Avalon Publishing Positioned for Better 2006

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/24/2006

The extension of its distribution agreement and a 15% increase in sales in the first quarter—capped by its best month ever in March—is making it easier for Avalon Publishing Group head Charlie Winton to put 2005 behind him. Although sales rose 6% last year, helped by the acquisition of Shoemaker & Hoard Publishers, earnings slipped a bit. Winton explained that after a good start to 2005, sales began tailing off in the spring, at which point Winton decided to use the year to "clean up the balance sheet," a move that hurt the bottom line, while sales hit $32 million.

Business began improving in September and continued strong into 2006. Lower returns, good backlist sales and solid orders for two new releases—And Never Stop Dancing by Gordon Livingston (whose Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart has sold 135,000 copies since its release in November 2004) and a book on the Hell's Angels, Angels of Death—have all contributed to the improved first-quarter performance and made Winton "sanguine" about the rest of the year.

The travel segment has been Avalon's steadiest performer over the last few years; sales in the company's Rick Steves line were up about 20% in 2005, while sales in the Moon Handbook series increased 10%. To take advantage of Moon's brand recognition, Avalon is moving its Foghorn Outdoor and Living Abroad series under the Moon beam. As books in those two lines are revised, they will be rebranded Moon Outdoors and Moon Living Abroad and will carry a new Moon logo; the move will bring Moon's total line up to about 180 titles in the next three years.

Avalon's political titles turned in a mixed performance last year. "The field has really become more competitive," Winton said. Carroll & Graf's Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron sold just 35,000 copies—below expectations. A documentary centered around the book, which deals with the Kennedys and Cuba (PW, Nov. 7, 2005), will air on the Discovery channel May 4 and could revive interest in the book, and the trade paperback will include new material. Winton was happy with the 18,000-copy sales for Scott Ritter's Iraq Confidential and will publish a new Ritter book about Iran later this year. Gore Vidal's Imperial America sold 20,000 copies; while he's a bit disappointed, Winton still has high hopes for a Vidal short story collection set for the fall.

Winton's growth plans for 2006 don't include any acquisitions, although he said he has a number of different initiatives in the works that could help the company expand its publishing program without incurring much additional expense. Earlier this month, Avalon agreed to remain with its distributor, Publishers Group West, through 2007. Although Winton said Avalon has been courted by other distributors, for now he still feels comfortable with the distributor he founded.