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Phoenix Publishing House acquires Karnac Books
Phoenix Publishing House, winner of the 2023 IPG Nick Robinson Newcomer Award, has acquired Karnac Books, with Phoenix changing its name to Karnac to “encapsulate this new single entity".
Karnac Books is a publisher and bookseller of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and related subjects such as organisations, family, child and adolescent studies titles, founded in 1950.
In March 2023, Aeon Books Ltd acquired the publishing assets of Confer Ltd who was then the current owner of the Karnac Books imprint. In September, Aeon took a minority share in Phoenix in exchange for these assets.
Founders of Phoenix Kate Pearce and Fernando Marques are ex-long-term employees of Karnac. They have engaged a trio of former Karnac talent to be part of the new merged team: Taneisha Smith, previously Karnac bookshop manager is now mail order manager; Anita Mason, previously in the production team at The Studio who worked on Karnac titles for decades is now their production manager; and Oliver Rathbone, Karnac owner and m.d. from 2001 to 2019, is now honorary chairman. They are joined by publishing assistant Aimee Dexter.
The announcement states that the new company will “continue to produce cutting-edge books and journals as an international, independent publisher” and to sell a wide range of mental health titles via karnacbooks.com.
It goes on that “a future dream is to bring back a London-based bookshop to return Karnac to its roots". In the meantime, there will be bookstalls at events and conferences. A new Karnac logo has been created to mark the merger.
Pearce said: “Fernando Marques and I, founders of Phoenix, have always viewed ourselves as the keepers of the Karnac flame, so it is both fitting and a huge honour that we are able to bring Karnac back from the ashes. While we are sad to lose the Phoenix name, its spirit will live on in the retention of the Phoenix icon and motto ‘firing the mind’, making this a true merger of two inspirational companies.”
The new Karnac will retain its firingthemind.com website as well as its online bookshop karnacbooks.com.
