Nelson Inks Deal for WND Books Imprint

Thomas Nelson has signed an agreement with WorldNetDaily to create the WND Books imprint. WND is the parent company of WorldNetDaily.com, a news Web site "committed to hard-hitting investigative reporting of government waste, fraud and abuse."

Under the agreement, WND will develop the content for the imprint under the direction of Joel Miller, an editor with WND.com. Nelson will handle manufacturing and production and will sell the line to its retail accounts, while WND will market the titles through its Web site. Rebecca Haeglin, a spokesperson for WND, said the idea for an imprint came from the success the company has had selling books through its site. WND sold more than 100,000 books last year, and its bestseller to date, with 25,000 copies sold, has been Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor. Among the titles available for sale on the site are autographed copies of Patrick Buchanan's The Death of the West and Dr. Laura Schlessinger's Parenthood by Proxy.

The lone title to be released this year under the new imprint is Center of the Storm by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. The title, due out in August, will be about leadership. Twelve titles are scheduled to be published in 2003, led by radio talk show host Michael Savage's The Savage Nation and a book about the downing of TWA Flight 800, The First Strike by Jack Cashill and James Sanders. Haeglin said she expects that most of WND's authors, and audience, will be drawn from "people who feel the government needs to be accountable for its actions."