There's a recession going on, but Titan Books seems not to have noticed. The U.K. publisher is a pop culture and entertainment powerhouse with an impressive list of blockbuster licenses from the film, TV, comics and toy businesses. Nick Landau, Titan's cofounder, managing director and publisher, said that in 2008, his book business rose 30% and he predicted that “2009 will be even bigger.” And while Landau identified the U.S. as the house's “core market,” he was quick to point out that Titan publishes for a worldwide English-language market.
“We're pop culture aficionados,” said Landau in a telephone interview from his London office. Titan, founded in 1981, has 250 employees and three divisions: books, magazines and retail; the latter consists of a nine-store pop culture retail chain called Forbidden Planet.
The book division publishes between 300 and 400 books a year, including 50 to 60 titles aimed at the U.S. market (Random House handles U.S. distribution). Titan also has the license to publish the bestselling Watchmen graphic novel in the U.K. The magazine division publishes “a very substantial range” of fan magazines as well as U.S. periodical comics for the British market, including DC Comics titles and Simpsons and Star Wars comics. “All the businesses are tied together,” said Landau, noting that the inventory at Forbidden Planet stores “reflects what the rest of the company does,” selling T-shirts, comics, toys and film-branded merchandise.
The book division specializes in tie-in titles for the biggest Hollywood movie and TV hits and the 2008 list featured four companion titles to the Watchmen film—including a 100,000-copy first printing of Watching the Watchmen. Landau said all the Watchmen titles were selling well and are on their third printings. “The film's trailer last summer spurred a spike in sales and was huge for us on a worldwide basis,” Landau said.
For 2009, Titan has another slate of potential bestsellers, including a series of companion titles for the Terminator: Salvation film coming in May, as well as a series of novels “that build a new fabric of stories out of the Terminator universe,” Landau said. There are companion titles for the Transformers and G.I. Joe movies set for release in 2009, and coming in the fall is an ambitious five-volume series that collects and remasters the work of pioneering 1930s and 1940s comic book masters Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning with The Best of Simon and Kirby in May.
“We work with the best people in movies and TV,” Landau said, explaining Titan's success. And he's not worried about the impact of the recession on his books. “Pop culture is relatively cheap and people enjoy it. In a recession it's important for people to have something they can afford to participate in,” Landau said.
