The Quarto Group

History

The Quarto Group was founded by Bob Morley, Michael Jackson and Laurence Orbach in the early 1970s and was finally established as The Quarto Group in 1976. In 1986, Quarto listed on the London stock exchange.

By the late 1990s, Quarto had acquired three new imprints, Rotovision, Book Sales Inc and Rockport Publishers and founded Quarto Children's Books, Quintet and Quintessence that published art, health, lifestyle and children's books. The group expanded further in the US – with the addition of Book Sales, Rockport Publishers, Walter Foster, Creative Publishing International, Motorbooks, and more recently, Cool Springs Press. In the UK, Quarto grew by acquiring Aurum Press and then Jacqui Small in 2004. By the 2000s, The Quarto Group had increased imprints and genres, along with this, a steady increase in its share value. In August 2011, The Quarto Group acquired independent UK book publisher Frances Lincoln for £4.5 million.

In 2012, Marcus Leaver took over from Laurence Orbach as Group CEO By 2014, the group had started two new children's imprints: Wide Eyed Editions and Words & Pictures, and acquired Small World Creations. In 2015 Quarto acquired Ivy Press and Ivy Kids for £1.5m and continued its expansion In 2016, Quarto acquired SmartLab and becker&mayer, a co-edition publisher based in Bellevue, WA, for $9.8 million.

Quarto sold its last two non-publishing businesses in 2017 – Books & Gifts Direct (Australia/New Zealand) and Regent Publishing Services (Hong Kong) – and is now solely focused on its core publishing expertise.

Awards

• 2016 Waterstones Children's Book Prize – Illustrated Book: The Bear and the piano, by David Litchfield, published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
• 2017 Waterstones Children's Book Prize – Illustrated Book: There’s a tiger in the garden, by Lizzy Stewart, published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
• Blue Peter Book Awards 2019, Best Book with Facts: The Colours of History, by Clive Gifford, published by QED Publishing.
• British Book Awards 2018, Rights Professional of the Year: Karine Marko, Group Director of Foreign Rights at The Quarto Group.

Controversy

Investigative research by the Financial Times found out that since 2020, Quarto has been censoring some of its books in order to allow them to be printed and sold in China. References to Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, and the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei were deleted or altered, including in the award-winning book This Book is Anti-Racist.

International publishing partnerships

The Quarto Group has launched a number of foreign-language imprints through international partnerships with foreign publishers. These include:

;Quarto Editora The Quarto Editora imprint was launched in Brazil in 2014 through an international publishing partnership with Brasil Franchising and their publishing business Editora Nobel. Quarto Editora publishes in categories such as cookery, beauty and self-help. Nobel Editora distributes the books through its franchises and main book trade channels.

;Kalimat Quarto Kalimat Quarto was launched in 2016 as an international publishing partnership with Sharjah-based Kalimat Group. The imprint publishes books in Arabic and distributes them throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

;Quarto Iberoamericana Announced in May 2017, Quarto Iberoamericana is Quarto's Spanish language imprint launched in partnership with Argentina-based publisher Catapulta Editores S.L. The imprint publishes 20 books a year with the first six books, launching in Autumn 2017, in adult categories such as cookery, lifestyle and spirituality. Catapulta Editores will be responsible for sales and distribution in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Quarto is expected to announce more partners to distribute the books in the rest of Latin America and North America in the near future.

Imprints

• Aurum Press
• becker&mayer! books
• becker&mayer! kids
• Book Sales
• Bright Press
• Burgess Lea Press
• Carnival
• Chartwell Books
• Cool Springs Press
• Creative Publishing International
• Design Eye
• Epic Ink Books
• Fair Winds Press
• Frances Lincoln
• Frances Lincoln Children's Books
• Global Book Publishing
• Happy Yak
• Harvard Common Press
• Holler
• Iqon Editions
• Ivy Kids
• Ivy Press
• Kaddo
• Leaping Hare Press
• Motorbooks
• MVP Books
• Quarry Books
• Quarto Publishing
• Quiver
• Race Point Publishing
• Rock Point Gift & Stationery
• Rockport Publishers
• Voyageur Press
• Walter Foster
• Walter Foster Jr.
• Wellfleet Press
• White Lion Publishing
• Wide Eyed Editions
• words&pictures
• Zenith Press

Notes

References

References

1. "The Quarto Group (UK): The Quarto Story".
2. "Our Clients".
3. "Hachette - Our Clients".
4. "The Quarto Group Annual Report 2021". The Quarto Group.
5. "Investor Reports & Presentations {{!}} The Quarto Group".
6. (19 July 2020). "Young Adult Paperback Books - Best Sellers - Books - July 12, 2020 - The New York Times". The New York Times.
7. "The Quarto Grp Inc.".
8. (8 November 2012). "Orbach removed as Quarto director". The Bookseller.
9. "Orbach departs Quarto board {{!}} The Bookseller".
10. "The Quarto Group".
11. (11 February 2020). "Italy's Giunti Buys into U.K.'s Quarto Group". [[Publishers Weekly]].
12. (18 September 2020). "Powell made group c.e.o. at Quarto". [[The Bookseller]].
13. Milliot, Jim. (25 March 2016). "Quarto Group Comes of Age". [[Publishers Weekly]].
14. "The Quarto Grp Inc.".
15. "Quarto's Jacqui Small prepares to step down {{!}} The Bookseller".
16. Neill, Graeme. (16 August 2011). "Quarto Snaps-up Frances Lincoln". The Bookseller.
17. "Directors & Dealings".
18. Eyre, charlotte. (16 October 2014). "Quarto predicts annual profits 122m". The Bookseller.
19. Farringdon, Joshua. (25 February 2015). "Quarto buys Ivy Press for £1.3m". The Bookseller.
20. "Quarto Buys Becker&Mayer".
21. Campbell, Lisa. (24 March 2017). "Quarto disposes of Regent Publishing Services for $7m". The Bookseller.
22. Pauli, Michelle. (17 March 2016). "David Solomons wins Waterstones prize with superhero story". The Guardian.
23. Kean, Danuta. (30 March 2017). "Waterstones children's book prize goes to 'mesmerising' debut adventure story". The Guardian.
24. (7 March 2019). "6 Books You Should Buy For Your Kids, According To Blue Peter Book Awards".
25. "2018 Winners {{!}} The Bookseller".
26. Telling, Oliver. (15 March 2022). "British publishers censor books for western readers to appease China". Financial Times.
27. (14 April 2016). "Stock Exchange".
28. Cowdry, Catherine. (26 April 2016). "Quarto launches Spanish language imprint: Quarto Iberoamericana".
29. (n.d.). "Customer Service". Quarto Group.