One of the first reports for 2001 has some encouraging news. Jed Lyons, president of book distributor National Book Network, said that net sales in the year rose by more than 20%, to approximately $64 million. Profits did not hit projections due to the high costs of processing returns early in the year.
Lyons said that business began to pick up in the third quarter of the year and "really kicked in" in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter sales were given a big boost by two surprise bestsellers from Regnery (see related story). While Regnery was a star performer, Lyons said that most of NBN's 90 clients had a good 2001.
Making a small contribution to NBN's results was Biblio Distribution, a unit established as part of NBN this spring to distribute titles from small publishers (News, May 28, 2001). Lyons said that Biblio has signed 119 clients to date and that he expects the number to climb steadily. The division recently had its first small hit with Remmy and the Brain Train by Dr. James Maas and published by Maas Presentations. After USA Today ran a story about the book, the available stock of 3,600 copies quickly sold out, and a new printing of 6,000 copies arrived at NBN's warehouse last week. According to Lyons, "Remmy is a good example of the benefits of being with Biblio. Once the book began to take off, stores and wholesalers had a place they could call."
Lyons acknowledges, however, that "the jury is still out" on whether Biblio can be a profitable venture. "We're working with lots of business models," Lyons said.
