Health Communications Inc. will take over the trade distribution for the Hazelden Foundation's book publishing program in January, marking HCI's entry into the distribution business. "We've stayed away from it over the years, but given that it was Hazelden, and we know their books so well, we felt it would be an easy transition," said Peter Vegso, HCI president. Although best known for its Chicken Soup series, HCI has been publishing recovery books since its launch 26 years ago, and Vegso said Hazelden's line of books on addiction and recovery "is a perfect fit" to HCI's program.
HCI will sell and distribute Hazelden's frontlist and backlist titles to all domestic trade outlets and will also assume distribution to international markets as well as taking over the sale of foreign rights. Hazelden will continue to distribute its books and educational materials to the institutional market. The first list of approximately 10 titles will include new works from bestselling authors Melody Beattie (52 Weeks of Conscious Contact and The Language of Letting Go Journal) and Karen Casey (Fearless Relationships). Vegso said HCI may consider other distribution agreements. "We'll get our feet wet and see how things evolve," Vegso said.
Hazelden has been doing its own distribution using a number of commissioned rep groups and had sold foreign rights through a number of different agencies. The majority of Hazelden's titles are geared for the professional market, but the organization does not want to exit the trade, a situation that prompted it to look for a distribution partner, said Peter Bell, executive v-p of Hazelden's publishing and educational services group. "We felt that we were not able to give the concentrated effort it would require to ramp up in the trade market," Bell explained, adding that the agreement with HCI holds "great promise" to boost Hazelden's trade sales.
The move into distribution is one way Vegso is trying to diversify HCI's business to offset the slowing sales of the Chicken Soup series. A second initiative is the formation of an in-house hardcover printing operation. The company has printed all its trade paperbacks in-house and will initiate its hardcover printing business with the publication of a new Chicken Soup series that will feature 6¼"×6¼" hardcover editions of photos and stories. The first title in what is planned as an ongoing series is Chicken Soup for the Soul: Story and Photo Collection for Teachers written by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen with photos by Sharon J. Wohlmuth.
