Micro Distribution

"Basically, I've always been a sales-type guy, going back to 1962," said Alan C. Hood Jr., president of publisher and distributor Alan C. Hood & Company Inc., who began his career as a sales representative for G.P. Putnam's Sons. "I'm a micro-NBN. I look for congenial people to work with." Hood represents only a handful of publishers, the largest being the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore and J.N. Townsend Publishing in Exeter, N.H., which does books on animals.

Seven years ago, Hood moved to Chambersburg, Pa., which he regards as an ideal location. "I can hop in the car and drive to all the major book accounts—Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Koen, Barnes & Noble and Borders—in one day," said Hood, who describes himself as "a niche kind of guy. I have four or five active clients. I have oddities like Pennsylvania's Rail-Trails. I carry that, and it's a one-book deal. I specialize in outdoor related, historical and rural self-sufficiency. I don't do fiction."

For Hood, distribution is "a mixed bag right now. You have a situation where the chains are so dominant, and small presses are really vulnerable to that. A distributor can't do anything about that: Alan Hood, PGW or NBN. When I take on a client, I'm always careful to make sure they do publicity and nonbook marketing on their own. I only call on the book trade."

Recently one of Hood's clients, Lisa Rogak of Williams Hill, decided to go it alone. She's now publishing and distributing her books under the Litterature imprint (that's litter, as in kitty litter). She even has a Web site, Litterature.com, which sells animal greeting cards and sympathy cards. "It was a good fit," Rogak told PW of her three-year distribution arrangement with Alan Hood, "but there were too many returns. One of my books was on Oprah—they showed the book cover on the air and it still hasn't earned out."

Rogak has licked the returns problem for her newest book, PerPETual Care: Who Will Look After Your Pets if You're Not Around (Sept.), by selling it at 50%, nonreturnable. "I came up with the idea that if you buy it through my Web site, you can name your favorite charity and I'll make a $5 donation. But I sell most of my books through Amazon." Going it alone gives Rogak the added advantage of working on marketing and publicity at a slower pace. "I have no distributor breathing down my neck to say there's no reason to justify shelf space," she noted. "The way I have to sell a book is not necessarily to buy an ad in the distributor's catalogue and do publicity for a month." PerPETual Care will be featured in Prevention magazine in April.