L.A.-based gay and lesbian newsmagazine the Advocate is launching Advocate Books, which will be an imprint of sister company Alyson Books, both of which are owned by corporate parent Liberation Publications Inc. (LPI). In related news, the Advocate has announced it is acquiring Out magazine.
Judy Wieder, who has been named senior v-p/corporate editorial director of LPI, will oversee the new imprint, working closely with Alyson publisher Greg Constant. "Getting this imprint going was long overdue," said Wieder. "The Advocate has been a blueprint of the movement--it's been a witness to history--and this is a way to capitalize on its authority."
Betty DeGeneres: Just a Mom, a sequel to DeGeneres's Love, Ellen: A Mother/Daughter Journey, will be the imprint's first title, scheduled to appear in November. Chastity Bono's Joan: A Memoir of Love and Loss has also been signed and is scheduled for fall 2001. Both are expected to have print runs of at least 10,000. "It's coincidental that our first two titles are by celebrity authors," noted Wieder, who also hopes to gather articles from the Advocate, such as the magazine's important coming out interviews, into anthologies.
Like Alyson, Advocate Books will be distributed by Consortium; the line will be sold on both the Alyson and the Advocate Web sites. "Alyson.com is being redesigned so as to become primarily a marketing tool to sell books," Constant told PW.
