Fifty-five years after releasing its first publication, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, a meditation book by Richmond Walker that still sells well above 100,000 copies every year, Hazelden Publishing is breathing new life into its trade list by returning to its roots: publishing books for audiences beyond its core market, the addiction/recovery community.

Calling Hazelden a “backlist publisher” with a mission to reach out to a broad audience “as almost everyone has someone in their family who has an addiction,” Sid Farrar, director of editorial and trade for the book publishing arm of Hazelden, the renowned Minnesota alcohol and drug treatment center, says the press is rejuvenating its list by acquiring and publishing books on a full “spectrum of life issues” designed to stand the test of time and appeal to a broad cross-section of readers. Besides the tried-and-true topics of addiction and 12-step recovery, the press is renewing its focus on books dealing with spirituality and relationships, and developing a new category of emotional/mental health titles.

“The institutional parts of the business had taken precedence in recent years,” Farrar says, with the press shifting its emphasis to producing “evidence-based” curricula for use in schools, prisons and recovery centers, while relying on “bestsellers”—like memoirs—to fuel its trade frontlist.

The emphasis on the educational and institutional markets in recent years isn't all that surprising, considering that sales to the trade and direct to consumers account for only 25% of the company's total annual revenue. Business-to-business sales bring in 75% of revenue—$28 million in 2008.

According to Nick Motu, Hazelden Publishing's COO, while there are 600 trade titles in print, and 300 are actively marketed, only 60 backlist titles actually drive total revenue from trade sales. Besides Twenty-Four Hours a Day, which has nine million copies in print, these perennials include seven books by Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More, released in 1987, with five million copies in print, and six books by Karen Casey, author of Each Day a New Beginning, released in 1982, with 1.5 million copies in print.

“Twenty-five years ago, we had books that went on selling,” Motu said, disclosing that Hazelden's frontlist has demonstrated a downward trend in sales in recent years. “We have yet to consistently find titles that sell more than two years later, while some of our backlist is going on 10, 15, even 25 years. We're trying to replicate that.”

Besides reissuing select backlist with more contemporary cover designs and making key titles available in digital formats, the press is scheduling for release new works by its most renowned authors—including Cultivating Hope by Casey in fall 2009 and an as-yet-untitled book by Beattie in 2010—hoping to bring back older readers already familiar with Hazelden's backlist. At the same time, the press is aggressively seeking edgier works by up-and-coming authors, to draw in younger readers unaware of or not previously interested in Hazelden's publications.

The eight releases on Hazelden's spring 2009 trade frontlist are the first to reflect its new trade publishing strategy. The list includes new books by established authors, such as Deceived: Facing Sexual Betrayal, Lies and Secrets by Claudia Black, author of 13 books, including It Will Never Happen to Me: Growing Up with Addiction as Youngsters, Adolescents, Adults—which has sold more than two million copies—alongside Spent: Break the Buying Obsession and Discover Your True Worth by Sally Palaian and Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA by A.J. Adams—a work that Farrar claims is the only manuscript he's ever considered for publication at Hazelden that made him laugh out loud upon first reading.

Although it's too soon to tell if Hazelden's strategy of reaching backward while moving forward will be successful, Motu says, “Early signs indicate a strong interest in our new titles,” with “sell-in numbers for new titles so far trending higher than the fall of last year,” when the downward turn in the economy resulted in a 10% drop in September and October in sales of trade titles.