IPG/PMA Distribution Program at 10
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 8/28/2006
When Irene Singletary, publisher of year-old Morgana Press, got a call last week telling her that her very first book had been selected for PMA's Trade Distribution Acceptance program with Independent Publishers Group, she was, she said, "very pleased. I won't say we would never have been able to do this otherwise. But certainly working with IPG is going to open doors much more readily."
Now in its 10th year, the program offers presses like Morgana, which don't have a distributor, a chance to get trade representation for a single title. The books are included in IPG's Small Press Selection catalogue, and some presses—most recently Angel Bea Publishing and SuperCollege LLC—are picked up for full trade distribution with IPG. Twenty-five to 35 books are winnowed from as many as 150–170 submissions to the program twice yearly. The final selections are made by a committee composed of representatives from IPG and PMA; buyers from independents, Borders and Barnes & Noble; and others in the book business, who judge the submissions based on marketing and publicity plans and the overall look of the books. "This is a program I dislike administrating," said PMA executive director Jan Nathan, "because I have to tell more people 'no' than 'yes.' " On the other hand, she notes, books that would never have been noticed without the distribution program account for significant business for booksellers.
Morgana (www.morganapress.com), in New Orleans, looks forward to the opportunity to work closely with IPG on revisions to the actual package and has already pushed back the pub date for Orléans Embrace, with The Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré: The Historic French Quarter of New Orleans ($50) by Roy F. Guste and T.J. Fisher, with photos by Louis Sahuc, from this fall to April 2007. Other changes were dictated by Hurricane Katrina, which hit just one week after Morgana obtained rights to Guste's photographic paean to The Secret Gardens of Vieux Carré, originally published by Little, Brown in 1993.
"We were going to return a beautiful book about the French Quarter back into print," explained Singletary. Instead, Morgana added new material to turn it into a commemorative volume with text and 380 photographs. "We want to make sure New Orleans is remembered and is in the forefront of people's mind for something other than tragedy," said Singletary, who will keep her day job as a medical administrator for a little longer. All profits from the book will be donated to French Quarter preservation efforts. Singletary plans to keep the press's focus on New Orleans and is in negotiations for eight more New Orleans books.
