While some book distributors struggled in 2005, Greenleaf Book Group, which specializes in small press books, saw its sales pass the $5-million mark, or five times what it was just two years ago. Given that chairman and CEO Clint Greenleaf got his start self-publishing Attention to Detail: A Gentleman's Guide to Appearance and Conduct, which was later picked up by Adams Media, he takes this distribution niche seriously.
Over the past seven months, Greenleaf has positioned the company for faster growth. Part of the change is thinning the company's list. "If a title is not selling 1,000 books a year, it doesn't make sense for us to carry it," he said. Since June, GBG has dropped 150 clients and is now down to 350 presses. But even before the company shifted its client policies, Greenleaf estimated that the average sale for each title was 2,000 copies. Company bestseller Hormones, Health, and Happiness (Forrest Publishing) by Steven F. Hotze, M.D., has gone into three printings and sold more than 20,000 copies. Greenleaf anticipates similarly strong sales for Yossi Ghinsberg's Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival (Boomerang New Media), which launched last September with an initial print run of 30,000 copies and was featured on the Discovery Channel series I Shouldn't Be Alive.
About the same time Greenleaf began pruning GBG's list, he also began consolidating the company's operations. He closed the Chicago office and now works out of GBG's headquarters in Austin, Tex., as well as a satellite office in Florida. The warehouse remains in Cleveland, where GBG got its start. Currently, 15 full-time and eight part-time employees work in Austin. Greenleaf plans to add as many as 10 more full-time positions during the coming year.
In addition to distribution, Greenleaf is experimenting with publishing. Last fall, GBG Press released Gregory J. Wallance's Two Men Before the Storm: Arba Crane's Recollection of Dred Scottand the Supreme Court Case That Started the Civil War. Greenleaf plans to develop the publishing program slowly. "I'd like to distribute 50 client titles a year," he says, "and publish no more than five books of our own."
