Since it released its first list in January 1995, Picador USA has grown from an imprint of St. Martin's Press to an independent publishing member of the Holtzbrinck publishing family, devoted to publishing quality fiction and nonfiction. Picador's list has increased from 40 titles published in its first full year to 80 in 1999, a number that includes 25 hardcovers, according to George Witte, publisher of Picador. Sales have grown, too, jumping 41% between 1996 and 1998.
An important part of Picador's growth has been its year-old relationship with fellow Holtzbrinck publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Picador serves as the trade paperback publisher for FSG both for new titles and backlist. The arrangement "has worked wonderfully well," Witte told PW, and has led to a similar relationship with Henry Holt. In addition, Picador publishes selected St. Martin's titles in trade paperback as well as doing its own original titles.
The company's big book in late summer has been Birds of America by Lorrie Moore, with 60,000 in print; it had been published in hardcover by Knopf. Another strong title has been the Whitbread Award“winner We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, which has sold about 30,000 copies. Among the other titles for which Witte has high hopes are For Kings and Planets by Ethan Canin and Elegy for Iris by John Bayley. But Witte expects the January release of the Pulitzer Prize“winner The Hours by Michael Cunningham to be its biggest book to date; although the first run is likely to be in the six figures, no print run has yet been set.
Witte is quick to point out that Picador is not tied to doing books with relatively large print runs, observing that some of its books, such as its story collections and first novels, can have print runs as small as 3000“4000 copies. "Picador is about discovering writers, and we're ready and able to work with talented people from the ground up," Witte explained.
First-time hardcover authors published by Picador include Judy Budnitz and Naomi Klein.
A modest sleeper hit has been A Short History of Rudeness by Mike Caldwell, which has sold approximately 16,000 copies. The publication of Rudeness reflects Witte's effort to expand Picador's nonfiction list. "We've been a little fiction-heavy. It's easier to find literary fiction than literary nonfiction," Witte said, adding that he would eventually like nonfiction to account for between 40% and 45% of Picador's list. The nonfiction list will receive a boost when Picador brings back three Walker Percy titles--Lost in the Cosmos, The Message in the Bottle and Signposts in a Strange Land--this winter. This fall, Picador released five Percy fiction titles in repackaged trade paperback editions.
Picador's staff has remained lean--three publicity people plus three editors, with a new associate editor on the way. Its titles are sold by St. Martin's Broadway sales force, and the company's backlist has grown to more than 100 titles. Publishing plans for 2000 again call for the release of about 80 titles. "I think that's a good size for us," Witte said
