Editor of 'Seabiscuit' and other best sellers joins Warner

NEW YORK (AP) _ Jonathan Karp, the editor of ``Seabiscuit,'' ``The Orchid Thief'' and many other best sellers at Random House, Inc., will run his own imprint at Warner Books. <br/><br/>Karp,

Thursday, July 21st 2005, 12:12 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Jonathan Karp, the editor of ``Seabiscuit,'' ``The Orchid Thief'' and many other best sellers at Random House, Inc., will run his own imprint at Warner Books.

Karp, who left Random House in June, has been named publisher and editor-in-chief of Warner Twelve, which will release 12 books a year.

``The idea of being both the publisher and editor of the books I work on is something I've aspired to my entire career,'' Karp told The Associated Press on Thursday. ``And I love the idea of only publishing 12 books a year. It's so hard to get people to pay attention to books and the best things a publisher can do is lavish its own attention.''

The first Warner Twelve book is expected to come out in spring 2007.

The 41-year-old Karp was in his mid-20s when he joined Random House as an editorial assistant and soon displayed a knack for spotting best sellers, especially narrative nonfiction. His many authors included Laura Hillenbrand, best known for ``Seabiscuit,'' Susan Orlean, who wrote ``The Orchid Thief,'' Sen. John McCain, Donald Trump and Po Bronson.

Karp seemed to enjoy publicizing books as much as acquiring them and once helped organize a nationwide contest to find an author to write a sequel to the late Mario Puzo's ``Godfather'' novels. Mark Winegardner's ``The Godfather Returns'' was a best seller last year.

Karp believes that Warner, publisher of Malcolm Gladwell's ``Blink'' and Jon Stewart's ``America (The Book),'' shares his aggressive approach. ``They take a position and go for it full throttle,'' he said. ``I think that's an exciting way of publishing.''

Although he rose to editor-in-chief of the Random House and Villard imprints, Karp left the publisher in June, saying he wanted more autonomy and ``to stretch some muscles.''

On Thursday, Warner Books publisher Jamie Raab told The Associated Press, ``We're hiring him because we believe he can do what he set out to do, so he's going to have a great deal of control.

``But nobody gets total control,'' she said. ``We're part of a corporate culture, and everybody has some controls placed on them.''