The fifth annual listing of Publishers Weekly's fast-growing independent publishing companies is shorter than in some previous years, but the quality of the list is as high, or higher, than ever. Seven of the 11 publishers featured this year made the 1998 list, an indication of the strong publishing programs these companies have created.

With a few exceptions, the publishers on the 1999 list all grew through internal expansion, following a formula that may sound easy in theory, but can be difficult to execute. The most common trait among successful independent publishers is that they have carved a particular niche for themselves and work hard to maintain a solid reputation in the areas they have chosen. Small publishers have learned to brand themselves as leaders in their fields, making it easier to gain the attention of professional booksellers. And while small publishers don't have the big budgets their larger competitors have, most have been quick to adapt to the new technologies. Many have installed sophisticated inventory-management systems, and all work with online booksellers to facilitate sales. Indeed, since niche publishing also means niche marketing, that new bookselling channel helps small publishers reach readers that they may have been unable to in the past because of limited budgets.

The Lyons Press, for example, is well known for its fly-fishing books, and the company has done well selling through e-retailers. As publicist Don Myers notes, many of Lyons's potential customers live in remote areas, and the ability to order books online makes purchasing titles easier than taking a long drive to a bookstore. Overlook Press president Peter Mayer observes that the books that sell best through Amazon.com are those that have been ordered in relatively low numbers by stores, a trend that indicates to Mayer that most online sales are in fact additional sales and not merely cannibalizing store sales.

Seven Stories president Dan Simon says that Amazon "is crucial in cases where events surprise us," especially for Seven Stories' pamphlet series on news events. Amazon also "registers the popular vote," so that when a title d s well on the online service, the two major chains are willing to order additional copies.

Online sales at Hay House have been so strong that the company has just recently begun to sell directly to the e-retailer, says publicity director Jacqui Brust. And despite their relatively small staffs, at least two of the 11 companies on this year's list -- Sourcebooks and Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. -- have hired employees to deal exclusively with e-retailers. "We work aggressively with them," says Sourcebooks president Dominique Raccah, "and we expect online retailers to be a growing part of our business."

While nearly all the publishers interviewed by PW are excited about the prospects for sales through e-retailers, they are much more mixed in what they are doing with their own Web sites. Sourcebooks, which expects to have its site up and running by the end of the year, and Tuttle Publishing, which has set a January 2 launch date for its revamped site, are the only two of the 11 publisher on this year's list without an active site. But publishers' use of their Web sites vary a great deal.

One of the major issues facing all publishers is whether to sell directly to customers and risk alienating bookstore accounts, particularly independent stores, which are such an important channel for independent publishers. Mary Ann Sabia, v-p and associate publisher at Charlesbridge, speaks for many publishers when she notes, "The question of selling direct is a very touchy subject." Charlesbridge launched its site in the summer, but Sabia acknowledges that the company has not developed a plan on how best to exploit the site. Lyons Press has gone so far as to link its site to the Burlington, Vt., bookstore Adventurous Traveller, through which customers can buy its titles.

Perhaps one of the most conflicted publishers regarding use of his site is Chelsea Green's Stephen Morris. "We're very supportive of independent booksellers because they really get what we're all about," Morris says. Nonetheless, Chelsea's Web site has a link to Amazon and the publisher uses its own site to sell overstocks directly to customers. In addition, Chelsea has recently launched a second site, www.invisibleuniverse.com, which it views as a place where its customers can network.

Building a sense of community is one of the objectives that Hay House hopes to accomplish through its site. The site includes a chat room where readers can meet, and hosts author chats twice a month during which the author's titles are promoted. The site also has a listing of events that its authors are participating in and the author page can be linked to an author's own site.

Seven Stories has been steadily enhancing its Web site and recently launched a parallel site to sell directly to college professors. In addition, Seven Stories is looking at the feasibility of customers' downloading some of its shorter books and pamphlets directly from its site. Seven Stories has also found its site to be a valuable tool for promoting its titles to foreign publishers. "It gives us global access to publishers," Simon observes.

