After 17 years in editorial, marketing, sales and bookstore management for Ballantine, Grove-Weidenfeld, Routledge and Rizzoli, Paul Williams has launched Herodias, a small general-interest publishing company, which released five titles this fall.
Williams will publish his small list simultaneously in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. He told PW, "I am selling the list myself to the chains, wholesalers and online bookstores." In the U.S., he is using Mercedes Distribution Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for fulfillment; in Canada, the University of Toronto Press Distribution and two Canadian commission groups, Hornblower Books and Michael Reynolds & Associates, represent Herodias. U.K. distribution is by John Rule Sales, with marketing by Biblios Distribution Ltd.
Williams said the Web has been critical in launching Herodias. His current titles can be purchased through www.Herodias.com. By using inexpensive, off-the-shelf e-shopping software, Williams can accept encrypted payments, make online deposits and either fulfill an order in-house or forward it to his warehouse. Williams, emphasized that the Internet has enabled him to reach agents and authors worldwide. "The Internet gives small players advantages," he said.
Herodias's fall titles include The River and the Horsemen by Robert Skimin, a novel about Custer, and The Cannibal's Wife, an exposé by Yvonne Maes, a ex-nun, on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
