Why We Publish What We Publish

Last week I told you about the launch of our 10 year old imprint, Intrigue Publishing, as a legitimate small press.  Until May, 2012, Intrigue Publishing was defined as my novels.  When we decided to publish others we needed to establish an identity.

It made sense to build our corporate identity around our name.  We decided that every book we published would need to truly represent “intrigue.”  Each new publication would arouse curiosity or interest by unusual, new, fascinating or compelling qualities… it would succeed by appealing to the reader’s curiosity and interest.  It would draw and capture the reader’s mind. 
With that as background, we wanted to establish a broad list, but not too broad.  We needed to choose what kind of books we knew well enough to spot a winner, and whose market we could reach.  Our name immediately led to one specific genre.  Crime fiction almost always fits the bill, and I feel I have pretty deep expertise in mystery and thriller novels, so we knew we would start there.  But what other genres might we publish? 
Sandra Bowman, writing as B. Swangin Webster, has been successful with urban drama.  Her novels are NOT street-lit which, in my personal opinion, tends to glorify the worst facets of inner city life.  Instead, her books are powerful journeys of self-discovery and tales of family or interpersonal drama.  They are rooted in the African American community but their messages and the emotions they evoke are universal.  Still, there is a specific, easily targeted market for this literature – the growing community of educated and professional African Americans.  And as this writing is filled with intrigue, it fits our focus perfectly.
Denise Camacho, Intrigue Publishing president and a lifelong romance fan, recommended sensual erotica.  She has searches for stories of interpersonal relationships that are unapologetically sexual without sinking to the level of pornography.   These books will not pretend that the lead characters are in a 1950s high school, nor will they focus on graphic physical details at the expense of the exciting emotions involved with romance.  Sensual erotica may be difficult to describe but, like pornography, you will know it when you see it, and from what we’ve been told it is what a lot of readers are looking for.
Like any business, Intrigue Publishing must consider the market to be successful.  No audience in publishing is hotter than Young Adult (YA) right now, so we knew we could not ignore it.  While we are not YA authors, we have read extensively in this area.  Between us, the three principals of the company have raised ten children to adulthood and we know exactly what we wanted those young people to be reading.  We will look for uplifting, morally positive YA books that are engaging and, yes, intriguing.
So that’s what we intend our product line to look like.  Four separate imprints for four very different markets.  I’ll share some of the company philosophy and goals next week.