Kensington Launches Two New Book Imprints

Posted on May 17, 2015

Kensington Publishing Corp. is expanding its Lyrical Press division. In 2014, Kensington purchased the independent ebook publisher to operate as the digital first imprint. At the Romantic Times Book Convention in Dallas this weekend Kensington announced that it is launching two new digital imprints which will be part of Lyrical Press.

The two imprints will be called Lyrical Shine and Lyrical Underground. Lyrical Shine will publish contemporary romance. Lyrical Underground will publish mystery, thriller and horror. Alexandra Nicolajsen, Kensington's Associate Director of Social Media and Digital Sales, oversees all of Kensington's digital publishing and marketing, which includes social media. She has a broader role at Lyrical Press, overseeing everything from acquisitions to cover art.

Nicolajsen had this to say about the two new imprints and the evolution of Lyrical Press: "When Kensington brought Lyrical into our community of imprints, we were excited to work with a new group of authors and expand our footprint in the digital publishing community. In a little over a year, we have acquired many compelling projects, and built new bestselling authors."

Ms. Nicolajsen explained how the new imprints fit into the overall picture at Lyrical, saying, " he new Lyrical Shine and Underground imprints represent our commitment to diversifying the Lyrical list. Most importantly they create a program that will distinguish our authors and bring the most original stories to our readers."

Lyrical Press takes digital submissions and is actively looking for new manuscripts. The publisher says it is looking for "fresh stories in a variety of categories including all romance genres (specifically suspense and historicals with unique settings), compelling psychological suspense fiction, thrillers, women’s fiction, YA, new adult, and cozy mysteries." The guidelines say the editors are looking for edgy and daring voices. They are flexible about format, accepting novels, novellas and serials.