Red Wheel/Weiser and Hampton Roads Sign Joint Operating Agreement
By Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 5/12/2009 9:07:00 AM
In what could become a model for other small presses struggling to overcome the challenges of the current economic climate, 20-year-old Hampton Roads Publishing in Charlottesville, Va., has signed a three-year distribution and joint operating agreement with Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari Press effective June 1.
Under the arrangement, Red Wheel, which already handles distribution for eight small presses, will take on sales and distribution for Hampton Roads. But in a twist, Hampton Roads will operate much like a privately owned imprint of Red Wheel, with complementary but separate lists. Hampton Roads is closing its Charlottesville office and sales and marketing director Greg Brandenburgh will work out of Conari Press’s San Francisco office. The other four full-time Hampton Roads staffers, who remain after the company cut 11 positions earlier this year, will telecommute.
Red Wheel president Michael Kerber credited new Hampton Roads majority owner Randy Davila, who comes out of newspaper publishing where dailies sometimes share back-office functions, with coming up with a creative solution to keep Hampton Roads afloat and to give Red Wheel critical mass. With the addition of Hampton Roads’s list, Red Wheel will grow both its frontlist and backlist by 50%. In effect, it will publish 75 books a year, up from 50 for Red Wheel alone, and increase its backlist from 800 to 1,200 titles. “We’re looking to thrive rather than simply survive. Together we have a much stronger presence,” said Kerber, who notes that the combined companies will have $10 million in sales. “Independent publishers are in the best position to collaborate and find unique ways to work together. Our new relationship with Hampton Roads is one way.”
Although the agreement doesn’t officially begin until immediately after BEA, Red Wheel plans to feature Hampton Roads’s books at its booth (#3465). Among its lead titles are Neale Donald Walsch’s recently released When Everything Changes, Change Everything, currently in the top ten at Amazon, and Richard Bach’s Hypnotizing Maria. In many ways the Walsch book represents exactly what Hampton Roads has done.
