Polis Books Is Fini

I only just received this news from In Reference to Murder:

It’s a tough game out there in the publishing world, and thus it’s not too surprising when indie publishing companies go under. The latest is Polis Books, founded in 2013 by Jason Pinter (an editor, agent, and author himself, [his works] including the Henry Parker thriller series), which announced it was closing its doors. Polis started out with a strong focus on crime fiction and has published works by Patricia Abbott, Rob Hart, Steph Post, J.D. Rhoades, Alex Segura, Clea Simon, Lily Wang, and others. As Pinter noted on social media, the company was able to find new homes for a fairly large portion of its list, with several publishers expressing interest, “and we were able to re-home a number of great books.”

Agora Books, an imprint Polis added to its line in 2019, and which focused on “socially and culturally unique crime fiction and horror,” has also been shuttered. Agora editor Chantelle Aimée Osman has moved over to become acquisitions editor at Lake Union Publishing.