Bywater Books announced that industry veteran Michele Karlsberg has been named publisher. Bywater Books is incorporated in Michigan, although two of the press’s three co-owners, former bookseller Kelly Smith and author Val McDermid, live in England. The company’s third co-owner, author Marianne K. Martin, lives in Ann Arbor. Smith and Martin are relinquishing their titles as co-publishers, with Smith focusing on her editorial responsibilities, and Martin dealing with the financial aspects of the business, as well as order fulfillment. McDermid is a silent partner in the company.
Karlsberg, a book publicist and the principal of Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management has run her company, which specializes in marketing and publicity campaigns for GLBT presses and authors, for 23 years. Karlsberg has served has marketing manager for Bywater for three years. She will continue to handle that responsibility and continue to take on new clients in the marketing/publicity business she runs from her offices in Staten Island, NY. Previously, Karlsberg was one of the co-founders of Amethyst Press, which published gay male literature. She is currently the curator of Outspoken, a national GLBT literary series. Karlsberg, with Karen X. Tulchinsky, edited two collections of lesbian fiction: To Be Continued and To Be Continued: Take Two, both published by Firebrand Books.
“One of my goals is to look up gay and lesbian and feminist books that are out of print, and then reissue them,” Karlsberg said, adding that some of these reissues will be in print and digital formats, while others will be reissued only in digital formats. Bywater currently has 75 titles in print; frontlist is published simultaneously in print and digital formats.
Bywater Books was founded by Smith, Martin, and author J.M. Redmann in 2004. It specializes in lesbian fiction titles, with six to eight releases each year. The press’s imprint, Bloody Brits, reissues for the U.S. market British mystery novels by contemporary male and female writers, without regard to sexual orientation. McDermid, who is one of the U.K.’s best-known crime writers, is the editorial director for the Bloody Brits imprint.
Bywater titles, including those released under the Bloody Brits imprint, are distributed by Consortium. While Karlsberg declined to disclose sales figures, she did say that sales have tripled in the past 12 months, with e-book sales representing 40% of total revenue.
