Carpenter to Head NBN Religion Division

Cindy Crosby |

Nov 20, 2000

News
Carpenter to Head NBN Religion Division Cindy Crosby -- 11/20/00 National Book Network will target religious retailers and publishers with the launch of a new division, FaithWorks, spearheaded by former Christian Distribution Services (CDS) division chairman Larry Carpenter, who left BookWorld's CDS in October (News, Oct. 16). Carpenter will act as general manager of FaithWorks and report directly to NBN president Jed Lyons. The new division, which will be headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., will offer sales representation, warehousing and order fulfillment, marketing support, returns processing, and invoicing and collections services for small and medium-size publishers and vendors of religious products. Lyons said NBN will invest in FaithWorks "whatever it takes to reach the CBA in an appropriate way." Initial staffing will be Carpenter and former CDS sales director David Troutman, who will serve as FaithWorks' director of sales. Carpenter said FaithWorks will hire an undetermined number of in-house staff and commissioned sales reps to come on board in January to sell for the spring season. The name FaithWorks was deliberately chosen, Lyons said, to show that while the primary focus of the division will be on the Christian market--and CBA stores in particular--the company will be distributing books on behalf of publishers that represent other faiths. FaithWorks sales representatives will call on both ABA and CBA retail accounts, Lyons said, and have "specialists" that will concentrate on reaching general market bookstores with religious product. "The NBN sales force will not sell FaithWorks titles, whats ver," Lyons said. "The wall between CBA and ABA is so high and so wide, we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought a sales organization accustomed to selling to one or the other could do both. I think it is best to have a dedicated sales organization selling to each channel." Lyons added that he plans on increasing his general market force, which now consists of 12 in-house reps and 25 commissioned reps, in the near future, "not because of FaithWorks, but because of growth in NBN." Ron Smith, BookWorld Services president and CEO of CDS, said he welcomes the competition from FaithWorks. "The more competition, the better. There are so many publishers desperately in need of distribution," Smith told PW. Lyons agreed that there is room for more than two distribution companies, and added, "We do not intend to approach their publishers." However, two CDS clients, Paraclete Press and Magnus Press, both told PW that NBN's new religious division will cause them to reevaluate their CDS contracts. Paraclete publisher Lillian Miao said her company was initially an NBN client, but switched to CDS because "NBN was a terrific general distributor, but couldn't figure us out because we were a Christian company." Paraclete currently has a contract with CDS, but Miao said, "With the new NBN religious division, I don't know what we'll do. We're looking at this very carefully." Pat Angel, owner of Magnus Press, said, "We need someone who understands the CBA market in order to have them do an adequate job for us. I'm not sure that BookWorld can do this now. Things have changed abruptly and radically." Smith countered, "I invented CDS out of a knowledge of the Christian industry and its needs. Of course I know the market."

News

Carpenter to Head NBN Religion Division
Cindy Crosby -- 11/20/00

National Book Network will target religious retailers and publishers with the launch of a new division, FaithWorks, spearheaded by former Christian Distribution Services (CDS) division chairman Larry Carpenter, who left BookWorld's CDS in October (News, Oct. 16).

Carpenter will act as general manager of FaithWorks and report directly to NBN president Jed Lyons. The new division, which will be headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., will offer sales representation, warehousing and order fulfillment, marketing support, returns processing, and invoicing and collections services for small and medium-size publishers and vendors of religious products. Lyons said NBN will invest in FaithWorks "whatever it takes to reach the CBA in an appropriate way." Initial staffing will be Carpenter and former CDS sales director David Troutman, who will serve as FaithWorks' director of sales. Carpenter said FaithWorks will hire an undetermined number of in-house staff and commissioned sales reps to come on board in January to sell for the spring season.

The name FaithWorks was deliberately chosen, Lyons said, to show that while the primary focus of the division will be on the Christian market--and CBA stores in particular--the company will be distributing books on behalf of publishers that represent other faiths. FaithWorks sales representatives will call on both ABA and CBA retail accounts, Lyons said, and have "specialists" that will concentrate on reaching general market bookstores with religious product. "The NBN sales force will not sell FaithWorks titles, whats ver," Lyons said. "The wall between CBA and ABA is so high and so wide, we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought a sales organization accustomed to selling to one or the other could do both. I think it is best to have a dedicated sales organization selling to each channel." Lyons added that he plans on increasing his general market force, which now consists of 12 in-house reps and 25 commissioned reps, in the near future, "not because of FaithWorks, but because of growth in NBN."

Ron Smith, BookWorld Services president and CEO of CDS, said he welcomes the competition from FaithWorks. "The more competition, the better. There are so many publishers desperately in need of distribution," Smith told PW. Lyons agreed that there is room for more than two distribution companies, and added, "We do not intend to approach their publishers." However, two CDS clients, Paraclete Press and Magnus Press, both told PW that NBN's new religious division will cause them to reevaluate their CDS contracts.

Paraclete publisher Lillian Miao said her company was initially an NBN client, but switched to CDS because "NBN was a terrific general distributor, but couldn't figure us out because we were a Christian company." Paraclete currently has a contract with CDS, but Miao said, "With the new NBN religious division, I don't know what we'll do. We're looking at this very carefully."

Pat Angel, owner of Magnus Press, said, "We need someone who understands the CBA market in order to have them do an adequate job for us. I'm not sure that BookWorld can do this now. Things have changed abruptly and radically."

Smith countered, "I invented CDS out of a knowledge of the Christian industry and its needs. Of course I know the market."

A version of this article appeared in the 11/20/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: