For selling to independent bookstores, Sourcebooks is moving from using commission reps to establishing an internal team of field sales and telesales reps who will be headed by Courtney Payne, the new director of independent retail sales. A 26-year publishing veteran, Payne joins Sourcebooks from Chronicle Books, where she served as director of independent retailers, wholesale, and institutional sales for the past 17 years.
 |
|
| Courtney Payne | |
Sourcebooks senior v-p Paula Amendolara said, "Courtney has a proven track record of driving growth and fostering relationships with the indie channel, and her leadership will undoubtedly steer us towards new heights, reinforcing our commitment to delivering exceptional value and innovation to indie booksellers."
Payne said, "I could not be more thrilled to be joining Sourcebooks, a publisher I have long admired, to build out an internal sales team to collaborate and grow our relationships with our independent bookstore partners. They are the reason a book takes wings. A passionate bookseller who connects with a book and spreads the love, handselling it reader by reader is the most important and crucial piece of a book's success and reach."
Sourcebooks is currently hiring field sales managers for independent bookstores in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, California/Southwest, and Northwest territories as well as three telemarketing sales managers for independent bookstores.
Margaret Coffee, senior director of sales, library and education and indie specialist, will focus on working with the trade and education distribution channels while continuing to be involved with the indie channel by spearheading sales efforts to new accounts and expanding relationships with the American Booksellers Association, the regional independent bookseller associations, and independent booksellers across the country.
Commission rep groups will continue to represent Sourcebooks through the end of the year. Sourcebooks said it is "grateful" to the groups, "who over the years have expanded our business and put our books in readers' hands."