Midpoint National, the 23-year-old fulfillment house which spawned and recently sold its share of Midpoint Trade Books, is launching a sales and distribution service of its own, Delphi Distribution. “I decided we’ve got everything in place,” explains Midpoint president Ron Freund, who is serving as acting president of Delphi. Last fall he began setting up the infrastructure and has already signed a handful of small presses. Freund anticipates adding more independent publishers in the coming weeks.
Midpoint’s staff of 30 will handle sales, accounting, and fulfillment for Delphi from its 70,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Kansas City, Kans. According to Freund, Delphi has already begun selling to national accounts, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor. It will hire independent reps to handle the independent book market. In addition to distributing print books, Delphi will offer e-book sales and distribution. Its client services include both print-on-demand and offset printing, as well as e-book conversion.
Delphi will continue to ramp up this month while Midpoint Trade completes its inventory transfer to a facility in Little Rock. By the end of February, Leisure Arts will handle Midpoint Trade’s fulfillment.
