Oxmoor Ups Retail Quotient

by Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 4/9/2007

Timed to take advantage of its new sales arrangement with Holtzbrinck, Oxmoor House has just released The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person by Judith S. Beck. Early response to the title has been encouraging enough that The Beck Diet Solution is now in its third printing, with 185,000 copies, and company executives believe it could be one of its bestsellers this year.

The Beck Diet Solution fits in with Oxmoor's strategy to expand its presence in the retail book trade and into new categories. “Direct-to-the-consumer has been the strength of the business at Oxmoor House,” said Brian Carnahan, v-p and publisher of the company, which is owned by Time Inc. and is a sister company of Sunset Publications. Before the deal with Holtzbrinck, Oxmoor used commissioned reps and another Time Inc. publisher, Leisure Arts, to pick, pack and ship its books. Leisure will continue to do fulfillment while Holtzbrinck picks up sales.

Oxmoor is known for its illustrated lifestyle and food titles, often branding with partners that include Southern Living; O, The Oprah Magazine; and Williams-Sonoma, explained Carnahan. The categories Oxmoor wants to expand include nutrition, health and diet. The title by Judith Beck, director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research (named for her father, Aaron T. Beck, a psychiatrist whose cognitive therapy challenged Freudian ideology), is one of the few author-driven books at the press. In it, Beck draws from her father's work to create a six-week program aimed at helping people change their thinking about food and weight management. Oxmoor also has high retail hopes for Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman, due out this November. Carnahan said Oxmoor has not hired anyone to focus on author-driven titles, but may do so in the future.