Book publisher Judith Regan’s plans to move her imprint to Los Angeles by the end of the year is sending ripples through area publishing houses, which generally cater to niche audiences rather than mass markets.

With only 40 employees, ReganBooks, a unit of HarperCollins Publishers and media conglomerate News Corp., would not be one of the area’s larger employers, but its influence in the New York-centric book publishing world dwarfs its actual size: ReganBooks has had four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers so far this year.

“I don’t see this as an experiment. I see this as where the industry is going,” said James Ragan, director of USC’s graduate professional writing program, who believes the imprint will bring more credibility to local publishing. “(ReganBooks) will do very well here. There may be others who will follow once they see it.”

Los Angeles may be the capital of popular culture, but its book publishers tend toward the highbrow. Locally based publishers include Green Integer Publishing, whose authors include artists, critics and historians; Red Hen Press, whose catalog is dominated by poetry; and Alyson Publications Inc., a leading publisher of gay and lesbian titles.

Judith Regan, meanwhile, is a mercurial publisher who has fused the celebrity and literary worlds into a string of bestselling titles, including former slugger Jose Canseco’s “Juiced,” adult actress Jenna Jameson’s “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star,” and “Witness,” by Amber Frey, the former lover of convicted murderer Scott Peterson.

Regan bristles at the celebrity publisher label, countering that only 5 percent of her authors are Hollywood types and insisting that is not the reason she is changing coasts. With her characteristic sharp tongue, she said New York had become too expensive and self-absorbed and populated by “trust-fund babies” and “Eurotrash.”

“I’ve had to listen to this nonsense that Los Angeles is intellectually inferior to New York, which is not true,” Regan said. “It’s a myth that many New Yorkers seem to have. I really don’t know why the literary community in New York feels all publishing needs to be in New York.”

Connecting worlds


Even so, some Los Angeles-area book publishers expect ReganBooks will try to cement bonds between the worlds of entertainment and publishing, which remain largely disconnected.

“Southern California publishing is a small world overshadowed by the entertainment industry,” said Kate Gale, managing editor of Red Hen Press. “Publishers have taken advantage of the Hollywood scene by holding fundraisers where they have actors come in and read poetry, but it doesn’t go much farther than that.”

Regan said she wants to tap into L.A.’s entertainment community and help foster a discussion of literature. She downplayed comments attributed to her in The New York Times about wanting to bring “a different idea of culture to Southern California,” though some publishers scoffed at Regan’s notions.

“I doubt that Judith Regan can offer a deep intellectual perspective given what she’s publishing,” said Douglas Messerli, president of Green Integer Publishing, which releases 40 to 50 titles a year focusing on art and history.

“There is an intellectual center already,” Messerli said. “The one thing that’s missing is that we (publishers and authors) don’t have a dialogue. In New York, you can lean out of your window and have a dialogue.”

Location choice


With annual revenues estimated at $120 million an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of HarperCollins’ total ReganBooks already is thriving. The imprint has three titles on The New York Times bestseller list, as many as any other publisher.

Her high-profile move also has had an economic ripple effect: real-estate brokers and economic development officials around Southern California are jockeying to land the offices of ReganBooks.

Regan said has gotten more than two dozen pitches since announcing her move. Within the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., recruiters representing the Westside and downtown are vying for Regan’s business.

“I’m hearing from a lot of different real-estate people from all different areas in Los Angeles,” said Regan, who was in L.A. last week to scout locations for her home and business. “I haven’t had time to go through them all because there’s been so much recently.”

Matthew May, president of May Realty Advisors, said Regan likely would be drawn to the Mid-Wilshire corridor, Santa Monica or the Playa Vista area, because of their proximity to movie and television studios, their desirable demographics and access to freeways.

Regan would not hint at any location preference other than the obvious one: the Fox Broadcasting Co.’s complex of offices and studios on Pico Boulevard in Century City.

Like ReganBooks, Fox is owned by News Corp. and Regan has had a close relationship with her corporate patrons since 1995, when News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch offered Regan her own imprint. Regan also hosted the talk show “That Regan Woman” on the Fox television network for eight years in the 1990s and is contemplating a new talk show.

Regan said News Corp. has offered her space in the planned Fox Broadcasting Co. office building expected to open in 2007, but she would rather have her top editorial staff in Los Angeles a year earlier. And like any Angeleno, Regan said she is looking for a location that is freeway close.