SCB in Gardena, Calif., which bills itself as one of the top five distributors of general independent presses, continues to expand with the addition of 13 new clients for spring 2005 after adding a like number this fall. According to marketing director Lance Tilford, the new clients bring SCB's publisher base to 120, up from 70 publishers just a year and a half ago. With the additions, says Tilford, "there's no new directions per se. We're just strengthening some categories, including art/illustrated/photography and more gift books/special market lines."
Although some of SCB's newest clients have just started, many of the principals have worked in the industry for a long time. That's the case with New York City—based Never Die Books, which was formed by Lisa London, former associate publisher of Feminist Press and artist Adam Marnie. Their debut book, to appear this spring, is an art anthology, Volume One: Strange Place. Chris Prentiss is relaunching Power Press, which remained inactive while he started Passages, a treatment and detox program in Malibu, Calif. The company will reissue new editions of the I Ching study series for which it was best known, as well as new books such as Prentiss's own The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure (Mar. 2005). Physician Vladimir Lange's Lange Media, which did well with the Be a Survivor series, will release those books to the trade for the first time through SCB, starting with his Be a Survivor: Your Guide to Breast Cancer. In March, Lange will publish his first novel, the medical thriller Fatal Memories, under his Red Square Press imprint. It will launch with a $50,000 promotional budget.
Lost Continent Library joins SCB with a new line of rediscovered adventure fiction classics, including books by Stanton Coblentz's The Sunken World and Thomas Janvier's The Hidden Trail; it will also do new books written in the same "retro" style. And photographer Jay Blakesberg, whose Between the Dark and the Light: The Grateful Dead Photography of Jay Blakesberg was just released by Backbeat last month, will begin publishing his own line of photography books, journals, planners and sketchbooks, called Jay Blakesberg Photography. Caffeine Society in San Francisco launches a line of introspective gift books, journals and photography books, including founder and photographer Jeffrey Goldsmith's Café Haiku with text by Zenbu Nometa. California Literacy's Teacher of the Year Alan Sitomer publishes Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics, his award-winning poetry/writing course workbook, under the Milk Mug Publishing banner. Sitomer was recently signed for a series of young adult novels to be published by Hyperion, starting with The Hoopster in spring 2005.
SCB has several strong erotic houses on its list and published a separate Revels catalogue of erotica and sexuality titles this fall. In the spring, it is adding two more: UK-based Erotic Print Society and Down There Press, which was formerly distributed by Words. Also new to SCB are Swedish Nicotext, which does eclectic humor books and movie quote books, and Hedonist Surf Co., which publishes pocket-size guides to surfing spots around the world.
