Rather than cut back its lists during what is a difficult time in scholarly publishing, University Press of New England, in Lebanon, N.H., is instead expanding. Earlier this year, it added Northeastern University Press to its ranks and it is moving aggressively to give its member institutions more visibility. The only multistate scholarly press group in the country comprising both public and private institutions, UPNE is branding more of its books under the names of its members, or imprints—Brandeis University Press, Dartmouth College Press, Northeastern, University of New Hampshire Press, University of Vermont and Tufts University Press.
"GM doesn't sell cars as GM, but as Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles," said UPNE director Richard Abel. "We felt we should emphasize the institutional names, particularly since the kinds of books published under them tend to be scholarly books, or books used in the classroom." Of the 72 books published during the last fiscal year (ending in June), more than half were published under member imprints, a figure that Abel expects to increase this year.
UPNE will also continue to release titles under the consortium logo and under its 10-year-old Hardscrabble Books line of fiction. These books represent some of UPNE's titles that work best in trade stores, like Cathie Pelletier's new novel, Running the Bulls.
The change in branding strategy helped contribute to a 17.5% sales increase in fiscal 2005, and sales for fiscal 2006 are running ahead of last year's pace, said Abel.
Long-time UPNE members like Brandeis, which joined in 1971, are pleased to see more series branded with their name. "Every institution wants the identification," said John P. Hose, executive assistant to the president at Brandeis and a member of UPNE's board of governors. For him, "the biggest advantage of being part of the consortium is to have a publishing function for dramatically less than it would cost to have a free-standing press."
Currently UPNE has a backlist of 950 titles, but that's about to increase by 40% with the addition of 400 titles from Northeastern. To accommodate the jump in inventory, UPNE recently completed moving its fulfillment from a warehouse in Lebanon, N.H., to the Maple Press in York, Pa., which services other university presses. The consortium will continue to handle its own customer service, billing and accounting out of New Hampshire.
