F+W Media has acquired Aspire Media LLC, the parent company of Interweave, an arts & crafts book and magazine publisher, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed.

Private equity firms Frontenac Company, Catalyst Investors, Clay Hall, as well as a couple of executives from the Interweave management team sold the publishing company to F+W. Through the acquisition, F+W Media will own Interweave’s various businesses which includes: more than 30 arts and crafts publications; 350 craft books; 33 websites; 10 online communities; 10 e-commerce stores; as well as various consumer events, and video programming.

F+W CEO David Nussbaum said that Interweave’s strategy is similar to F+W’s approach, which is to focus on “vertical communities.” F+W’s mission, Nussbaum stated, is “To provide an expertly curated portfolio of quality content, products and services, marketed and sold direct to our comprehensive database of core enthusiasts, through our robust e-commerce stores.”

Novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard has joined F+W Media as the head of their new young adult fiction imprint, Merit Press Books. The imprint will release five titles this year and has thirteen books slated for 2013.

Oprah Winfrey selected Mitchard’s 1996 novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, as the first title to kick off her famous Book Club. Mitchard has written both fiction and nonfiction, publishing books for adult, young adult and children’s readers.

Mitchard gave this statement in the release: “I’d wanted to be an editor for years, but didn’t see myself in a huge box in Manhattan. F+W made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: the chance to work with new authors and established authors on something so important. It’s exactly where I want to be at this point in my career. Something in me said – you’re home.” (Photo Credit: James Schnepf)

The publishing industry has continued to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Melville House launched its “Banana for Japan” campaign, donating the proceeds from Banana Yoshimoto‘s forthcoming novel, The Lake. Last week, the indie publisher had bestowed all the profits from sales made through its website ($5,000) to relief agencies tending to victims.

F+W Media commenced a 24-hour charity campaign today. The company has pledged 50% of profits earned from the sale of products and services to the American Red Cross. Interested parties should shop at one of the company’s 23 internet stores. O’Reilly mounted a sale and donated all revenues to earthquake relief.

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Ever read Seth Grahame-Smith‘s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and wish you had wrote it first? Now you can enter the Jane Austen parody game with the Bad Austen contest and win $250 in prize money.

Read the complete rules here. Eighty of the 800-word entries will be published in Adams Media’s upcoming compilation,  Bad Austen. Runner-up winners will receive two free copies of the anthology. The judges include Patrice Hannon, Ph.D, Carrie Bebris, and Gregory Bergman. The deadline is March 1st 2011.

Here’s more about the contest: “Our distinguished panelists will then decide which awful scenes to feature in a Bad Austen compilation that will be published in Fall 2011 by Adams Media. You can also vote for your favorite scenes on the site. The top reader-voted scene will receive special recognition in Bad Austen, the book.”