Atria Publishing Group
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Atria Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
. The publishing group launched as Atria Books in 2002. The Atria Publishing Group was later created internally at Simon & Schuster to house a number of imprints including Atria Books, Atria Trade Paperbacks, Atrai Books Espanol, Atria Unbound, Washington Square Press, Emily Bestler Books, Atria/Beyond Words, Cash Money Content, Howard Books, Marble Arch Press, Strebor Books, 37 Ink, Keywords Press and Enliven Books. Atria is also known for creating innovative imprints and co-publishing deals with African-American writers as well as known for experimenting with digital or non-traditional print formats and authors. As of 2021, Libby McGuire is the Publisher and Senior Vice President of the Atria Publishing Group.


Early years

The Atria Books imprint was launched in 2002 by Judith Curr. According to a ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' interview with Curr marking the imprint's 10th anniversary, the name Atria is "plural for a place where things grow and flourish." Curr wanted a name that embodied their intentions to build a bridge between the reader and the writer. Because she was starting a new business inside an old established one (
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
was founded in 1924), Curr also gave it an "A" name so it "would be at the top of everyone's memo and everything is in alphabetical order at a publisher." In 2005, Simon & Schuster acquired Strebor Books International and publisher of popular fiction by African-American writers including Black Erotica by
Zane The name Zane may be a given name or a surname. Its western usage derives from the Venetian form of ''Gianni'' or an alternate spelling of the German and Jewish name ''Zahn''. An Arabic name Zain, Zayn, or as it is often anglicized Zane, is an Arab ...
. Zane would remain the publisher of the imprint with an office in Maryland. The publisher had been founded independently in 1999. In 2013 it was announced that publisher Kristina Laferne Roberts had declared bankruptcy. In 2009, Atria was the first publisher to partner with
Vook Pronoun was a New York-based company that provides free book publishing, marketing, and analytics services to authors. Pronoun was launched in 2015. Founded as Vook, the company was renamed Pronoun following acquisitions of publishing analytics p ...
. Curr took on publishing the first four of them as she wanted to integrate digital practices into Atria. Curr recognized that digital and traditional printing practices would go "hand in glove." The work with Vook lead to the creation of the Atria Smartbook—a physical piece of paper with QR codes throughout the text for enhanced content. Curr told the Digital Book World, "every week I get a report that tells me how many people have interacted with those pieces of content. And now I've got this whole idea of how to turn the book itself into a store."


