New Harbinger Acquires Instant Help Books
By Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 12/14/2007 1:44:00 PM
New Harbinger Publications, the Oakland-based publisher of self-help, psychology and health books, has acquired Instant Help Books, the Norwalk, Conn.-based publisher of workbooks used by mental health professionals and educators on topics to help treat children’s and teens’ emotional and psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and anger.
Matthew McKay described the acquisition as “the perfect fit,” bringing New Harbinger into the realm of publishing for children and teens and broadening Instant Help Books’ distribution into the trade for the first time. Instant Help sells via direct mail and the Internet and had never before tried to sell to the trade, where NH does 90% of its business.
“It’s a distribution deal that morphed into a purchase,” said McKay. Last year the two companies signed a distribution agreement that was to begin January 1, 2008. As the companies began to work together on the books, it became clear that New Harbinger had the design team in place to repackage the line for the trade. Instant Help founder Lawrence Shapiro, a psychologist with over 20 years of experience publishing books for health professionals and educators, will work with NH’s staff as a primary acquisitions editor for the new imprint.
“New Harbinger has the expertise to put our books into the hands of the people who really need them—kids, teens and parents,” said Shapiro, who is known as the founder of Childswork/Childsplay catalog of printed materials and visual media for educators and health professions, which he sold in 1996.
New Harbinger publishes 50 titles annually and expects to publish about 25 Instant Help titles a year beginning with the 17 titles on the Spring 08 list, which includes: I Bet I Won’t Fret: A Workbook to Help Children with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, The Divorce Workbook (which is actually two titles, one for kids and one for teens), and Stopping the Pain: A Workbook for Teens Who Self-Injure.
McKay said that Shapiro recently helped New Harbinger present the Instant Help titles to both Barnes & Noble and Borders. “They surprised us. They had larger initial buys [for Instant Help books] than they did for our adult books,” he said.
