Titan to Expand in U.S.

by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 2/5/2007

Moving to further expand its presence in the American book market, U.K. publisher Titan Books, specializing in high-profile licensed TV and film book properties, is switching its U.S. distribution from Perseus/CDS to Random House, effective March 1.

Titan marketing manager Paul Foster said the London-based house will publish about 32 titles for the U.S. market in 2007. Foster cited Random House's large distribution capacity and its reporting and forecasting systems as the reason for the switch in distribution.

Titan Books publishes about 160 books a year for the British market and also has a magazine division. Its books are published in English-language multiterritory editions, with U.S., Canadian and U.K. prices on the covers. ISBNs remain the same.

Titan Books specializes in licensing hot TV, film and pop-culture properties for tie-in volumes. Its list includes books related to such TV shows as Smallvilleand Battlestar Galactica; companion titles based on The 4400, Supernaturaland Bones are coming in 2007. On the movie side, the house has published tie-ins to such films as Tenacious D, The Fantastic Four and Joss Whedon's Serenity. In 2007 Titan will publish a tie-in to Stardust, a summer fantasy film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, based on a Neil Gaiman novel, as well as Plots in Space, a companion volume for a new animated feature in the Wallace & Gromit series.

The house also offers cinema reference works like Spider-Man: The Icon, a coffee-table work on the image of Spider-Man throughout pop culture, coming in the fall of 2007. Titan publishes collections of classic and cult British comics for the U.S., among them James Bond and Tank Girl.

Titan meets regularly with major TV and film studios and attends the U.S. toy, merchandising and licensing fairs. Although it has no U.S. office, Titan uses a network of U.S. writers and hires U.S.–based marketing and publicity consultants who report to the London office but plan localized marketing campaigns. And Titan works closely with its U.S. distributor to make decisions on promotions, the library and college market, and author events. "We see ourselves as a world English-language publisher," Foster said. "We're flexible enough to put teams on the ground where we need them, at the time we need them, to get the best results."