While some publishers sign on for representation, Silman-James Press in Los Angeles has decided to go it alone and take over its own distribution and fulfillment. Starting this spring, both Silman-James, which publishes books on filmmaking and the performing arts, and its Siles Press imprint, specializing in chess titles, began working with a warehouse in Ypsilanti, Mich., for fulfillment. Together the two publish five to 10 new titles a year and have a backlist of more than 60 books; their combined sales are in excess of $1 million.
According to copublisher Gwen Feldman, who founded Silman-James with Jim Fox in 1990, it makes more sense to warehouse the company's books close to the printer so that the company doesn't have to pay shipping fees from Michigan to their former distributor's warehouse in California and then back across the country to East Coast stores and to Europe. "My problem," she explained, "is that I'm a niche publisher and a lot of my sales are college adoptions, which are not dependent on a sales rep. I have experience with distributing, because I ran Samuel French trade books. It's not that big of a change for me." If anything, Feldman views the new arrangement as a chance to strengthen ties with booksellers, librarians and professionals and to cut freight costs.
Among Silman-James and Siles Press's bestselling books are The Screenwriter's Bible, which is in its third edition and has sold more than 100,000 copies, and How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman, which is also in its third edition and has sold over 65,000 copies. The new toll-free order line is (877) 757-2665.