2010s

Atria Books publishes a wide variety of both fiction and non-fiction and strives to publish a diverse set of books and authors. This includes programs for diverse voices, Internet personalities and self-published authors with proven track records. In some cases, an editor is given their own imprint with their name on it as with Emily Bestler in 2011. In 2011, Atria signed a co-publishing deal with Cash Money Records founders Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams for an imprint called Cash Money Content. Birdman's intention was to cross-promote books at music events. The imprint is headquartered in Miami. As of 2012, 25% of Atria Books list of 98 titles was part of an African-American publishing program overseen by Malaika Adero, Vice President and Senior Editor. Notable authors include
Walter Mosley Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private inv ...
, Faria Chideya,
Blair Underwood Blair Erwin Underwood (born August 25, 1964) is an American actor. He made his debut in the 1985 musical film ''Krush Groove'' and from 1987 to 1994 starred as attorney Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama series ''L.A. Law''. Underwood has a ...
and
Vickie Stringer Vickie Stringer is an American novelist from Detroit, Michigan. Early life Stringer grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was an electrical engineer for General Motors. She graduated from the prestigious Cass ...
. Strebor Books an imprint founded in 1999 by author
Zane The name Zane may be a given name or a surname. Its western usage derives from the Venetian form of ''Gianni'' or an alternate spelling of the German and Jewish name ''Zahn''. An Arabic name Zain, Zayn, or as it is often anglicized Zane, is an Arab ...
is also under the Atria Publishing Group. In an interview on NPR, Adero described the African-American market for books as quite varied. Atria Books Espanol, publishes titles aimed at Hispanic readers in both English and Spanish. In 2012, Simon & Schuster reorganized their adult publishing imprints into four main groups with Atria Publishing as one main group. Howard, a religious imprint based in Nashville was placed under the Atria Publishing Group. In 2012, Atria partnered with the UK publisher Short Books' list to form Marble Arch Press to introduce international authors to American readers. In 2013, Atria Publishing Group launched 37 INK to focus on a diverse list of books and authors including a focus on African-American voices. In 2014, Atria Books launched Keywords Press to publish books by Internet personalities. The first set of authors included YouTube personalities, Shay Butler (aka ShayCarl),
Shane Dawson Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), better known as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, actor, fimmaker, writer, and musician. One of the first people to rise to fame on YouTube, he began making videos in 2008 at the age of 19 and garnered ...
,
Justine Ezarik Justine Ezarik ( ; born March 20, 1984) is an American YouTuber. She is best known as iJustine, with over one billion views on her YouTube channel. She gained attention as a lifecaster who communicated directly with her millions of viewers on ...
(aka iJustine), Connor Franta and
Joey Graceffa Joseph Michael Graceffa Jr. (; born May 16, 1991) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, actor, author, and producer. He runs four active YouTube channels, all named after him. His main channel is dedicated to vlogging, while the second features vide ...
. The launch was part of a deal between Atria Books and
United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. U ...
(UTA) who represents a number of Internet personalities. Curr stated that many of the books from the imprint would be crowdsourced with authors working directly with their fans. The New York Times called the move an "acknowledgement by traditional media companies that YouTube celebrities are more than just niche entertainmers with quirky appeal, and can be marketed to a broader audience. Atria Books demonstrated its ability to build a bridge between reader and the writer in 2014. Fans of
Colleen Hoover Colleen Hoover (born December 11, 1979) is an American author who primarily writes novels in the romance and young adult fiction genres. She is best known for her 2016 romance novel ''It Ends with Us.'' Many of her works were self-published befor ...
, a romance author, took to social media and successfully persuaded Atria books to publish a free e-novella by Hoover into a print book. Atria Books had received 5,000 tweets, posts and memes under the #FindingCinderella campaign. Atria Books has also focused on finding and publishing successful self-published authors. In 2013, they signed 18 books by 8 self-published authors. Atria signs on a self-published author, reworks the previously published ebook if necessary, and then republishes them in new e-book and paperback editions. When looking for at a potential author they look at how emotionally connected the online reviews are with the storyline and characters. In 2015, Atria launched Crave (ThisIsCrave.com), an application and subscription service for romance readers where subscribers receive one audio installment from a book each day. Atria also launched Enliven Books in 2015, an imprint launched from author and tea entrepreneur, Zhena Muzyka, and focused on publishing spiritual and wellness books. Muzyka runs the publishing imprint from a yurt in Ojai, California. Muzkya reported to Publishers Weekly that the name for the imprint was the result of a phone call with her mother. Her mother told her, "As soon as you hang up the phone you are going to hear a word in your head." Muzkya said that the first word she heard was Enliven which means "to add color, to uplift."


Imprints

* 37 INK, publisher of African-American and other diverse voices * Atria Books, general publisher * Atria Español, publisher of Spanish language books with a focus on Spanish readers in the U.S. * Atria Trade Paperbacks, general trade paperback publisher * Atria Unbound, ebook editions of Atria publications * Beyond Words, a co-venture between Atria Books and publisher of mind-body-spirit titles including the Secret * Cash Money Content, a co-venture with
Cash Money Records Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Birdman" Williams. Distributed by Republic, formerly known as Universal Republic, the label has been home to a roster of mostly hip h ...
* Emily Bestler Books, publisher of fiction and non-fiction * Enliven Books, publisher of Spiritual and Wellness books *
Howard Books Howard Books (formerly Howard Publishing) is a Christian publishing company founded in 1969 by Alton Howard and previously based in West Monroe, Louisiana, but which relocated to Brentwood, Tennessee, (south of Nashville) in September 2009. I ...
, publisher of Christian books
Keywords Press
publisher of books by Internet personalities * Marble Arch Press, co-publishing venture with Short Books of the United Kingdom
One Signal Publishers
nonfiction publisher founded by
Julia Cheiffetz Julia Cheiffetz is an American publisher, writer, and editor who currently lives in New York City. Cheiffetz launched One Signal Publishers, an imprint of Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. She has published Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, ...
* Strebor Books, publisher of African-American books as well as Black Erotica * Washington Square Press, founded in 1959 as part of Pocketbooks and paperback publisher of classic and contemporary fiction


Notable authors

The following are notable authors who publish under Atria Books. You can find a more detailed list of authors at List of Simon & Schuster Authors. *
Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
* Fredrick Backman *
Isabelle Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
*
Jennifer Weiner Jennifer Weiner (born March 28, 1970) is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was '' Good in Bed''. Her novel '' In Her Shoes'' (2002) was made i ...
*
Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...
* Rachel Ray


References

{{ViacomCBS Book publishing company imprints Book publishing companies of the United States Simon & Schuster Publishing companies established in 2002