Scoring Big By Staying Small

How does a small publisher survive these days? So many independent houses have been gobbled up in the last 10 years that the 10 largest publishers now account for more than 60% of all book sales. Conventional wisdom says that it takes the deepest pockets to attract celebrity authors, to dominate shelf space at the superstores and the ether at Amazon, and to withstand the severe discounts required to play ball with the Sam's Clubs and Costcos of the world.

And yet, little Regnery, along with a handful of other publishers, like Sourcebooks and HCI, boast track records that belie our comparatively small size. While Regnery publishes only 20 to 25 new titles per year, we have put 34% of our new books onto the printed New York Times bestseller list in the past three years. If you look at the Times extended list, our percentage of bestsellers is 58%. HCI was once a relatively unknown publisher in Florida, but in the last 12 years they've sold 80 million copies of a little series called Chicken Soup for the Soul. And Sourcebooks, out in Illinois, made publishing history with a new type of book-and-audio combo, selling more than 700,000 copies of their landmark We Interrupt This Broadcast.

Funny thing is, our small size may actually be the key factor in our success—not only in building bestsellers, but also with books that make a difference in the world.

I submit that the best way to achieve that kind of success is by building a clear and attractive brand. Which, in my book, requires that you stay focused.

Jane Friedman of HarperCollins has garnered a lot of press recently, talking about her vision for branding parts of her company. Good idea. But can a newly revamped paperback imprint that gives us Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II, the latest chick-lit by Marion Keyes and Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine in a single year seriously establish a meaningful brand identity?

When I moved into the world of books from periodical publishing six years ago, I was stunned by publishers who said, "Oh, we do a little bit of everything," or "We publish books that really spark our interest." How do you make a business out of that, I wondered? I still don't know the answer.

Just as no book is for everyone, no publishing house is for everyone. Trying to appeal too broadly waters down your message, clouds your tone and strangles your marketing.

Rather, the success of Regnery's individual books, and of the Regnery brand, is based on thinking small. By small, of course, I mean targeted. We aim to throw a stone into the center of the pond, and then work to appeal to each concentric circle of readers moving outward. Our first question is always, "Who is this book for?" Politics aside, knowing your readers' desires, interests, pet peeves and nagging worries is essential to publishing books they will buy. Which is why Judith Regan has established a vibrant brand based on her own eclectic, but intuitively fascinating, attraction to the outrageous and the absurd. That's also why I think it was a smart move for Random House and Penguin to create boutique imprints dedicated to the conservative market.

But being small has given publishers like us a few additional advantages. We can move quickly. We can—and have—launched a potential blockbuster from rough manuscript to the bookshelf in eight weeks rather than 18 months. We work organically. Marketing is part of editorial, editorial is part of publicity, design is part of marketing. We all share the same space and talk the same language.

I once worked on a marketing piece for older, conservative retirees with a copywriter who wrote, "Wouldn't you rather be sipping margaritas on the beach?" Apologies to Jimmy Buffett, but this Florida crowd didn't sip margaritas—they were sipping martinis. And that one adjustment made all the difference. It reassured our readers that we knew who they were.

Just so with books: one sour note, and you can instantly lose your credibility with your readers. Which is why no publisher can have a brand that appeals to all readers. And why the way to publish successfully is to stick to what you know best.

Marji Ross is president and publisher of Regnery.