Mosley, Coates Launch Reprint Book Line

Bestelling novelist and aspiring publisher Walter Mosley is teaming up once again with Black Classic Press publisher W. Paul Coates, this time to launch a short print-run publishing venture to keep the work of certain authors in print.

Mosley said the new venture will start this month with two out-of-print novels by Frederick Tuten, Tin Tin in the New World and Tallien: A Brief Romance.

Mosley, who is financing the venture, explained that the press will allow him to "get more experience" as a publisher. He said he intends to spend the summer visiting writing programs to identify other books to reprint.

The first books will come out under the BCP imprint In Print Editions. But, Coates said, the venture may later use the name of Mosley's business entity, The Thing Itself.

Black Classic Press uses a Xerox DocuTech printer, print-on-demand technology that allows very small print runs. Coates said the short-run reprints (50 to 200 copies at a time) will be distributed by PGW. "We can do larger runs if we need to," he said. "This way, it's very cost effective."

Mosley has teamed with Coates twice to publish his own books, in 1996 for Gone Fishin' and in 2002 for What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace.