We just celebrated a big milestone here at Bloomsbury—the one-year anniversary of our acquisition of Fairchild Books! We would love to say “Thank you!” to all of our authors, customers, and readers who have seen us through the transition! Read on for a special note from our publisher, Priscilla McGeehon, on Fairchild Books’ first year with Bloomsbury.
Dear Authors and Customers,
We’ve just marked the one-year anniversary of Bloomsbury Publishing’s acquisition of Fairchild Books, and our publishing team is looking back on everything that’s happened in that short time, and looking forward to what we expect in the future. Fairchild Books now enjoys the benefits of belonging to a world-renowned publishing company with particular expertise and contacts in the fashion and interior design sectors, and a deep understanding of the book market. That’s allowed us to build on the heritage of Fairchild Books, but with access to new resources to benefit our authors and our customers.A few highlights include:
- A position as the centerpiece of Bloomsbury’s Visual Arts publishing program. With the combined power of Fairchild Books, Berg, AVA and A&C Black, our visual arts list features books, journals and websites that support students, professionals and research scholars in fashion and other design-related fields. Bloomsbury’s decision last year to keep the Fairchild Books imprint is an indication of the value it sees in our heritage and reputation, and we’re proud to be part of the Bloomsbury constellation of publishing imprints.
- A commitment to educational publishing. We’re part of Bloomsbury’s Academic and Professional division, which focuses on the visual arts, humanities and social sciences, and which won top honors this year from the Independent Publisher’s Group (Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year) and the Bookseller Industry Awards (Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year.)
- More diverse publishing program. AVA’S books, previously less well-known in the U.S., have now been folded into Fairchild Books’ list. With the addition of AVA’s titles in fashion and interior design, Fairchild Books now offers a greater variety of course adoption books for your classes.
- A global marketing and sales effort to increase sales. Supplementing our previously-existing New York-based sales force are worldwide efforts to promote English-language versions of our books from offices in London, Sydney, and New Delhi. In addition, our sales and marketing resources exploit library and other institutional sales channels far more effectively than in the past.
- Broader expertise in production and manufacturing. Fairchild Books will benefit from Bloomsbury’s expertise in publishing print and digital illustrated books using digital workflows, while continuing our commitment to quality, regularly-updated content, and timely publishing.
- A dedicated department negotiating translation and co-edition deals with foreign-language publishers. In the past, Fairchild Books’ ability to negotiate translation rights was limited, and co-edition partnerships with foreign-language publishers were unheard of. Bloomsbury’s existing infrastructure expands the potential of our books to exploit the rapidly-growing global market.
- A track record of building and supporting robust, successful websites for research and education. Bloomsbury’s award-winning websites, including the Berg Fashion Library and Drama Online serve as models to make Fairchild Books an online force, increasing sales of print and digital books by supporting them with video and other premium ancillaries.
We hope you’ll continue to share our success; we look forward to an ongoing relationship with all our customers and authors.
Looking forward,
Priscilla McGeehon
Publisher, Fairchild Books
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Those really are some great highlights! A truly astounding career!