Avon (publisher)

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Avon Publications
Parent company
HarperCollins
Founded1941; 83 years ago (1941)
FounderJoseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York City
Fiction genresRomance
ImprintsAvon Impulse, Avon Inspire, Avon Red, Avon Romance
Official websiteavonromance.com

Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of

paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and maintaining spots in bestseller lists, demonstrating the market and potential profits in romance publication. As of 2010, Avon is an imprint of HarperCollins
.

Early history (1941–1971)

Avon Fantasy Reader is one of several digest-format
paperbacks that were once published by Avon.

Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the

fantasy novels and science fiction
in its early years, which were far removed in audience appeal from the somewhat more literary Pocket Books competition.

As well as normal-sized paperbacks, Avon published

Avon Fantasy Reader. Many authors highly prized by present-day collectors were published in these editions, including A. Merritt, James M. Cain, H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler and Robert E. Howard
.

In 1953, Avon Books sold books in the price range of 25¢ to 50¢ (for the Avon "G" series, the "G" standing for "Giant") and were selling more than 20 million copies a year. Their books were characterized by

juvenile delinquent story. The "T" series also contained many movie tie-in
editions and the stand-bys of mysteries and science fiction.

Avon was bought by the

Hearst Corporation in 1959.[3]

In the late 1960s there was a surge of interest in Satanism largely due to the emergence of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan in 1966 and the success of Ira Levin's novel Rosemary's Baby in 1967. In 1968, an Avon editor named Peter Mayer approached Anton LaVey with the idea of publishing a "Satanic Bible", and he asked Anton to author it. Anton obliged, and in December 1969 The Satanic Bible was published as an Avon paperback.[4]

History of Avon Romance (post-1972)

Avon Romance logo
Avon Romance
The Flame and the Flower's success marks the true beginning of Avon's focus on romance.

In 1972, Avon entered the modern romance genre with the publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower. The novel went on to sell 2.35 million copies.[5] Avon followed its release with the 1974 publication of Woodiwiss's second novel, The Wolf and the Dove. The next two romances by newcomer Rosemary Rogers, Sweet Savage Love and Dark Fires, also published in 1974, reached bestseller status. The latter sold two million copies in its first three months of release and the former inspired the name of the genre: "sweet savage romances".[6]

In 1999, the News Corporation bought out Hearst's book division. Avon's hardcover and non-romance paperback lines were moved to sister company Morrow, leaving Avon as solely a romance publisher.[7]

Avon launched the erotica imprint Avon Red in 2006.[8] Avon developed the event KissCon in 2014, in order to serve the population of romance readers looking for more interaction with their authors and opportunities to strengthen their reading community connections.[7]

For its 75-year anniversary in 2016, Avon published 65 original titles, along with an anniversary edition of Shanna, a romance novel by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, published in 1977 that held a spot on the New York Times Best Seller list for over thirty weeks. In addition to the re-release, the book included a foreword by the more recent bestseller, and another author represented by Avon, Lisa Kleypas.[7]

Avon Comics

Slave Girl Comics, one of the titles published by Avon
Avon published five issues of White Princess of the Jungle.
Avon revived the 1947 one-shot title Eerie in 1951 and gave it a 17-issue run.

From at least 1945 through the mid-1950s, Avon published

romance comics, war comics and talking animal
comics. Most titles lasted only a few issues, with the six longest-running detailed in the complete list below:

References

  1. ISBN 0-9673639-5-0
  2. ^ "Highbrow Smorgasbord", Time, August 10, 1953.
  3. ^ "Quiet Deal", Time, August 31, 1959.
  4. ISBN 978-1494447335
    .
  5. ^ Darrach, Brad (January 17, 1977). "Rosemary's Babies". Time. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  6. ISBN 9780807841259
    .
  7. ^ a b c Garrett, Lynn (January 5, 2016). "At 75, Avon Books Is Still Going Strong". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  8. ^ "It's Not Just You—It Really Is Hot in Here". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2019-04-03.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Avon Publications.
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