Mint Condition

When Morty Mint, former head of Penguin Books in Canada and Penguin USA, started Mint Publishers Group a decade ago, he chose a different tack than most North American distributors and decided to concentrate on brands. "That's the niche we've created," said Mint, who acknowledged that it's been hard to fill the vacuum left by the loss of Mint's biggest brand, the Guinness World Records, which changed distributors last year. Mint got out 2.25 million copies of the millennium edition in hardcover; Wal-Mart alone sold 300,000.

Now Mint has signed on with Client Distribution Services in an arrangement similar to the one LPC made with the company, so that it can continue distributing new titles without the headache of operating a warehouse. According to Mint, there is a difference, besides the fact that his company is in good financial shape and about to relocate to North Salem, N.Y. "We also have an agreement with CDS with respect to new clients coming on board from the U.K. and Australia," he said. "They are referred to me." Mint will handle sales for CDS's new U.K. and Australian clients, while CDS takes care of the rest.

Among Mint's newest projects are Barry Fish and Les Kotzer's self-published The Family Fight: Planning to Avoid It, the first of a projected three-book series; Sandi Richard's Cooking for the Rushed series, which includes the newly released The Healthy Family and a new line of craft and quilting books from Creative House in Australia.