To better service independent and museum stores, three university presses—The MIT Press, Princeton University Press, and Yale University Press—are forming a joint U.S. sales team that will begin selling the Spring 2017 season this Fall. Currently, MIT and Yale along with Harvard University Press have jointly sold their titles in much of the country. HUP is expected to soon announce that it is signing with Columbia University Press for sales starting in September.
The timing of today’s announcement was triggered by the retirement and pending retirement of several key sales representatives, including Adena Siegel who retired in 2014; John Eklund, a PW 2011 Sales Rep of the Year, who will retire in August; and Steve Ballinger, who will retire after the Fall 2016 season.
The new team will comprise David LePere in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and Patricia Nelson in the Northwest, Southwest, the Rockies, and California. Eklund’s replacement will handle sales in the Midwest.
“Together, we represent the best in scholarly publishing today,” John Donatich, director of Yale University Press, said. “And it’s great to have the chance to work together to serve better those taste-making and culture-changing forces of the marketplace: independent bookstores and museum shops.
Customer service, credit, and distribution for MIT and Yale will remain with Triliteral LLC, in Cumberland R.I.; Perseus Distribution handles customer service, credit, and distribution for Princeton.
