Literary commentators within
the Crime and Thriller community had seen Severn
House as a key specialist publisher over the years develop their position.
They had absorbed the smaller Crème
de la Crime publisher, enhancing their niche, one that was focused
toward high quality hardcovers, especially historical crime and thriller fiction.
Their market was
developed by flamboyant Chairman Edwin Buckhalter right from the company’s
origins in 1974, focused on what is termed the ‘mid-list’, though Severn House
is better known for its UK library and hardcover output, it should also be
noted that ~70% of its sales come from its US publication catalogue. I knew
much of their US Wing, due to Edwin’s appearances and Severn House’s presence
at Bouchercon
[the annual world crime and mystery convention] and other US literary events.
It was with
surprise that we learned last year of Severn
House’s sale to the eclectic and energetic Scottish independent publisher Canongate lead by Jamie Byng. This is an
exciting development due to the strength and brand presence of Canongate, who
publish high quality fiction, and are not defined by the perimeters of genre
classification. They also have an impressive paperback presence in the market,
which Severn House didn’t – as Edwin Buckhalter’s business devoted themselves to
lower print-run, high quality and distinctive hardcovers.
Though since the
acquisition, the Severn House list would become an imprint within Canongate,
and retain a distinction, in that it would focus on Quality Crime, Mystery,
Historical and Thriller Fiction. The imprint would be named BLACK
THORN and be managed separately from parent Canongate, as reported in The
Bookseller last Autumn –
Canongate is to launch a new crime fiction imprint called Black
Thorn in May 2019, following its acquisition of fiction publisher Severn House
in 2017.
Publishing a wide range of titles from Severn House’s list into
paperback for the first time, Black Thorn will release two of the list's
paperbacks each month and simultaneously around the world. This will be the
first time that many of these Severn House titles have been available to the
trade. The imprint will be managed by publishing coordinator Holly Domney, who
has moved from her role within Severn House.
Read More HERE
I was delighted
to hear that Kate
Lyall-Grant would continue as Commissioning Editor, as her experience and
keen eye has always provided readers with high-quality crime and thrillers,
both from Severn House, and in her previous positions within publishing.
So it was with
pleasure that I received an invitation from Sophie Ransom and Jason Bartholomew
of MIDAS to join Jamie Byng and the
team at Canongate for an excellent ‘high tea’ in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia,
London to launch this exciting new Crime & Thriller Imprint from Canongate,
Black
Thorn (following their acquisition of Severn House).
Among the
invited guests were Natasha
Cooper, Marcel
Berlins, Jon Coates, Barry
Forshaw and Mike
Stotter.
And also in
attendance were the authors bringing the first four books to Black Thorn -
Catherine O’Connell for
‘The Last Night Out’ (May)
David Hewson for ‘The Savage Shore’ (May)
Simon Brett for ‘The Liar in The Library’
(June)
Caro Ramsay
for ‘The Suffering of Strangers’ (June)
Jamie Byng said,
“When we were assessing Severn House as a
possible acquisition, one of the many exciting opportunities that we felt it
offered was the launch of a commercial fiction paperback list, drawing from
Severn House’s outstanding roster of books and authors. So, I am thrilled that
we are now able to share our plans for Black Thorn which we believe is going to
be a great success and which adds a distinctive new strand to Canongate’s
publishing output.”
The new imprint
will be managed by Holly
Domney as Publishing Coordinator, who has moved from her role within Severn
House.
Holly said, “The authors on the Black Thorn list are
crime writing veterans and their experience shows in the quality of their stories.
Catherine O’Connell’s The Last Night Out was so gripping I nearly missed my
train stop. Simon Brett’s The Liar in the Library made me laugh out loud. The
variety of titles within Black Thorn’s catalogue will feed the hungriest of
crime fiction readers who need to devour one mystery, then reach for the next
one.”
Read More HERE
It was good to meet
up with Jamie
Byng as I had been a strong supporter of Canongate, from those early days
in the 1990s. Of particular enthusiasm, was my love of Doug Winter’s extraordinary
novel Run, as well as Canongate’s eclectic range of great writing that they
published over the years. I also remarked on how pleased readers were that they
kept the late William
McIlvanney’s Jack Laidlaw novels in print.
So,
as we arrived at Charlotte Street, we mingled over high tea, discussing this
exciting new initiative, and before long we took our seats and listened to
Jamie Byng outline what we could expect from Black Thorn, which we present here
in an exclusive video of the event, filmed in ‘gonzo style’ on my trusty Iphone,
Steven Soderbergh style, like that director’s
movie UNSANE
It
runs 26 minutes, and is embedded below, and available from this link HERE and includes the four authors talking
about their work, the first novels to be released under the Black Thorn imprint
-
Following
this Jamie Byng asked if we had any questions, for which Marcel Berlins queried
if Black Thorn would restrict their output to purely Crime and Thriller Fiction.
Byng replied that, that was the initial intention, as Canongate published
widely but he and his colleagues would see how the Black Thorn imprint developed.
Barry Forshaw asked if Jamie Byng had any plans for Horror Fiction, and again
Byng remarked he was very open, as he published good writing.
That
gave me the opportunity to mention my favourite sub-genre of fiction, what is
termed “The
Weird”, an area of writing and reading, that I am passionate about. Again,
Byng though intrigued by ‘The Weird’, said
he and his colleagues at Canongate would be open to publishing all areas of good
fiction writing, though initially Black Thorn would focus purely upon Crime and
Mystery Fiction, and that what Canongate could bring would be a mass market
reach, with paperback publication to augment Severn House’s quality hardcover
range.
I
also reiterated that Canongate should not underestimate Severn House’s US and
Canadian markets, and Jamie agreed reiterating that the North American sector represented
over 70 % of the Severn House’s sales. And on closing I enquired if Canongate
had received any interest from a well-known British
Cider Brewer, which was greeted with a laugh; when I added that sponsorship
from Brewers
and Crime Fiction is not unheard of, take the well known Theakstons’
Crime Writing Festival from that Yorkshire town of Harrogate.
And
with that, we all retreated to a nearby Pub, where we sat and talked about books,
writing and publishing over beers, as well as ‘The Weird’, my
fascination, in my own writing, as well as reading and viewing work that is strange and unusual.
We
present a selection of photos from the event, and wish all within Black Thorn
and Canongate great success in this exciting new venture for Crime, Mystery and
Thriller Fiction.
More
info on Crime and Thriller from Black Thorn Imprint click HERE
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