In paperback publishing, reinvention is the name of the game. As Tanya Farrell, associate publisher and v-p of Picador, explained, it's what you have to do to survive. On that note, Picador is creating new ways to republish unexpected backlist favorites and get them noticed, both in-house and by booksellers.

One way the imprint is getting sales reps excited about older titles is through an initiative called “The Best Books You've Never Read.” The idea, Farrell said, grew out of a conversation with Augusten Burroughs. Burroughs, who is published by Picador, was talking with staffers at the house last year about some of the gems on the imprint's backlist. He sang the praises of one title in particular, Blackburn by Bradley Denton. “Augusten pointed out that this book is quiet on our list, but it's fantastic.” With that endorsement, Picador republished the book in April 2007, with a glowing cover quote from Burroughs, and the Best Books program was born. (Though Farrell said the title “wasn't a blockbuster,” it sold well enough to entice Picador to continue the program.)

Now the publisher is regularly opening up its list to sales reps, giving them the power to bring favorite titles back into print under the Best Books banner. This April the imprint published The Man Who Turned into Himself by David Ambrose (first published in 1993); the house plans to go back to press for Man, which became a Book Sense pick after an 11,000-copy first printing. Moving forward, the plan is to release two Best Books annually, each with an initial printing of about 10,000.

Picador has also recently launched an aggressive Tom Wolfe reissue program. Wolfe was published in hardcover by FSG (which, like Picador, is under the Macmillan corporate banner) “many moons ago,” as Farrell put it, and by Bantam in paperback. When Bantam's paperback license recently expired, the rights reverted to FSG/Picador.

Now the imprint is rolling out the publishing red carpet for the famed journalist. Picador has repackaged Wolfe's titles in trade paper and plans to reissue 10 of his books, each with 25,000-copy first printings, by December 2009. (So far Picador has released Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff; The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test will bow in August, coinciding with that book's 40th anniversary.)

Farrell said Picador has steadily become more aggressive about promotion to the trade. In the last two years, the house has branded its crime titles Picador Crime, highlighting its breadth in this category with pull-outs sent to booksellers. “All across the board we have literary crime thrillers, so we started to call it Picador Crime,” Farrell explained. She added that the “branding makes it easier for booksellers to notice the titles they would be interested in.” The effort, she believes, is paying off, especially with mystery shops.