Algonquin Starts Paperback Line

by Judith Rosen, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 1/13/2006

Algonquin Books in Chapel Hill, N.C., is marking the new year/new season by introducing its first trade paperback line, called simply Algonquin Paperbacks.

Associate publisher Ina Stern attributes the decision to launch the new line to a shrinking rights market coupled with strong paperback sales for the books that it has published in paper, like Esmé Raji Codell’s Educating Esmé, which has sold more than 100,000 copies to date. "We've been having more and more success with the paperbacks we do. We thought we would do them more purposefully," Stern said.

Stern plans to publish approximately five paperbacks a season, a mix of paperback originals like NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu's collection of essays New Orleans, Mon Amour, which leads off the list this month, as well as paperback reprints like Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods set for March. The new line will increase Algonquin's overall book count from 30 to 40 books a year.