With next month’s simultaneous print and e-book release of My First Ladies, a behind-the-scenes look at presidential wives from Rosalynn Carter to Michelle Obama by Nancy Clarke with Christie Matheson, Sellers Publishing is moving into digital publishing. The South Portland, Maine-based press, which has appeared four times on PW’s fastest-growing small press list over the past decade, will launch its e-book program with the former white house floral designer’s book and 12 others in mid-September, including bestselling backlist titles 50 Things to Do When You Turn 50 and 500 Cupcakes.
Sellers, which was founded 20 years ago as a calendar publisher, already offers free electronic products to promote its greeting card and calendar lines on its Web site (sellerspublishing.com). Now it will sell e-books on its site, as well as through online retailers. But it has no plans to forego print any time soon. With a 25,000-copy first printing, My First Ladies has one of the press’ largest initial print runs ever, according to PR and marketing manager Andy Sturtevant. While a typical print run for Sellers is between 7,500 for a small gift book and 15,000 for a cookbook, the press is also launching a revised edition of The Bride’s Year-Ahead with a larger than normal first printing of 18,000 copies.
However, the company has especially high hopes for My First Ladies, which was originally submitted as a work on flower arranging. Publishing director Robin Haywood recognized that it would be more exciting to have Clarke, who does a lot of speaking at garden clubs and museums, write about her time at the White House. “Anybody who’s worked at the White House for 30 years has a lot of stories to tell,” says Haywood. In the book Clarke, who retired in 2009, discusses meeting world leaders and celebrities, from Menachim Begin and King Hussein and Queen Noor to Elton John and Mikhail Baryshnikov. As Michelle Obama notes in a testimonial to Clarke: “So much history and so many memories have been adorned with your work.”
