Press release dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS Launches UK Division Headed by Former Publishing Director of Lume Books July 16, 2024
dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS is continuing to expand its strong European network. The company founded a French subsidiary based in Strasbourg back in 2023. This is now being followed by the establishment of the British subsidiary based in London.
London/Stuttgart, 16 July 2024. Marc Hiller, founder of German based dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS, has announced the launch of a new UK division that will publish English language adult commercial fiction in all digital formats for the English-speaking markets globally.
The new division will adopt the same publishing strategy that has helped dp to become one of Germany’s most successful digital first publishers. The launch of the UK division follows the successful launch of the French division in 2023 and continues dp’s vision of building a successful network of European offices that combine local publishing expertise with proprietary technological resources developed to streamline production, finance, sales and marketing for ebooks and audiobooks.
The focus will be on publishing a wide range of commercial adult fiction that includes reinvigorating popular backlist titles and discovering new stories from brilliant authors. The UK division will also follow the other divisions by having the same concern for offering their authors the best royalty rates in the industry.
On his reasons for launching a new UK division, Marc Hiller explained “With this move we can open the way for our authors and licence partners to tap into the potential of more than 80% of ebook readers in Europe. Our success in developing dp into one of the leading independent publishers of ebooks and audiobooks in just eight years is already a great track record, but to now enter the UK market is fantastic.”
James Faktor, former Publishing Director for Lume Books, joins as Publishing Director for the UK. He will be assisted by both the Stuttgart and London office team and will begin publishing later this year.
Faktor said: “I believe that dp has already brought an unparalleled level of innovation and success to digital publishing in both Germany and France to deliver great results for authors, and I’m delighted to be spearheading their expansion into the UK. This is an exciting new development in the digital publishing space and I feel honoured to be involved from such an early stage in shaping the direction of growth.”
Marzia Ghiselli will continue in her advisory role as head of International Business Development, advising on future growth opportunities and the strategic direction of the company.
Marc Hiller
Marc is the founder and managing partner of the dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS group. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, he has held key positions in the digital business at market leaders such as AOL Time Warner and Mairdumont. In 2013, Marc founded dp DIGITAL PUBLISHERS with the vision of combining the quality standards of traditional media companies with the efficiency of digital startups. Under his leadership, the company has grown to become one of the leading independent digital-first publishers in the German-speaking region.
James Faktor
James is a publisher and founder who began his publishing career at Endeavour Press in 2016 and became Publishing Director for the renamed Lume Books 3 years later. During that time he also launched USound, an audiobook home-recording platform that works with acting schools and authors to assist with their audiobook recordings.
He left Lume Books in June 2022 to launch BookVolts, a blockchain-based publishing platform that allows authors to publish limited digital editions of their work directly for readers to own and trade.
He has a specifically digital outlook towards publishing, working across multiple aspects of the publishing process and developing a curiosity for new innovations that can help make a book successful.
Marzia Ghiselli
Marzia came to book publishing after a successful career in media sales at News UK, joining the The Bookseller Group as Business Development Director in 2009. She launched her consultancy business in 2013 offering strategic and interim services to publishers and publishing services companies, with a focus on business development, digital strategy, content acquisition for audiobooks/ ebooks, audiobook production and B2B marketing services.
In 2018, she launched the first commercial solution for AI audiobook narration and has worked on business strategy and business development projects for retailers, publishers, start-ups and distributors.
She is passionate about the commercial possibilities that the growth of digital has brought to many sectors, and specifically the solutions it presents for the creation, distribution and consumption of content. Most of all she enjoys problem solving and bringing people together to create better businesses and opportunities.