Cover Story: Publishers' Outlook 2012: The Industry's Next Bold Move

Howard: Between online retailers, brick-and-mortar retailers and your website, where do you see the most sales?

Temple: Most of our sales are through regular retail channels, regular bookstores. When I say regular book stores, I'm lumping Amazon and other e-retailers into it. We do a lot of business with Amazon, as well as the independent stores. We love the great independents, but Amazon and Barnes & Noble [also] treat us very well.

We sold tens of thousands of copies [of "Go the F--k to Sleep"] in specialty channels: gift shops, children's stores. That's a book that lends itself to being sold in non-bookstore locations. And we also publish a lot of musicians, and you'll see those books … in places like record stores. But the lion's share of our business is regular retail channels.

Howard: What is the biggest challenge and/or the biggest opportunity for Akashic going forward?

Temple: The biggest opportunity for us is if "Go the F--k to Sleep" continues to sell really well year-round. Today it's No. 2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. When it came out six months ago it was No. 1. I'm not suggesting it'll stay [there] forever, but we've sold half-a million copies, and if we can sell 100,000 copies … a year, that would really alter our business. In a weird way it would affect us more than selling a half-a million copies this year, because with selling a huge amount this year, we're just kind of all trying to hold on.

A unique challenge we face is: The essence of Akashic Books has always been dark literary fiction, which is more or less what we exist to publish. … So it's an interesting challenge to become famous for a book that … I think "Go the F--k to Sleep" sits very well on our list, but it's the only book that we've published that could be called a gift book.