In late 2018, Sourcebooks acquired Poisoned Pen Press, a respected name in traditional mystery publishing founded in 1997 by Robert Rosenwald and Barbara Peters. Under Rosenwald and Peters' care, Poisoned Pen Press books won, or were nominated for every major award in the mystery genre, and Peters and Rosenwald have been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bouchercon crime and mystery conference (2008); the Poirot Award, bestowed by the Malice Domestic board of directors upon writers who have made outstanding contributions to the genre; and the Ellery Queen Award at the 2010 Mystery Writers of America's annual dinner, honoring writing teams and outstanding achievement in the mystery publishing industry. For all of these reasons and more, Poisoned Pen Press intrigued Sourcebooks Publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah and the idea of acquisition was first sparked by a meeting between Rosenwald and Raccah at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Raccah told Rosenwald that if he ever wanted to sell the business, she was interested. Sourcebooks had dipped their toe into mystery publishing but hadn't yet created an imprint devoted to the genre.
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| Anna Michels | |
Rosenwald took Raccah's offer seriously, and the deal took less than two months to complete. Senior Editorial Director Anna Michels praised Rosenwald and Peters for being "so gracious and ready to pass along what they had built and created" and added that from the outset, the vision was clear: preserve the heart of Poisoned Pen Press while expanding its reach, impact, and genre diversity. As Raccah stated at the time, "I look forward to doing what Sourcebooks does best, building big success for Poisoned Pen Press authors with broader sales distribution and innovative marketing [and] expanding their amazing impact in the world of mysteries, suspense, thriller and horror."
The Next Chapter: The Expansion of Poisoned Pen Press Under Sourcebooks
Like a good thriller, the seven years since the acquisition have been satisfyingly suspenseful. To begin, the integration of more than 600 Poisoned Pen Press backlist titles into the existing Sourcebooks catalog proved both exciting and complex. "It was a very logistics-heavy process with intense repackaging, repositioning, remarketing and reselling," says Michels.
While the team initially focused on growing long-running series with creative new packaging and strategic marketing, over time they evolved their mission into exploring standalone projects and forging print distribution deals with self-published authors. "We aren't just bringing in powerhouse authors that everyone knows already. A lot of times, they're debut authors whose careers we are looking to build," says Associate Director of Marketing and Publicity Mandy Chahal.
Within this new framework Sourcebooks also changed the Press's approach to formats, going from publishing all titles in hardcover, paperback, and large print to focusing on trade paperback originals, leveraging a longtime Sourcebooks strength in the market.
With the addition of new authors and formats, the imprint began expanding its horizons into other genres. "We started shifting our editorial focus from mainly traditional mysteries to more commercial crime fiction," says Michels. That expansion welcomed psychological thrillers and domestic suspense to the list and by 2022, the transformation began to bear fruit with titles like And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling, The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, and The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk.
And the expansion continues today. "We are now branching out into fantasy and horror," Michels adds, noting that heralded horror authors like Darcy Coates and Johanna van Veen and fantasy fan favorite J. Penner are now on the Poisoned Pen Press list. "We've built a space for people to discover really fantastic writing, and that's really exciting," says Chahal of their ever-expanding list.
A Mystery Solved: The Imprint's Identity Today
Today, Poisoned Pen Press stands as a powerhouse of genre storytelling. From British Library Crime Classics and cozy fantasies to gothic horror, Poisoned Pen Press offers something for every reader.
For Michels, the formula for success is simple: "If you always focus on what readers want, you can get through almost any challenge in our business."
And what readers want, Poisoned Pen Press delivers: books that thrill, entertain, and endure.