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NewSouth Ready for Launch
Bob Summer -- 7/3/00

When Randall Williams and Suzanne La Rosa announced the opening of NewSouth Books in April--four months after they were fired as Black Belt's management principals by that company's investors (News, Mar. 27)--they had start-up financing guaranteed, a fall list underway and a Web site (newsouthbooks.com) up and running. What they didn't have, though, was a permanent home for the privately held Alabama company.

But now they do, after finalizing the purchase of a 4,500-sq.-ft. building in downtown Montgomery they had been occupying tentatively. The building, editor-in-chief Williams told PW, houses a current full-time staff of four, short-run printing equipment, a small retail store for books from NewSouth and other houses that also focus on the region's history and culture, and storage foreseen as adequate for two years. "We plan to publish approximately 16-18 titles each of those years," he added, "although Suzanne [the publisher] is still exploring distribution alternatives. If we decide to distribute from here, we will need larger warehouse space as we grow."

NewSouth's first title is July's These I Would Keep, a hardcover collection of p ms from Alabama p t laureates edited by Helen Blackshear. Five others, including a novel (Charlotte Miller's Behold the Dream) canceled at Black Belt after Williams and La Rosa's departure, will follow later this fall. In addition to the NewSouth imprint, two others are planned--Junebug Books, for children, and Green Street Press, for on-demand printing and custom publishing. "We're not competing with Sprout and Lightning Print," Williams noted about an innovation he and La Rosa were prohibited from introducing at Black Belt. "The equipment was installed primarily to reduce the cost of galleys and give us a short-run capability in-house. But secondarily, it provides us a service to offer other small presses as well as corporate and individual clients."

Nor will the retail shop compete with local independent and chain stores, none of which are located near Montgomery's historic downtown. "We're on the tour trolley route," added Williams. "Within a block or so are the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, which will open in December, and the old Greyhound bus station, which is being converted into the National Freedom Rides Museum." As at Black Belt, books on the civil rights era and related issues will be a major NewSouth and Junebug focus. In fact, the children's imprint will debut with the African-American Profiles for Young Readers series.
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