Avon Calling

As I reported from CrimeFest last month, everyone seems to be releasing thrillers nowadays. That includes the Mills and Boon/Harlequin subsidiary Mira Books, which is launching a new Black Star Crime, as well as HarperCollins UK, which, according to The Bookseller, is doing something similar with its imprint Avon Books:

HarperCollins’ mass market imprint Avon will increase its publishing output by almost 20% over the next year, placing a greater focus on crime and thriller titles.

The publisher will raise the number of titles it publishes yearly to 42, up from 36, beginning this month (July). Since it entered the UK market last July, Avon has published one commercial fiction, one crime and thriller, and one contemporary romance novel per month.

The majority of the new titles will be crime and thriller novels, which editorial director Maxine Hitchcock said followed “the fantastic success” Avon has already had in the genre. “We feel there is room to grow further in this area,” she said. ...

Avon has also acquired three new authors to further its push into crime, including former James Patterson co-writer Peter de Jonge’s untitled début novel, which will be published in April 2009. Dagger Award nominee Laura Lippman’s next novel Life Sentences will also be published in spring 2009 ...

The full story can be found here.

READ MORE: “Mills and Boon Turns from Romance to Crime,” by Stephen Adams (The Daily Telegraph).