2007 News Archive

Harbor House Sells Polish Rights to
100 0f the World's Greatest Mysteries

It took Harbor House nearly nine years to land its first foreign reprint deal.

"Now it seems like calls are coming in every week from around the globe seeking to acquire reprint rights to our titles," says Harbor House founder and publisher E. Randall Floyd.

This past spring Mr. Renee Tesar, representing D-Consult Publisher of the Czech Republic, nabbed hardback rights to Steve Ruthenbeck's highly-touted Dogs of War, a horror title about marauding werewolves prowling France during World War II.

Four months later, AMBER Publishing of Poland paid rights to reprint Floyd's own best-selling title about the strange and unusual, 100 of the World's Greatest Mysteries .

Publishers in the United Kingdom , South Africa and Germany have also expressed interest in a number of Harbor House titles, both fiction and nonfiction.

"We're very flattered that our titles have been discovered by international readers," said Peggy Cheney, editorial director and assistant publisher. "This must mean we're doing some things right."

Part of the credit, added Cheney, goes to Harbor House's New York agent, Rights Unlimited, which has orchestrated much of that international interest in Harbor House books.

"They do an excellent job pitching our titles to foreign publishers," she said.

Barnes & Noble also publishes a number of Floyd's books in hardback form in several European countries. The giant book publisher is currently negotiating rights to do the same with Floyd's latest, In the Realm of Miracles & Visions .

Selling reprint rights to foreign publishers has become a key strategy in recent years as publishers struggle to stay ahead of soaring return rates. Having a high-profile firm like Rights Unlimited representing Harbor House in the international market has been a good thing, Floyd added.

"There's a lot of interest in our backlist titles as well as current and upcoming releases," he said.