Douglas Pocock, group sales director of Egmont U.K., will spearhead a
U.S. children's book division as executive v-p of Egmont U.S. Already,
he told Shelf Awareness, he is close to announcing the
appointment of a publisher for the venture and is in contract
negotiations with what he called "the premier distributor in the U.S."
The yet-to-be-named publisher will "shape the editorial team," and the
U.S. office will have a small design staff (both in-house and
freelance), a marketing department that will oversee publicity
(publicists will be freelance to start), and a salesperson who will act
as liaison with the distributor. The company will then "scale up,"
according to Pocock, growing from approximately eight employees in the
first year to 13 in the coming years, with a goal "to be a leading U.S.
children's publisher within five years."
Pocock said the focus is to originate projects in the U.S. with a "U.S.
team that understands the U.S. market," and not to push U.K. titles
that are "not right" for the U.S. market. The first Egmont U.S. list is
planned for fall 2009. "The list will reflect, on a smaller scale, what
we do in the U.K., with a mix of commercial and prestigious titles," he
said. With a smaller emphasis on picture books, the list will focus
primarily on middle grade fiction, Egmont's strength in the U.K.,
according to Pocock. He also sees an opportunity with young adult
fiction in the U.S. "In the U.K., the YA market is tough to
crack," Pocock said. "We do it in the U.K., but it's a small part of
our list."
When asked if Egmont would attempt to get back rights to U.K. titles
that have been issued in the U.S., such as Jenny Nimmo's bestselling
Charlie Bone series (published in the U.S. by Scholastic/Orchard),
Pocock said that was not the main goal, though the company will assess
titles
on a "case by case basis." He added, "Our U.K.-based authors would
prefer to work with Egmont in the U.S."--Jennifer M. Brown