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Octopus spruces up MQP

13.03.08 Alison Flood

Octopus is rebranding gift specialist MQ Publications as Spruce, 10 months after it bought the quirky independent publisher out of administration for £385,000.

The Spruce name will be applied to all new MQP titles from July 2008, and all reprints will also be rebranded as Spruce from this date. Spruce will publish around 20 new titles a year; the first books to carry the Spruce name include Best Loved Baby Names and Their Meanings (£5.99, p/b) and Things to Do . . . Now You’re a Mum (£6.99, p/b), all in July. Future titles include The Italian Mama’s Kitchen by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi (£9.99 h/b, August).

Spruce will launch the Ask series in February 2009, a range of books featuring the 1,000 most-asked questions on various topics. It starts with titles on love, beauty, gardening and the home, all at £7.99 and in a small, chunky, "flexi" format.

"We are seeing this as a chance to reinforce and reinvigorate the brand in the trade and bring renewed interest to the publishing," said Octopus group head of marketing and publicity Jane Smith. "We are working really hard to penetrate the gift market and grow our reputation in this area. Attending the Top Drawer gift fair this spring was one example of that, and we’ll have other marketing initiatives through the year focused on the gift arena."

Spruce publisher Ljiljana Baird intends to publish four to five gift titles a year, and will also continue with the biographical titles MQP has been known for, such as George Galloway’s Fidel Castro Handbook. "We’re taking on three or four rather major biographical handbooks for 2009," she said.

"All our titles will have a slight twist or quirk. Although we’re part of a mega outfit [Hachette], we are a small part within it and we can afford to be a little flexible, and move with the trends."

Book octopus MQP Alison Flood

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