Literary Ventures Fund Inks Deals

by Calvin Reid, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 5/4/2007

The Literary Ventures Fund, a nonprofit that uses a venture-capital investment model to support literary publishing, has hired a marketing director and announced strategic partnerships with a speakers bureau and a public relations firm.

The new marketing director is Kate Travers, a cofounder of the Web marketing firm LiveWriters.com, who has also worked in senior positions at HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin. The LVF has also entered into an agreement with the Boston lecture agency American Program Bureau to organize a series of educational panels that will use book industry experts to examine the issues around literary publishing and books in contemporary American culture.

In addition, the LVF will team up with Shreve Williams Public Relations, a public-relations firm founded by former book industry publicity directors Elizabeth Shreve and Suzanne Williams. Shreve is a former publicity director for Henry Holt and Williams held the same position at Pantheon Books. Shreve Williams will handle publicity for LVF books as well as publicity and communications services for LVF operations.

Jim Bildner, founder and president of LVF, said the hiring of Travers and the new partnerships, "will help insure quality and continued growth as we explore ways to substantially affect the publishing landscape and get great books into the hands of readers."