New YA Imprint at Llewellyn
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Jan. 26, 2006 Sign up now!
by Claire Kirch, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 1/26/2006
New Age publisher Llewellyn Worldwide continues to expand in new directions by launching a YA fiction imprint, called Flux, this fall. Seven titles will be released under the Flux imprint in 2006, with an anticipated 21 titles per year to be published in subsequent years.
According to Andrew Karre, Flux acquisitions editor, Llewellyn has already published a number of teen fiction titles by three authors—Laurie Faria Stolarz, Linda Joy Singleto and Debbie Federici, who wrote books for Llewellyn both on her own and with Susan Vaugt. Their success, and Stolarz's popularity in particular, inspired the St. Paul, Minn.-based publisher to launch the new imprint.
"Starting an imprint will allow us to be crystal clear about what we're doing: teen fiction," Karre states. "We're not publishing New Age teen fiction, we're not publishing paranormal teen fiction. We're publishing fantasy, horror, literary fiction, a lot of coming-of-age fiction. There's no Llewellyn New Age or paranormal angle to this imprint."
Fall 2005 releases for Flux will include: How It's Done by Christine Kole MacLean, Homefree by Nina Wright, AutumnQuest by Terie Garrison, Dream Spinner by Bonnie Dobkin, The Shalamar Code by Mary Louise Clifford, How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles and Derailed by Jon Ripslinger.
"The over-riding theme is of these books," Karre says, "is that these are well-done, thoughtful takes on the teen genre. There's no condescending, no dumbing-down. We're treating teens as adults, as sophisticated consumers of entertainment that they certainly are."
