American Society of Authors and Writers

Harlequin Launches New Imprint

Harlequin Enterprises Limited has announced it is launching Red Dress Ink, a new line of books that recognizes the growing number of single women in the marketplace. Red Dress Ink released its first novel, See Jane Date, by Melissa Senate, in November 2001. Red Dress Ink is a women's fiction program that depicts young, single, mostly city-dwelling women coping with the pressures that accompany a career, the dating scene, and other aspects of modern single life in America.

"These books are Ally McBeal meets Sex and the City," said Red Dress Ink Editor Margaret O'Neill Marbury, pointing to two of the most popular shows on television, which also happen to portray the day-to-day struggles of independent women. Red Dress Ink is a single-title program that will publish one book a month in trade paperback format. The website is located at: reddressink.com. The second release from Red Dress Ink, Milkrun, by Sarah Mlynowski, will be available in December.

Red Dress Ink Books will be added to Harlequin Enterprises Limited's existing group of imprints, which includes Harlequin, Silhouette, MIRA Books, Steeple Hill, Worldwide Mystery, and Gold Eagle. Founded in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1949 by Richard Bonnycastle, the company publishes more than 60 titles monthly. Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

New Publisher Promotes Diversity

Seattle Writer and editor Olivia Dresher announced the recent founding of Impassio Press, an independent publishing house devoted to establishing fragmentary writing as a distinct literary genre, especially diaries, journals, notebooks, and letters, as well as fiction and poetic prose written in fragment form. Dresher, who founded and currently serves as the curator of the Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks Collection for the library at the Richard Hugo House literary center in Seattle, has been reading, writing, collecting, and publishing fragmentary writing for more than 30 years.

"While many writers utilize journals and notebooks as sources for other work, for some authors, the journal or diary itself is the main work and exists as a valid literary art form of its own," said Dresher. "Impassio Press is not interested in journals or diaries which simply serve as tools for personal enrichment or self-help. Instead, we will discover and publish writers whose inner lives are already so rich that they spill out into their notebooks. Impassio seeks writing which is provocative and revealing, offering insights into the self and the world."

Impassio Press plans to publish two to three titles each year. The first book slated for publication in March 2002 is One Journal's Life: A Meditation on Journal-Keeping, by Audrey Borenstein of New Paltz, New York, a short book that is the author's love letter to her journal, exploring her many selves and the possibility that her essence as a writer is most fully expressed in her journal. Two full-length titles scheduled for 2002 are This is How I Speak: The Diary of a Young Woman, by Sandi Sonnenfeld of Seattle. It's an intimate portrait of a young woman's first year in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Washington. The second is Water & Earth: A Journal, by Guy Gauthier of New York. It captures the author's experiences as a fledgling playwright in the sexually charged Manhattan of the 1970s.

Prior to founding Impassio Press, Dresher worked as a freelance editor as well as an editor at the University of Washington. She is the co-editor of Darkness and Light: Private Writing as Art (iUniverse: 2000), an anthology of contemporary journals, diaries, and notebooks. It was Dresher's experience of working on the anthology that prompted her to found Impassio Press.

"When I was looking for a publisher for Darkness and Light, I was very disheartened by how closed the established presses were to non-traditional literary forms. While independent publishers now account for 30 percent of all trade books sold, I've seen too many quality small presses fold over the years as the mainstream houses squeeze out their smaller colleagues. My goal is to bring something new to small press publishing, while also helping to keep alive the spirit of freedom and diversity that small-press publishing offers."

In addition to Dresher, a financial and legal consultant as well as a part-time PR and marketing manager to help promote book sales will staff the house. The press is working with an assortment of freelance book designers, layout artists, and printers. Impassio Press is a member of the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), a national organization of independent publishers and presses.

No News Is Good News?

AOL Time Warner is closing iPublish, its electronic publishing venture. 29 jobs were cut. Laurence Kirshbaum, chairman of Time Warner Books, said the company had lost over $13 million on electronic publishing so far.
Last November, IPC Media, a U.K. magazine publisher, ceased publication of Woman's Journal, Your Garden, Homes & Ideas, Your Life, Marie Claire Health & Beauty and the Complete Guide to Pregnancy. A total of 115 jobs were cut from IPC's exhibitions business. Now IPC Media, which was purchased by AOL Time Warner in August 2000, is laying off another 118 employees. (Source: Media Guardian 12-6-01)
Total Sports Inc., a sports-book publisher, is struggling to meet its financial obligations and may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following an announcement that Random House has called off a deal to acquire the publisher. (Source: Publishers Weekly 12-3-01)
AOL Time Warner is ceasing publication of three magazine as of December. Family Life and On. Asiaweek will also cease publication. (Source: AdAge.com, L.A. Times, New York Times 11-30-01)
As a result of sagging book sales, 49 positions have been cut at Penguin UK, 23 of them at Dorling Kindersley, which Penguin recently acquired. Harper Collins is also expected to announce job cuts shortly. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that book sales by major publishers have slowed by 15% since last year, and some publishers reported that sales from bestsellers are down a startling 25-40%. (Source: Publishers Weekly, New York Times 11-19-01)

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