Random House Announces "Digital Only" Publishing Venture

And they all told me e-books would never go anywhere four years ago. Not Random House exactly, but someone who worked closely with editors at Random House and other large publishers.

And am I glad I didn’t listen to THEM. For those who don’t know, e-publishing was basically being laughed at four years ago on almost all publishing blogs. The mainstream media didn’t even mention it. Digital only was a huge joke. And most of those in trad publishing who didn’t see the trend toward e-books coming must be shocked to see something like this announcement from Random House.

I got this directly from my inbox, from a publishing insider who knows what he’s talking about. I’ve seen it announced in a few other places, so I’m not telling tales out of proverbial school. Basically, it’s nothing new even though they make is sound as if they’ve just invented Hostess Twinkies. They make it sound as if publishing digital only “shorts” is something new, and we all know e-publishers have been doing this for years now.

I’m happy to see that trad publishers like Random House are noticing the shift toward digital books, but I’m also a little annoyed that they will all be moving in on territory smaller e-publishers have pioneered for them. And when I say pioneered I’m not joking around. It’s not easy to stick to something you believe in while all the so-called “professionals” are laughing at you.

So before you jump into buying something from Random House, or any other large publisher, don’t forget all about the smaller e-publishers and authors who’ve been working hard to give you digital only books for the past decade. They knew what you wanted and they gave it to you.

  THE RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP
ANNOUNCES NEW DIGITAL-ONLY IMPRINTS
NEW YORK, NY – November 29, 2012: Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of The Random House Publishing Group (RHPG), announced today the launch of three new genre-fiction digital-exclusive imprints: Alibi (mystery/thriller); Hydra (science fiction); Flirt (YA/New Adult) and an expanded list under the recently re-launched Loveswept (romance). A fully-dedicated editorial, marketing, and publicity team will support each publishing program.
The Loveswept publishing program—an imprint comprised of new digital-original and classic romance titles—was re-launched in 2011. Since then, new authors have been acquired and launched under the imprint, and new digital-original titles have been published each month. Building on this success, the digital-only program will be expanded to include the popular mystery/thriller, new adult, and science fiction/fantasy genres.
“There are many readers out there looking for exactly what Loveswept offers—compelling characters and great stories published frequently at an affordable price,” said Centrello. “We are thrilled to expand this program.”

The new imprint program will be overseen by Allison Dobson, Vice President, Digital Publishing Director, working with Scott Shannon, Senior Vice President, Publisher, Digital Content and Matt Schwartz, Vice President, Director of Digital Strategy.

Gina Wachtel, Vice President, Associate Publisher will oversee the editorial team, including Sue Grimshaw, Editor-at-Large, Romance, Randall Klein, Associate Editor, Mystery and Thriller, and Sarah Peed, Associate Editor, Science Fiction and Fantasy.

“As publishing continues to evolve, with more authors finding their first home in digital, our challenge is to create new ways for readers to discover books,” said Dobson. “This dedicated team understands both the content and medium, and can effectively break out authors in the digital space.” For a closer look at this exciting new program, visit http://www.atrandom.com/eoriginals.
RHPG continues to innovate digital publishing with a variety of groundbreaking and successful projects, including the POLITICO Playbook Election eBook series and the enormously successful e-shorts program, featuring bestselling digital e-shorts by Lee Child, Dean Koontz, Karin Slaughter, and many more.
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