International Publishers Marketing in Dulles, Va., is within sight of the Washington Dulles International Airport, which makes it well situated for shipments to and from its nearly 20 clients, many located outside the U.S. In January 2005, IPM, the sister company for 20-year-old fulfillment house Books International, turns 10. "Our mission," said IPM founder Kathleen Hughes, who also founded Capital Books, one of IPM's clients, "was not just to have a catalogue and sales group. We wanted to be a marketing arm for European publishers."
Working with IPM is a lot cheaper for many publishers than opening an office in the U.S., IPM director Jane Graf pointed out. "We consider ourselves more than a sales, marketing and distribution service," she added. "We're really being the U.S. face for them. I have a couple publishers that list me on their masthead as their U.S. director. I get 10 queries a day from the U.S. and abroad. A lot of these are the one- and two-book publishers; it's the 50-plus book publisher that finds our services helpful."
Going forward, Graf would like to add more U.S. clients besides Capital. IPM covers most genres, Graf said, "from books that will improve your life to mysteries, children's and religion. There's not a type of book other than pure fiction and science fiction we don't cover." Through BI, the company has three warehouses totaling more than 300,000 sq. ft. Many of its clients use IPM for both U.S. and Canadian distribution. The company relies on a sales force of 45 commission reps to cover North America.
