Entrepreneur Press Acquires Oasis Press
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/13/2003
Entrepreneur Press has acquired Oasis Press from Publishing Services Inc. of Medford, Ore. The purchase involves 150 titles that are aimed at the small business market and includes the Smart Start series as well as the popular sellers The Franchise Bible and Managing People.
The acquisition is part of Entrepreneur Media president Neil Perlman's strategy to aggressively grow the media company's book imprint, which was launched in 1998. The company plans to publish 34 new titles under the Entrepreneur imprint in 2003, up from 13 in 2002. The significant increase is due to the expansion of the company's Start-Up series, a line that covers how-to-start titles about a variety of enterprises. Perlman has high hopes for the series, and the company is placing racks featuring the Start-Up titles in bookstores and in major office supply chains.
The Entrepreneur line will continue to be sold by National Book Network, while Midpoint will continue to sell the Oasis titles. Perlman said he hasn't decided when the lines will be sold by the same distributor. He intends to retain the Oasis imprint name "for a while," but will likely move the titles to the Entrepreneur imprint as they are reprinted.
Perlman said he was "very encouraged" by sales in 2002, and sees an opportunity for Entrepreneur to build a strong presence in books targeted at small and mid-size businesses. To help meet that goal, Perlman said Entrepreneur is continuing to scout for acquisitions.
In keeping with the entrepreneurial spirit, the company has devised a different way to handle remainders. It has created a Web site (www.freebks.com), through which it sells remainders. The first book costs $6.95 (for shipping and handling); other titles in the same order are $2.95. In the nine months the site has been operating, it has sold about 25,000 copies, Perlman said.
