Book Distribution

After the recent announcement that the independent Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group would be the exclusive distributor for New York-based The Kane Press, Book Business EXTRA! chatted with Adam Lerner, the president and publisher of Lerner Publishing Group, about the deal, the company’s history in distribution, and the benefits in controlling the publishing process of your own titles from start to finish. Book Business EXTRA! -- What benefits has Lerner Publishing found in distributing its own titles since 1959? Adam Lerner -- We have always developed, produced, warehoused and shipped our own titles. It has always been important for us to have control

Environmental advocacy groups were likely breaking out the champagne as Random House Inc. (www.RandomHouse.com)—the world’s largest English-language trade book publisher and the U.S. division of Random House, the largest trade book publisher in the world—­announced its plans for a tenfold increase in its use of recycled paper. The company says that within four years a minimum of 30 percent of the uncoated paper it uses to print the majority of its U.S. titles will be derived from recycled fibers (as opposed to its current 3 percent). The announcement marks the most substantial environmental initiative in the company’s history, and considering the fact that

If you haven’t reviewed your options in environmentally friendly paper in a while, it might be time to do so. There are currently more than 50 papers on the market made from recycled paper, 20 of which contain 100-percent recycled content. Others contain anywhere from 10-percent to 90-percent recycled content and brightness levels up to 97. Many are also produced using more environmentally friendly bleaching processes, such as processed-chlorine free or elemental-chlorine free processes (see box below). Supply seems to be keeping pace with demand, and as more publishers are committing to improving their environmental footprints, including giant Random House (see story on page

Nine hundred billion dollars. That’s the estimated buying power expected of the Latino market within the next five years. Today its buying power is $500 billion here in the United States, and it is considered the 12th largest economy in the world. Information like this can be found on www.SpanishBookMarket.com—a Web site built and maintained by Mark Wesley of Rosa + Wesley, a development firm specializing in graphic design, book production and Spanish translation located in Wheaton, Ill. For those in any business, such numbers are enough to make one’s head spin. Yet some in book publishing are just now waking to this

Len Kain, vice president of marketing, Dogfriendly.com, knows firsthand how much of a gamble fulfillment can be in the book business. While he’s figured out a system for just the right level of inventory, he concedes it can be a roll of the dice. As a small publisher, he’s learned to play the game of fulfillment and returns to his best advantage—to reduce losses and increase gains. For him, as for larger publishers and also distributors, developing efficient warehouse fulfillment and return procedures can involve a healthy run of trial and error. So what is working and what isn’t? Book Business interviewed two