Equal Access

When Michigan-based Access Independent Publishers Network went bankrupt in July 2000, it caused a lot of hardship for the small and micro presses that it distributed. A year later, a former member of the Access team, Michelle Herbert, and one of its publishers, Michael Duckett of Whitmire Publishing, decided to create a new distribution company to cater specifically to small-press needs. Today, Century Book Distributors in Travers City, Mich., carries 40 titles. According to Herbert, "We won't take on more than 100 titles, because we read every book we represent. We develop the market, get the orders here and then forward them to the publishers, because it's hard for small presses to know what's happening with their books once they hand over their inventory. They can fulfill the orders themselves or hire a fulfillment company." At the same time, Century Book is able to save on warehouse costs.

Most of the publishers that Century Book works with are very small. "I have one publisher that has four titles and one publisher that has two titles. Everyone else has one." Like larger distributors, Herbert has found that "those publishers that do a lot of promotions do best." To help its presses, Herbert sends out a monthly newsletter with information on promotional opportunities and with the names and addresses of small-press reviewers. Among her company's bestselling titles are The Lost Legend of the First Christmas (Ampelo Press) by J.L. Hardesty, which averages weekly orders of 50 to 75 copies, and Misplaced: New York City's Street Kids (Xenium Press) by Alexia Lewnes.