Bywater Books Names Karlsberg Publisher
Bywater Books announced that industry veteran Michele Karlsberg has
been named publisher. Bywater Books is incorporated in Michigan,
although two of the press’s three co-owners, former bookseller Kelly
Smith and author Val McDermid, live in England. The company’s third
co-owner, author Marianne K. Martin, lives in Ann Arbor. Smith and
Martin are relinquishing their titles as co-publishers, with Smith
focusing on her editorial responsibilities, and Martin dealing with the
financial aspects of the business, as well as order fulfillment.
McDermid is a silent partner in the company.
Karlsberg, a book publicist and the principal of Michele Karlsberg
Marketing and Management has run her company, which specializes in
marketing and publicity campaigns for GLBT presses and authors, for 23
years. Karlsberg has served has marketing manager for Bywater for three
years. She will continue to handle that responsibility and continue to
take on new clients in the marketing/publicity business she runs from
her offices in Staten Island, NY. Previously, Karlsberg was one of the
co-founders of Amethyst Press, which published gay male literature. She
is currently the curator of Outspoken, a national GLBT literary series.
Karlsberg, with Karen X. Tulchinsky, edited two collections of lesbian
fiction: To Be Continued and To Be Continued: Take Two, both published by Firebrand Books.
“One of my goals is to look up gay and lesbian and feminist books
that are out of print, and then reissue them,” Karlsberg said, adding
that some of these reissues will be in print and digital formats, while
others will be reissued only in digital formats. Bywater currently has
75 titles in print; frontlist is published simultaneously in print and
digital formats.
Bywater Books was founded by Smith, Martin, and author J.M. Redmann
in 2004. It specializes in lesbian fiction titles, with six to eight
releases each year. The press’s imprint, Bloody Brits, reissues for the
U.S. market British mystery novels by contemporary male and female
writers, without regard to sexual orientation. McDermid, who is one of
the U.K.’s best-known crime writers, is the editorial director for the
Bloody Brits imprint.
Bywater titles, including those released under the Bloody Brits
imprint, are distributed by Consortium. While Karlsberg declined to
disclose sales figures, she did say that sales have tripled in the past
12 months, with e-book sales representing 40% of total revenue.
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