US marketing tech company acquires Bloodhound Books

US-based marketing tech company Open Road Media (OR/M) has acquired UK e-book specialist indie Bloodhound Books for an undisclosed sum.

OR/M fronts a global e-book publisher network, with a catalogue including authors such as William Styron, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy, Gloria Steinem, Octavia Butler, John Jakes, Pearl S Buck, Walker Percy and Ruth Rendell. Through marketing partnerships, digital library assets and catalogue of 11,000 titles, OR/M says it has built a community of 14,000 authors and over three million consumers. The acquisition will see the merging of the two brands' publishing networks.

Founded in 2014 by Betsy Reavley (pictured) and Fred Freeman, Bloodhound focuses on fiction and has built its lists through long-term relationships with authors.

“The market and consumer behaviour have both changed dramatically in the past year,” said Reavley, director of the indie publisher. “Our authors have been a real part of the Bloodhound family and have played a crucial role in the business’ success. In order to be able to give them the very best opportunities and to put their books into the hands of keen readers we needed to find a way to expand the business from our audience reach to our marketing capabilities. We are extremely excited about joining the OR/M team, which will give us the opportunity to do just this—to provide the very best in content from our authors to a wide audience and to give them a community to collaborate and share their works going forward.”

The Bloodhound editorial, production and commissioning teams will be integrated into OR/M’s existing company structure to work alongside its finance, distribution and marketing teams. The Bloodhound brand will be retained while Reavley and Freeman will stay on the team.

“The acquisition of Bloodhound Books is demonstrative of the evolution of the publishing industry, and the opportunity for publishers and authors to align more directly with consumer interests and habits. OR/M is uniquely positioned to lead the publishing industry towards a better business model that leans into digital marketing and better leverages data-informed strategies,” said Paul Slavin, c.e.o. at OR/M. “This acquisition is a huge positive, not only for shaping the future growth of Bloodhound, but also in helping to pave a better, more accessible digital path and discovery process for the publishing market as a whole.”