Adams Media Corp. sells directly off its www.adamsmedia.com site, and the company operates two other Web sites. CareerCity lists tens of thousands of current job openings, while businesstown.com provides information and Web links for people running small businesses.

Seven Stories Tall

The fastest growing publisher among the companies that submitted entries to PW this year is Seven Stories Press. Seven Stories was launched in 1996 after Dan Simon ended his partnership with John Oakes and left Four Walls Eight Windows to set up his own company. Between 1996 and 1998, revenues at Seven Stories jumped 366% and Simon expects sales in 1999 to double; sales through the first 10 months of 1999 were already nearly $1 million higher than sales for 1998.

According to Simon, the "standard bearer" for the publisher is its hardcover fiction list of about 12 titles annually. The literature line has garnered numerous prizes and steady sales; among its best known works have been Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler, Shame by Annie Ernaux and Grand Central Winter by Lee Stringer. Simon notes that Seven Stories "applies the high standards we use for our fiction titles to the rest of our list," which is led by political and health books.

A major reason for the company's strong growth has been the success of Get Healthy Now! with Gary Null, which has more than 150,000 copies in print. And although the company is only four years old, its backlist has been a steady source of revenue. Sparking sales this year have been the Null book and The Undiscovered Chekhov, translated by Peter Constantine, Dark Alliance by Gary Webb and Profit over People by Noam Chomsky Simon is especially excited about the imminent release of For Women Only: Your Guide to Health Empowerment by Null and Barbara Seaman. A first printing of 75,000 has been set for the $49.95 hardcover, which will also have a national television tie-in.

Sourcebooks' 68% sales growth in 1998 was led by the tremendous success of We Interrupt This Broadcast, which sold 225,000 copies last year and now has 400,000 copies in print. A couple of titles from Diane Irons complemented the strong sales of Broadcast. Dominique Raccah notes that the company also benefited in 1998 from the earlier acquisition of Casablanca Press and Sphinx Legal Survival Guides. Additional sales have come from the gift store market, where the company has devoted more resources. Raccah says she is expecting sales in 1999 to increase by about 50%. Sourcebooks' big book this year is And the Crowd G s Wild, which, like Broadcast, features an audiocassette combined with a large illustrated book. Its first printing of 200,000 copies has already sold out, and Raccah has gone back to print for a heart-stopping 300,000 copies. The acquisition of Hysteria Publications in 1998 will add to sales this year, and Raccah tells PW that she expects to acquire several additional publishers within the next few years. To accommodate its growth, Sourcebooks has moved to a new office with double the space. "We're on an aggressive growth path," says Raccah.

Sleeping Bear Press, last year's fastest growing small publisher with a 575% growth rate, doubled sales in 1998. "We were happy with last year," president Brian Lewis says, but adds that he expects sales in 1999 and 2000 to be very strong. The company's largest niche is golf, and it considers itself to be the largest publisher of turf grass maintenance books in the country. Regional books and children's books are Sleeping Bear's other major areas. Among its strong titles for 1999 are the autobiography of Ben Wright and books on Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. Among children's books, The Legend of Sleeping Bear is now up to 200,000 copies, and the company has just released The Blue Spruce by Mario Cuomo, which had a 35,000-copy first printing. Because of its recent solid growth, Sleeping Bear now has 29 employees and plans to release 32 titles in its trade imprint and 18 titles in its Ann Arbor Press technical unit.

After a huge increase in title output in 1997, Overlook Press kept its publishing schedule at about 75 titles in 1998, although sales jumped dramatically. "We're getting better books," says Overlook's Peter Mayer, who surmises that the "roles of large companies and smaller companies are becoming clearer. The larger companies are good at publishing big books, but books that need more attention are falling more and more to smaller companies." Company revenues also got a boost from a steady increase in subsidiary rights income, including paperback, and book club rights and foreign co-editions. One of last year's big books, Icons of the Twentieth Century, has continued to sell well into 1999 and Ali and Nino promises to be a big moneymaker for the press with lots of rights deals already booked.

