In its second acquisition this year, the Globe Pequot Publishing Group has agreed to acquire Square One Publishers in a deal set to close May 1. No price for the purchase has been disclosed.
Founded in 1999 by Rudy Shur, Square One specializes in nonfiction books on business/personal finance, cooking, health, history, parenting, and self-help, and has a backlist of 500 titles. Square One’s top titles over the years have included health author Dr. Pamela Wartian Smith’s What You Must Know About Women’s Hormones; a top American Sign Language reference title, Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes; and the longtime bestselling Gentle Revolution parenting series, published in partnership with the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential.
Following the completion of the sale, Shur will continue to oversee and acquire titles for the Square One imprint. “I have known and admired Rudy Shur for decades,” Globe Pequot CEO Jed Lyons said in a statement. “He has a nose for what sells and a strong track record of creating deep backlist evergreen titles that sell year in and year out. We are excited to welcome some Rudy magic to our growing program.”
Shur founded Square One after selling his first company, Avery Publishing, to Penguin. “After my two partners forced me to sell my first house,” Shur said in a statement, “I found myself ‘back at square one,’ which is what inspired the name of my next publishing venture.” Shur is well-known in independent publishing circles, and was one of the first publishers to aggressively sell his books outside of traditional trade channels.
The Square One purchase follows Globe Pequot’s acquisition of Florida-based Waterford Press in March. Both deals come after Lyons sold the Rowman and Littlefield academic publisher to Bloomsbury for $83 million last year, a move that allowed Lyons to focus his attention on trade publishing. Since the sale to Bloomsbury, Lyons also decided to fold Globe Pequot’s sister company, NBN, and transition NBN distribution clients to Simon & Schuster. Square One books will be distributed by NBN until the move to S&S is completed on September 1.
