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Bloomsbury will bring 500 out of print titles by the likes of Alan Clark, Edith Sitwell and Bernice Rubens back into the market as digital editions this autumn with the launch of a new imprint.
Bloomsbury Reader, which will be run by digital media director Stephanie Duncan, is similar to Ed Victor's Bedford Square Books, which he announced earlier this month. Bloomsbury Reader will publish books currently unavailable in print where all English language rights have reverted to the author or their estate and there is no edition currently in print. The books will be sold as e-books or print on demand titles at "affordable prices and to the highest quality specifications".
Founder partners in the imprint are The Rights House, which comprises PFD and talent agency Rights House Talent. The first list will be published in September 2011 by authors including Alan Clark, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Monica Dickens, Angela Huth, Storm Jameson, Roy Jenkins, H R F Keating, Gavin Lyall, Rose Macaulay, V S Pritchett, Bernice Rubens, Edith Sitwell and Alec Waugh.
Duncan told the Guardian: "What we're discovering with the rise in digital is that people want to rediscover authors that are out of print. Or they read a book and then want to read everything by that author.
"The fact is, digital gives you a way to bring books back to life . . . which, for whatever reason, are out of print. We'll be bringing everything to the process, down to the jacket cover and sales and distribution."