Spring wouldn't be complete without crocuses, cherry blossoms, the opening day of baseball or the transfer of publishers to new distributors. PGW has the most activity as a result of its recent merger with Advanced Marketing Services (News, Jan. 21). It has just added the publishing lines of AMS's Advantage Publishing Group—Laurel Glen (lifestyle), Portable Press (humor/reference), Silver Dolphin (children's), Silver Dolphin Spanish Editions (children's) and Thunder Bay (lifestyle). Other publishers formerly with Advanced Global Distributors and now with PGW include Dumont Monte, Edition Stemmle (photograph), Lobster Press (children's and travel), Raincoast Books (literary fiction and nonfiction, children's, travel), Touring Club of Italy (travel) and Wordsworth Editions (public domain classics). PGW is also handling distribution for two big fall releases: Teddy's World, with a 100,000-copy first printing from Joost Eiffers Books (author/packager of Play with Your Food), and A Day in the Life of Africa, with a first printing of 60,000 copies, published by Tides Foundation to benefit AIDS education in Africa.
The David Brown Book Company, the North American offices of Oxbow Books Ltd., will handle North American distribution for all English-language publications for academic and scholarly publisher Brepols. The Belgium-based publisher specializes in medieval studies, philosophy, music, art history and linguistics, and includes publications under the recently acquired Harvey Miller imprint.
National Book Network has also been busily adding new houses to its roster, including five-year-old Harbor House in Augusta, Ga.; Texas-based Bright Sky Press (cookbooks, gardening, children's, regional books); U.K. business publisher Spiro Publishing; Gentle Revolution, which will release the 40th-anniversary edition of its five-million-copy bestseller, How to Teach Your Baby to Read; Dillman Karate International; and mystery and photography publisher Long Wind Publishing. In addition, NBN has signed three new publishers: Book Network International, run by Spencer Smith and Jean Kerr; Carriage House Publishing, headed by Jack Savage and Cheryl Kimballand; and Ruder Finn Publishing, headed by David Finn of Ruder Finn Public Relations.
In other News, Bookworld Services Inc. in Sarasota, Fla., announced that it has restructured its sales department and hired several full-time staffers, including Kevin Faherty, formerly with Book Brothers, who will handle the Western states; Randy McKenzie, formerly of Meredith, who is in charge of national accounts; Nigel Yorwerth, who will concentrate on New Age and health accounts; John Plough, who is in charge of telephone sales operations; and Alejandro Reyes, who is concentrating on the Spanish book market.