One of the few independent publishers to benefit from the coming millennium is Chelsea Green Publishing, which describes its publishing niche as "sustainable living." Says company president Stephen Morris "We received a big boost in 1998" from the Y2K issue. Sales jumped 43% last year to about $2 million. The company's bestsellers include The Straw Bale House, The New Organic Grower and Four Season Harvest, and its largest markets are in Northern California and New England. By publishing under the sustainable living umbrella, Morris says, the company can remain focused, but can still publish a variety of titles from how-to books to humor titles. Copublishing arrangements, such as one with Real Goods Trading, have also helped to increase revenues. Growth has slowed a bit in 1999, and Morris is looking to find other niches, such as children's books.

Tuttle Publishing's recent growth spurt began with its acquisition in 1996 by Periplus Editions, a Singapore-based publisher and distributor. The company, which had sales of about $10 million in 1998, now consists of three imprints: Tuttle, Periplus Editions and Journey Editions. Martial arts and other Asian-oriented titles continue to be the backbone of the company, but the company added gardening and cooking books through Periplus and body, mind, spirit titles through Journey. To help keep pace with its sales gains, the company has recently doubled the size of its warehouse.

The launch of Hay House's Lifestyle gift division last summer was a major factor driving sales, which nearly reached $10 million in 1998. Hay House has used the gift line to expand its self-help and New Age titles to a wider audience, explains publicist Jacqui Brust. The Lifestyle line helped Hay House open new accounts at such retailers as Costco, Wilde Oats, Learningsmith and Crate N Barrel. Another ingredient in boosting sales last year was the bestselling performance of Sylvia Browne's Adventures of a Psychic. Steady backlist and audio sales helped to round out 1998, and Brust expects Hay House to have another record year in 1999.

In addition to its fly-fishing line, Lyons Press has done very well publishing branded books in conjunction with a number of partners. To date, Lyons has released 12 titles with Field & Stream, 10 with the New York Times/Science Times, six each with Golf Magazine and the Nature Conservancy and four with Outward Bound. Complementing its outdoor-oriented titles are books on history as well as food and wine. In addition to expanding its list, Lyons has benefited from increased business with a range of customers including through bookstores, book clubs and internationally. Lyons is on track to publish more than 150 titles in 1999 and projects sales to increase by better than 40%.

Charlesbridge Publishing's growth in 1998 was led by two new titles, Turn of the Century and More M&M's Math as well as the company's deep backlist. This year, Charlesbridge was successful in expanding the number of its distribution outlets. "We still open new accounts when we go to BEA, Toy Fair and other trade shows," Charlesbridge's Mary Ann Sabia says, adding that the company is doing much more business with mass merchandisers than it did two years ago. Despite a 13% sales gain in 1998, Sabia admits the company was "a little disappointed" with results last year, but is looking for a strong rebound in 1999 due in part to its acquisition of Whispering Coyote (News, Sept. 13). "The integration is going well. We're very excited," Sabia says.

Adams Media Corp. continues to be one of the more broad-based independent publishers, publishing in such categories as career, business, personal finance, self-help, parenting, relationships and technology. Among its strongest sellers are Knock 'Em Dead, with more than 2 million copies sold; Small Miracles, with more than 600,000 copies sold; and 365 TV-Free Activities, which has sold more than 500,000 copies. With steady sales from its 558-title backlist complementing its frontlist, sales in 1998 pushed over the $13 million mark.

Although sales at Graphic Arts Center Publishing only rose 9% last year, the increase capped a 10-year run in which sales increased approximately 145% to more than $8 million. The company has grown through acquisition -- it acquired Alaska Northwest Books in 1993 -- and internal growth, adding a new imprint, WestWinds Press, earlier this year. Graphic Arts has also expanded its distribution lines and now has four clients. Publicist Karen Bantes describes Graphic Arts as publishing "books about place." It has traditionally focused on nonfiction titles about Alaska, photo-essay books, travel guides and children's books, but with the launch of WestWinds, Graphic Arts has expanded its focus to cover other Western states. "We began as a regional publisher, but are now finding a national audience," Bantes says.