Sterling Celebrates 50 Years, Acquires Lark Books
Diane Patrick -- Publishers Weekly, 6/28/1999
As it marks its 50th anniversary, Sterling Publishing has acquired Lark Books/Altamont Press. Lark, established in 1973, is the publisher of craft books including bestsellers Complete Soapmaker and Making Mosaics. It has a backlist of about 140 titles. Included in the purchase is Fiberarts: The Magazine of Textiles and Folkwear Patterns, a producer of historical and ethnic sewing patterns. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. According to Sterling executive v-p Charles Nurnberg, the new imprint will be called Sterling/Lark, and he expects the unit to publish 100 titles a year (Lark had averaged 45 annually); distribution will switch from Random House to Sterling on October 1. Lark will maintain its editorial offices in Asheville, N.C., and Lark founder and president Rob Pulleyn will remain with the company. Earlier this spring Sterling threw a gala reception for its staff and for close publishing friends at Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center in New York City to celebrate its anniversary. Sterling can probably look forward to another 50 years of independence, said Nurnberg, since there are second- and third-generation family members of the senior executives already working in the company: Greg B hm, national accounts manager; Mark Hobson, head of the order and customer service departments; and Jeremy Nurnberg, special sales account executive. Part of the joy of being privately owned, Nurnberg told PW, is the ability to "publish things you want to publish, even though it d sn't make corporate sense." The company, whose list is 80% backlist, has "no interest in being bought by anybody," he added. "Being independent is a very nice feeling." Among the 250 attendees at the party was Kevin Zraly, author of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, with more than one million copies in print since its publication in 1985. Sterling is planning a 90,000-copy first printing for the revised Millennium Edition of the book this fall. Sterling, which has about 100 employees, has more than 3000 titles in print and more than 400 titles on the fall 1999 list -- one of Sterling's largest. One will be Norris McWhirter's Book of Millennium Records. McWhirter was the founding editor of the Guinness Book of World Records, which has sold 84 million copies to date and which was first published by Sterling for 26 years beginning in 1961. "They paid us a fortune to buy the rights back, which we invested in the company and grew the breadth of the list," Nurnberg told PW.
