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Lyons Press Looking for More Success in '01
Jim Milliot -- 5/29/00

The Lyons Press finished the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, with a 50% increase in sales to $8 million. Company president and publisher Tony Lyons is anticipating revenues to be in the $10-$12 million range in fiscal 2001.

Lyons said the growth in the last year was the result of gains "across a variety of niches." Best known for its fishing and outdoor titles, the company did very well in military history, due in part to the republication of David Howarth's We Die Alone, which sold approximately 35,000 copies. Lyons Press has had success with republishing several other "forgotten" books, including The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz, which sold more than 20,000 copies last year, and it has high hopes for the forthcoming republication of William Stevenson's A Man Called Intrepid. The company also continues to do well with copublication arrangements with such companies as L.L. Bean, Orvis, Field & Stream, Walking magazine and the American Quarter Horse Association. Partnering with well-established parties helps a small publisher get recognition in the marketplace, Lyons explained.

The company will publish about 100 titles this fall. While it looks to broaden its reputation as more than a fishing book publisher, its big book for the year will nevertheless be tied to fishing. Working with Scribner and the Hemingway estate, Lyons Press has put together a collection of Ernest Hemingway's best essays, stories and novel excerpts as well as some letters in a new anthology titled Hemingway on Fishing. The publisher has set a 100,000-copy first printing for the November book.

Other books that Lyons expects to do well this year include Doctor on Everest by Kenneth Kamler, M.D., Jay McInerney's Bacchus and Me, The Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Fitness, and Weight Loss by Mark Fenton, which is being done in conjunction with Walking magazine, and Brady's Civil War by George Herbert. Lyons considers the fall list to be the company's strongest ever, due in part to the consolidation among the major publishers that has resulted "in an open season for small publishers in niche areas."

Lyons Press has also begun to experiment with electronic publishing. Although it has licensed one title to an e-book publisher, Lyons has found more success licensing content to Web sites. Lyons said he sold material from one outdoor book to three different sites for $10,000 each, and he is looking to do similar deals. "This could be a great source of ancillary income," Lyons predicted.
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