Andrews McMeel's Strategy: Building 'Bench Depth'
Titles from Andrews McMeel’s “Posh Puzzle” line. “… Our titles in home and craft, keepsake, puzzles and games, general trade and children’s all enjoy long shelf lives,” says CEO Hugh Andrews. “AMP’s backlist is of significant importance.”
Titles from Andrews McMeel’s “Posh Puzzle” line. “… Our titles in home and craft, keepsake, puzzles and games, general trade and children’s all enjoy long shelf lives,” says CEO Hugh Andrews. “AMP’s backlist is of significant importance.”
Titles from Andrews McMeel’s “Posh Puzzle” line. “… Our titles in home and craft, keepsake, puzzles and games, general trade and children’s all enjoy long shelf lives,” says CEO Hugh Andrews. “AMP’s backlist is of significant importance.”
The company’s gift book lineup ranges from Robert Pattinson and Taylor Swift books to the best-selling “Blue Day” series, which has sold more than 20 million copies internationally.
“The Art and Soul of Baking” is one of five cooking titles Andrews McMeel Publishing has published in partnership with cooking supplies retailer Sur La Table.
Cookbook publishing is among Andrews McMeel’s strongest segments. “My New Orleans” recently “sold out of its 50,000-copy first printing,” says Kirsty Melville, AMP’s book group publisher and president.
In addition to unique, quality content, strategic partnerships have been key to the line's success. One profitable partnership has been with high-end cooking-supplies retailer Sur La Table. "'Things Cooks Love,' published in the spring 2008, was the first cookbook in our publishing program with Sur La Table, and was an IACP [International Association of Culinary Professionals] Award finalist. Our second Sur La Table title, 'The Art and Soul of Baking,' was a James Beard nominee and IACP winner this year," says Melville.
In all, the company has published five Sur La Table titles. And, this spring, the company will release a sixth, "Eating Local: A Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers," which Melville explains "highlights local CSAs [community-supported agriculture] and celebrates the farm-to-table initiative that the nation has enthusiastically embraced."
Later this year, Andrews McMeel is launching two additional partnership-based titles: "Bon Appetit Desserts," featuring hundreds of recipes from Bon Appetit magazine's archives along with new recipes, and a new cookbook in partnership with Foodista, an online cooking encyclopedia.
Such partnerships not only build revenue from cookbook sales, but, says Melville, the success of the cookbook program also has "enabled us to attract and develop relationships with some of the nation's top food bloggers—exceptional writers of passion and great influence," which, in turn, helps to develop future profitable relationships.
"Successful, enduring relationships have been at the core of AMP's success," says Andrews.
The vitality of Andrews McMeel's cookbook program also may be partially due to the fact that it reflects another of the company's strengths: its gift books. "AMP has always excelled at gift publishing. I saw cookbooks as a different type of gift book that complemented our traditional strengths," Melville says.
And, like most gift books, they reach a wide swathe of the consumer marketplace. "Cookbooks can be sold in multiple markets to difference niches and communities," she notes.
- People:
- Kirsty Melville
