Rich Freese, former president of PGW, has become head of Atlas Books and BookMasters Distribution Services (BDS), a new division of BookMasters Inc., Ashland, Ohio. The reorganization is aimed at strengthening BMI's sales and distribution for independent publishers. At BookMasters, Matt Wurster will lead digital services, and Ray Sevin will continue as president of manufacturing. Atlas, which distributes smaller, more boutique publishers, will be run separately from BDS, which will focus on medium-sized and larger publishers.
The company sees BDS as "a one-stop shop for printing and binding, digitization, domestic and international sales and fulfillment." In a statement, BookMasters CEO Dave Wurster said: "Over the past 40 years, we have created a strong set of services around book production and distribution, and this new structure will reinforce these core operations. Adding Rich's experience and expertise is an outstanding opportunity for us to enhance our sales and distribution offering through print and digital channels across all market sectors."
In a sign of the times, BookMasters emphasized that it is funding the new division from cash flow and that it is not "a speculative startup."
Freese has begun hiring a sales and marketing staff for BDS that will be led by Jeremy Nurnberg, the new v-p of sales. Nurnberg was formerly v-p of trade and institutional sales at Sterling Publishing, now owned by Barnes & Noble, and will, BookMasters said, "bring his expertise in selling to the chains, independents, special sales and international markets."
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BDS's first client publisher is Imagine Publishing, founded by Charles Nurnberg, former CEO of Sterling Publishing.
Imagine will publish titles that "cross over a multitude of subjects, including science and nature, music and art, sports and reference, and the magic of knowledge." Imagine has partnered with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary to form Peter Yarrow Books, whose first book will be The Marvelous Toy based on the song of the same name by Tom Paxton. Future titles will come from Yarrow and "many of his friends throughout the music world." Yarrow and Nurnberg worked together on Puff, the Magic Dragon, the 2007 bestselling book.
Yarrow commented: "It has been my dream to have an imprint of my own to create books and CDs with other singers, where they can find the kind of delight and pleasure I have experienced with Puff, the Magic Dragon. I'm hoping this work will bring music of caring, conscience and imagination to all."
Imagine's fall 2009 children's line will include Micro Mania: A Really Close-Up Look at Bacteria, Bedbugs, and the Zillions of Other Gross Little Creatures That Live In, On, and All Around You, If I Were Raised by a Dinosaur, Jumbo Jigsaw Storybooks (with six jigsaw puzzles included) and The Children's Solar Energy Book Even Grown-Ups Can Understand.
The adult list includes Rock & Roll: . . . and the Beat Goes On, with "Cousin Brucie" Morrow; two titles featuring the work of photographer Pete Oxford, Galapagos: The Other Side of the Coin by Graham Watkins, president of the Darwin Foundation (with a foreword by Prince Philip) and Spirit of the Huaorani: The Lost Tribe of the Amazon (with a foreword by Sting); The Human Genome by Dr. John Quackenbush, which is the first title in the Curiosity Guides series; and Delicious Diabetic Recipes: The Cookbook for a Healthy Life by Dr. Rani Polak.