Piatkus moves to capitalise on Bridgerton success

Little, Brown imprint Piatkus is making the most of the success of Netflix's "Bridgerton", with reissues of the Julia Quinn books on which the series is based, as well as their prequels, alongside a raft of marketing and publicity activity.

Avon in the US publishes the author's e-books–reaping the benefits of the “Bridgerton” boom as The Viscount Who Loved Me (Avon) held onto the number one spot in the Bookstat chart last week–but Piatkus has published Quinn's books in print in the UK for the past 15 years. The first in the series, The Duke and I, has been in the Top 50 chart for the last month, most recently charting at number 17.

"The whole team are thrilled with the excitement around 'Bridgerton', and with the sales of the tie in book and the whole series," said Anna Boatman, editorial director. "Piatkus have published Julia’s wonderful books for over 15 years, and it’s brilliant to see them get the wider readership they so deserve! And a Duke is not just for Christmas – as you’ll see, we’ve got so many exciting plans around the 'Bridgerton' series itself and the prequel series, 'The Rokesbys', so I’m hoping this is only very much the beginning of the story."

She added: "Historical romance has long been an under-appreciated genre in the UK – it’s filled with exceptional authors and books, and I’m hoping so much that this buzz will lead to readers discovering just how good this genre can be – contrary to popular opinion, smart, sexy, beautifully written observational istorical love stories do not begin and end with Jane Austen!"

Following the first re-packaged TV tie-in of book one in the series, which published before Christmas, the rest of the Bridgerton series (books two to eight) will be reissued on Thursday (4th February). Books in the 'Rokesby' series, a 'Bridgerton' prequel, are to be reissued later the same month.

Audio editions of the eight-strong 'Bridgerton' series, produced by Recorded Books, are already available through W F Howes after the books' US publishers did a separate deal some years ago. It reported "a surge in downloads" in the series, which already has been a "longtime bestseller" for the outfit, crediting the show in creating "a massive new audience" for the saga. The first book, The Duke and I, is currently one of W F Howes' top-selling titles on Audible, Audiobooks.com, Google, and Apple, and it has also been featured as the Times’ Audiobook of the Week in November 2020 and a Daily Mail Best Audiobook in January 2021.

"Witty dialogue, compelling characters, touching romance, good humour—and narrator Rosalyn Landor bringing it all to life! What’s not to like?" said Dominic White, head of publishing and commerce for W F Howes. "Julia Quinn is a master. We were obsessed with the series since we first laid our ears on it. We’re excited the audiobooks have won a whole new fan base and look forward to the series’ continued success."

Although Piatkus doesn't publish the audiobooks of the primary series, it is however hoping for a slice of the action by publishing the series' prequels in audio as well as other Regency romances from the author. Books one to four in the Rokesbys published last week, having previously been unavailable in the UK before. The audio editions of books in Quinn's Smythe-Smiths Quartet series, another Regency romance focused on the exploits of a family of amateur musicians, is scheduled for 25th February, and audio editions of books in Quinn's Ladies Most series, written with Eloisa James and Connie Brockway, are scheduled for mid-March.

The Little, Brown marketing and publicity team has been hard at work to drum up awareness for what is on offer for fans of the franchise. Publicity highlights include coverage in the Observer, Tatler, Daily Express, the Times, Good Housekeeping, Guardian, Jewish News and Stylist and, still to come, in the Lady, Grazia and the "Ctrl Alt Delete" podcast, while a Fane online event has been scheduled for later this month with Quinn. Bookshop.org has meanwhile set up a bespoke Bridgerton page featuring the full list of Bridgerton novels, while a "Bridgerton Read-and-Watch-Along" run in partnership with the agency, Tandem Collective, reaching over 36,000 people. A partnership with Duchess China to send out bespoke tea sets was also initiated at the end of last year, to get influencers reading The Duke & I throughout December and watching the Bridgertons series on Netflix.

The publisher's digital advertising campaign has reached over one million consumers, according to Piatkus.