From "The Guardian" Bookseller column: "Most of us would be content with founding two major publishing houses. But Anthony Cheetham, who was pushed out of Orion in a coup two years ago, is at it again. He's investing in a new company, Quercus, which will specialise in crime fiction and reference books with a twist. Cheetham knows the worth of good partners: the crime list will be run by Otto Penzler, the New York bookseller, and former Fourth Estate publisher Christopher Potter will join the editorial board.
"Quercus (Latin for oak tree) has already signed some promising American crime and thriller writers - Joyce Carol Oates, Andrew Klavan, Thomas Cook, Joe Gores - and the highly rated Australian author Peter Temple. Its first two "smart, approachable" reference books will be Speeches That Changed the World and Universe, an illustrated tour of the cosmos. As larger publishers become ever more cautious, Quercus will have no problem finding quality material. But after seeing his Orion and Century absorbed into European conglomerates, Cheetham is determined to keep things small and independent. Quercus will publish 30 books in its first year and keep a close eye on overheads, meaning it can be profitable on sales of a few thousand copies of each. The bedrock of its list will be linked to the contract books business run by Cheetham's partner Mark Smith - deals with US booksellers like Barnes & Noble enable larger print runs and cheaper cover prices." Which gives a little more information than is probably necessary but the context is important here.
