Perennial Gets Innovative with 'Love' Campaign

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 5/6/2009 7:38:00 AM

Harper Perennial, as part of a creative partnership that grew out of a multibook deal with brand managers/gallery owners Partners & Spade, is getting innovative with a publicity campaign for its May short story collection, Love Begins in Winter. Content from the book by Simon Van Booy will literally be front and center at a May 20 publication party with the full text of Van Booy's short story "Tiger, Tiger" appearing on the back wall of the Partners & Spade Gallery, where a publication party is scheduled.

The graffiti approach, according to Perennial's Cal Morgan, grew out of conversations he and It Books publisher Carrie Kania had with Partners & Spade, the brand consultant-cum-gallery owners team of Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti. After the duo inked a multibook contract with It Books for a series of co-branded photography titles, the collective decided to form a more informal partnership through which the book people could get input from the ad men. As Morgan put it, the partnership allows everyone involved to "help mutually promote all the creative people we work with."

As to Van Booy's wall, it happened somewhat by chance. Morgan said he and Kania got a chuckle out of what they thought was a sly art piece in Spade and Sperduti's gallery in downtown Manhattan on Great Jones Street—a big sheet on one of the walls that said, 'buy this space.' When the publishers commented on the pop art, they were told it wasn't a joke—the space was actually for sale. The irreverent party feature is a prime example of what Morgan hopes will come from the partnership, a "cross pollination" that will lead to unexpected and creative promotional efforts, among other things.