Amazon is launching its seventh publishing imprint today—a science fiction, horror and fantasy-focused vertical called 47North. This joins Amazon’s other imprints, including Amazon Encore, AmazonCrossing, The Domino Project, Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, and the New York imprint in the Amazon Publishing family.
47North, whose name is based on the latitude coordinates of Seattle (where Amazon is based), launches with a whopping 15 books, including “The Mongoliad: Book One,” the first in the ambitious, five-book, collaborative Foreworld series led by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear, science fiction and fantasy writer Dave Duncan’s “Against the Light”, and a new edition of the first book in Evan Currie’s military space opera Odyssey series entitled “Into the Black: Odyssey One.”
Amazon says that all of these books will be available to English readers in Kindle, print and audio formats as well as at national and independent booksellers. 47North will publish original and previously published works, as well as out-of-print books. And Amazon says that science fiction, fantasy and horror books are particularly popular amongst their customers so the imprint made sense for the company.
The e-commerce giant started its publishing arm in 2009, giving Amazon greater control over producing original content for its readers.
Amazon most recently launched Thomas & Mercer, which is a mystery and thriller focused vertical. AmazonEncore publishes works from emerging and new writers, AmazonCrossing translates foreign language works, TheDominoProject is a partnership with Seth Godin for publishing works relating to innovative ideas and Montlake Romance publishes romance novels.