Books

Paltrow Gets in the Book Biz with Goop Press

by Caitlin White

A skincare line, beauty product retailer, lifestyle site, and promoter of a $900 throw blanket — Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop site is already on the way to becoming a lifestyle empire, albeit a controversial one. But the Iron Man actress isn't going to stop there. Tuesday Paltrow announced the launch of a Goop Press imprint, part of Hachette Book Group's Grand Central Publishing division. And the first book to be published under the new imprint? Paltrow's new cookbook It's All Easy.

Love her or eye roll and call her pretentious, Paltrow has built Goop up to be a recognizable brand and shopping site. In a press release sent to Bustle, Paltrow talked about how excited she is about the next step for her brand:

"With so much incredible content now being produced at goop.com on a daily basis, we’re excited to memorialize it for audiences across the world," she said.

Goop Press will publish one Goop-branded book per year, along with three titles chosen by a team of Goop editors, including Paltrow herself, and "expert contributors." It's All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook is set to release April 2016. Next up: A beauty-focused book for Fall 2016.

Karen Murgolo, Grand Central Life & Style’s VP and editorial director and the editor behind Paltrow's book My Father's Daughter, says Goop Press is the natural evolution of Goop's life cycle:

It has been such a pleasure working with Gwyneth Paltrow on her books over the years, and this imprint seems a natural outgrowth of her and the Goop team's trend-setting expertise in all things lifestyle — from wellness to food, from style to relationships.

Bustle attended the Fast Company Innovation Festival this week, where Paltrow and Goop CEO Lisa Gersh spoke with Katie Couric about the future of hard-copy cookbooks in the Internet age. As Gersh said:

I think books are back. There was this whole fear when ebooks came out that books would just totally disappear. I think it's just like any other part of the media business. Some people prefer to read a newspaper in the morning and get that little bit of black on their fingers, and some people read it online … I think books are the same thing.

Gersh also noted that Paltrow's upcoming cookbook is going to stun visually.

"There’s something about looking at a cookbook and turning the pages," she said. "And these books have been photographed beautifully and they're just lovely to look at. There’s something about that that’s just different."

Sure, Paltrow's latest Goop venture might cause some heavy sighs, but when you're in support of books, it's hard to argue.