 20, 2015). "Atria Forms New Spirituality Imprint". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  19. Garrett, Lynn (December 13, 2013). "Beyond Words Turns 30". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  20. Turner, Tina (February 1, 2020). "Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good". Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  21. Gerard, Jeremy (August 23, 2016). "On Eve Of 'Ove' Film Release, Novelist Fredrik Backman Deals Four New Works To Atria Books". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  22. Kellogg, Carolyn (March 9, 2015). "Isabel Allende moves to Atria". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on December 7, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  23. "Bestselling Author Jennifer Weiner to Publish Four More Books With Atria & Launch Middle Grade Trilogy With Aladdin Books | Children's Book Council". www.cbcbooks.org. November 9, 2015. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  24. "S&S to Launch Emily Bestler Books Imprint at Atria". PublishersWeekly.com. February 8, 2011. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  25. "Rachael Ray Signs Three Book Deal With Atria Books". Readers Read. January 10, 2012. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.