The Bookseller.com

28th August 2008

HC in Janson-Smith 'coup'

10.04.08 Graeme Neill

Former Transworld publisher Patrick Janson-Smith is returning to publishing after being hired by HarperCollins to set up new commercial imprint Blue Door. HC chief executive Victoria Barnsley described the appointment as a "great coup" for the publisher. Blue Door will fit into John Bond's Press Books wing, and aims to publish "anything between 12 and 20 titles per year".

Janson-Smith confirmed that it would be fiction-led—his "first love". "It will be a commercial literary imprint, similar to the list I created at Black Swan," he said. Bond added that the imprint would be driven by Janson-Smith's tastes—"commercial but fantastic". "I think Patrick's personality will attract certain authors and certain types of books to us," he said.

The appointment marks Janson-Smith's return to publishing after three years as an agent. He left Transworld in 2005 after 24 years to join the Christopher Little Literary Agency, where he represented authors including Lauren Liebenberg, Christopher Matthew, Holly McQueen, Linda Newbery and Joseph Finder. He left Christopher Little in November, expressing a desire to set up his own literary agency, but decided agenting "wasn't for [him]".

Several publishers, including a "couple of the major players but not Random House", approached him with a view to setting up an imprint, but he felt he would "fit more easily into the HarperCollins set-up". He insisted that he did not regret leaving Transworld. "If I hadn't done it, I would have been carried out of Transworld in a coffin. It recharged my batteries."

Janson-Smith promised to offer HarperCollins "a little bit of testosterone and a few years of experience. I'm a party animal, so I will be going into the world on behalf of Blue Door and I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun. I still have the enthusiasm for the game. I don't think I'm a dinosaur."

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