Lower returns, growth in ancillary rights and solid sales from its major authors resulted in record results in 2006 at Dorchester Publishing, the privately held company said last week. John Prebich, who took over as president of the mass market house in December 2005, said revenue rose 9% and operating income increased by more than 10%. "Everything fell into place," Prebich explained. Dorchester, which owns Leisure Books and Love Spell, had estimated revenue last year of $40 million.
Sales in 2006 were led by Dark Dreamers, a paranormal romance by Christine Feehan and Marjorie M. Liu, which has more than 500,000 copies in print. Feehan left Dorchester several years ago, but her 15 backlist titles continue to do well and Liu has just re-signed with the house, Prebich said. Other titles that sold well last year included A Taste of Darkness by Nina Bangs, Liu's Shadow Touch and a restored version of Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage. But what helped to put Dorchester over the top was contributions from new initiatives. Sales from the company's Web site are now close to $2 million, Prebich said, and foreign rights sales, negligible in the past, hit $500,000 in '06. Even the company's small book clubs managed to grow by 5%, in part by benefiting from promotions in Dorchester's 20 magazines (which are also overseen by Prebich).
Dorchester's first venture into nonfiction, the Family Doctor series, also added to sales—the first five books in the line were released in November, and Dorchester landed a big order from CVS. The company's western line picked up some extra sales when the distributor Retail Vision put them in 170 country stores out west.
Dorchester published about 500 titles last year, an increase of approximately 75, but Prebich expects a more modest increase in title output this year. The gains will be mainly tied to new initiatives, including a reprint agreement signed with SF and fantasy publisher Wildside Press to publish two titles per month in mass market. Midyear will bring the debut of Shomi, a "speculative fiction" imprint aimed at women in their 20s and 30s that will feature "manga-inspired covers." Dorchester plans to release five Shomi titles this year and nine in 2008.
With a new international distributor in place, Prebich is looking for international sales to hit $1 million in 2007, the same figure he is targeting for rights sales. "We're continuing to look for new opportunities to help Dorchester grow," Prebich said.
