Green Tree, a new international wellness imprint from Bloomsbury, launched in February with Bloomsbury Sport publisher Charlotte Croft at the helm.
The imprint will import a number of titles from Bloomsbury’s U.K. operation, including, so far, Breaking Mad by Anna Williamson, with Reetta Newell, which proposes strategies for reducing anxiety, and The Wealthy Body in Business: Earn More Money by Being in Better Shape by Tim Bean and Annie Laing.
May brings My Sugar Free Baby and Me by Sarah Schenker, offering more than 80 recipes for parent and child, and a U.S.-only book, The Gut Makeover by nutritional therapist Jeannette Hyde, which details a gut-health-focused plan for losing weight and counteracting digestive issues.
Croft, who commissions for both sides of the Atlantic, concedes that some of the imprint’s titles will have a distinctly British character. In September, in the U.K., Green Tree will publish Sod Sitting, Get Moving! by Diana Moran and Muir Gray, an exercise book for seniors.
“The word sod is incredibly problematic in the U.S.,” Croft says, where “it means a clod of earth.” She adds, “In the U.K., it’s just slang.”
Green Tree doesn’t plan to change the title of that book for its stateside publication, but Croft says that in the future more Americanizing may be necessary. “I’m doing some parenting titles, and we’re finding that very interesting, discussing the differences between the U.K. and the U.S., even just in terms of maternity leave,” she says. “In the U.K., it tends to be much longer.”
Green Tree’s goal, Croft says, is to give readers “accessible” and sometimes “challenging” takes on health and wellness, as well as to avoid fads. “We’re very used to publishing things that will backlist well,” she says. It’s about “taking a step back and being careful about what we choose to publish.”
