Virgin Books

British book publisher

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Virgin Books

Status| Active
Founded| 1979 (1979)[1]
Founder| Richard Branson
Country of origin| United Kingdom
Headquarters location| London
Distribution| The Book Service
Publication types| Books
Owner(s)| Random House (90%)
Virgin Group (10%)
Official website| www.penguin.co.uk/company/publishers/ebury/virgin-books.html

Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.

## History

[edit]

Virgin established its book publishing arm in the late 1970s; in the latter part of the 1980s Virgin purchased several existing companies, including WH Allen, well known among Doctor Who fans for their Target Books imprint; Virgin Books was incorporated into WH Allen in 1989, but in 1991 WH Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd.

Virgin Publishing's early success came with the Doctor Who New Adventures novels, officially licensed full-length novels carrying on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of Doctor Who reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint.

In recent times the company is best known for its commercial non-fiction list, which includes business, health and lifestyle, music, film, and celebrity biographies. Richard Branson's autobiography Losing My Virginity, released in 1998, was an international best-seller at the time, and continues to sell well. His follow-up title Business Stripped Bare was published in September 2008. Virgin Business Guides included titles by Robert Craven, Paul Barrow and Rachelle Thackray. More recently the company has enjoyed success with Robert H Frank's The Economic Naturalist, where the author had his economics students pose interesting questions from everyday life and explain them through economics.

Random House, through its United Kingdom division, acquired a 90% stake in the company in March 2007.[2] In November 2009, Virgin became an independent imprint within Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group.[3]

## Imprints

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Other popular ranges have included various erotic fiction lines:

* Black Lace specializes in erotica and erotic romance written by female authors specifically for heterosexual female readers. The imprint does not publish novels written by men partly as a marketing scheme, partly to better appeal to their target demographic. The books explore women's sexuality as well as such themes as BDSM, group sex and bisexuality. The imprint began publishing in 1993, has published over 250 titles and sold over three million books. In 2006, Black Lace developed three specific lines within the imprint: contemporary, historical and paranormal. Black Lace also publishes short story anthologies, novella collections and in 2007 launched its first trilogy, a series of werewolf erotica by Mathilde Madden. The imprint marked its fifteen-year anniversary in 2008 with re-issues of several of its original novels. In 2009, Virgin announced that Black Lace would add no new titles in 2010.[4] The line was relaunched in 2012.[5]
* Nexus Books, sado-masochistic pornography written mostly for men who have sex with women, and women who have sex with men or women. In 2009, Virgin announced that Nexus would add no new titles in 2010.[4]
* Idol for gay men (defunct).
* Sapphire for lesbians (defunct).

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Virgin Books – More about Virgin Books". Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
2. ^ Joel Rickett, Random House UK buys Virgin Books Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Bookseller, 5 March 2007 (via Internet Archive)
3. ^ Benedicte Page, "Virgin joins Ebury stable, Sadler leaving" Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Bookseller, 2 November 2009
4. ^ a b Benedicte Page, Erotica on hold for Black Lace and Nexus at Virgin[permanent dead link], The Bookseller, 6 July 2009
5. ^ Benedicte Page, Ebury to revive Black Lace, The Bookseller, 26 April 2012. Archived 2012-04-29 at the Wayback Machine

## External links

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* Official website

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1. ^ joint venture with Leonine Holding, The Walt Disney Company, Bauer Media Group and Hubert Burda Media.

2. ^ a b joint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft, Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.

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6. ^ joint venture with Funk & Fernsehen Nordwestdeutschland, Antenne Niedersachen and Niedersachsen Radio.

7. ^ joint venture with Mediengruppe Dr. Haas.

8. ^ joint venture with Rheinland-Pfälzische Rundfunk.

9. ^ joint venture with Broadcast Sachsen.

10. ^ joint venture with TF1 Group.

Penguin
Random House|

| USA|

| Knopf Doubleday|

* Knopf
* Doubleday
* Everyman's Library (US)
* Pantheon
* Schocken
* Vintage

|

Random House|

* Ballantine
* Bantam
* Boom! Studios
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* Villard
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* Broadway
* Harmony
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* Rodale
* Three Rivers
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* Watson-Guptill
* Children's
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Penguin Adult|

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Berkley Publishing Group|

* Ace
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* New American Library
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* Roc

Penguin Young Readers|

* Dial Young Readers
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* Puffin
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Information|

* Books on Tape
* Living Language
* Playaway
* The Princeton Review

Other|

* Sasquatch Books

UK|

| Ebury|

* BBC Books
* Ebury
* Del Rey
* Rider
* Virgin Books (90%)
* W. H. Allen

|

Penguin General|

* Hamish Hamilton
* Penguin Books
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Other|

* Cornerstone
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Vintage Publishing|

* The Bodley Head
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Canada|

* Doubleday Canada
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Germany|

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Spain|

* Alfaguara
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* Ediciones B
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Other|

* Companhia das Letras (70%)
* Dorling Kindersley
* Alpha
* PRH Publisher Services

Other assets|

* Alliant International University
* Arvato
* Brockhaus
* Arvato Entertainment (Sonopress)
* BMG Rights Management
* Der Spiegel (25%)
* Relias Learning
* Manager Magazin (24.9%)
* Sächsische Zeitung (60%)

* Category

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Virgin Group

Assets|

| Lifestyle|

* Active
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* Red
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transport|

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* Virgin Australia Holdings
* Australia
* Regional
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Music|

* Megastores
* Virgin Music Group
* Caroline Records
* Records
* V2 Records

Money|

* UK
* Australia

* Media

* Connect
* Virgin Fibra
* Virgin Media O2
* Virgin Media UK
* O2 UK
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* Television
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* Chile
* Ireland
* Kuwait
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* Plus

Radio|

* UK
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* Montreal
* Toronto
* Kitchener
* London
* Windsor
* Winnipeg
* Edmonton
* Calgary
* Vancouver
* Victoria
* Italy
* Dubai
* Turkey
* Lebanon
* Romania

Former|

* America
* Books
* Brides
* Cars
* Care
* Charter
* Cinemas
* Comics
* Connect Airways
* Flybe
* Tigerair Australia
* Digital
* Digital Help
* Drinks
* Cola
* Vodka
* Electronics
* Virgin EMI
* Energy
* Express
* Festival (Australia)
* Festival (England)
* Festival (North America)
* Films
* Games
* Gaming
* Green Fund
* Health Bank
* Heaven
* Hyperloop
* Interactive
* Limobike
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* Little Red
* Megastores (UK)
* Media Television (UK)
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People|

* Richard Branson
* Stephen Clarke-Willson
* Nik Powell
* Steve Ridgway

Other|

* "Dirty tricks" campaign
* Losing My Virginity
* Timeline of Richard Branson's business ventures
* Unite (charity)
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Authority control databases

International|

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Other|

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