Peachtree Publishers Ltd., based in Atlanta, marked its 25th anniversary with a November 22 reception at the Margaret Mitchell House in Georgia's capital city. But under its third president and publisher, Margaret M. Quinlin, Peachtree at 25 is quite a different publisher from the Southern-oriented general trade house envisioned by founder Helen Elliot or, for that matter, from the company headed by her son Wayne.
It was Wayne Elliot who brought Quinlin aboard in 1988 as executive editor and v-p from Aspen Publishers in Washington, D.C., where she served as editorial director after stints as editor at Elsevier North-Holland Publishing Company, Allyn & Bacon and Buttersworth. "I was in a commuting marriage—my husband is a professor at Emory here in Atlanta, and I had completed an MBA there while going back and forth to my job at Aspen. So when he saw an article in the local paper about an editorial change at Peachtree, he suggested I look into it."
Under the Elliots' helm, Peachtree, a founding member of the Publishers Association of the South, became known for such novels as Terry Kay's To Dance with the White Dog and Ferrol Sams's Run with the Horseman, as well as syndicated Atlanta Constitution columnist Lewis Grizzard's rollicking humor collections. Fueled in part by two Grizzard bestsellers, Peachtree's sales climbed to $2.5 million by the mid-'80s. But when Quinlin joined the company after Chuck Perry left to found Longstreet Press, sales had fallen to under $1 million amid what she recalls as "general disarray. Chuck took some authors and essentially the next season's list with him, which left me with the challenge of restoring editorial stability. Cash-flow issues were also very problematic."
In the process of rebuilding, Quinlin both streamlined the Elliots' eclectic book mix and diversified their strong emphasis on the retail market with greater attentiveness to school and library sales. Now publishing 22 to 23 titles annually—with a goal of 25 next year—75% of Peachtree's titles are in the children and young adult categories, with the others spread among parenting, health, and regional guides. The company also has an active backlist of 200 titles, and there is a hint of the Elliots' adult fiction interests in 92-year-old Effie Leland Wilder's five senior citizen—themed novels, which have sold 750,000 copies to date, including those for the four licensed by Guideposts.
To accommodate Peachtree's growth, two years ago Quinlin, with an investor, bought a 13,000-square-foot building that now houses the publisher's 16-member staff and its warehouse. Revenues are back over $2.5 million, and Quinlin, who now has a controlling interest in the company, is optimistic about Peachtree's future.