The Oxford, U.K.—based publisher Osprey Publishing Ltd. is upping its presence in the U.S. with the launch of Osprey Publishing Inc. The new subsidiary will be located in New York and will house a four-person staff in addition to OPL managing director William Shepherd, who will be president of OPI and will spend about one week each month in the U.S. The initial focus of the New York office will be to take over sales and marketing of Osprey's titles. For the past three years, MBI has distributed Osprey's line to the trade, but beginning January 1, the company will handle its own sales and marketing.
Doug France, former trade sales manager at MBI, is joining OPI as sales and marketing director and will be responsible for trade and specialty accounts. Bill Corsa, president of Specialty Book Marketing and who has served as Osprey's U.S. agent, has been named a v-p and will oversee special sales and strategic partnerships as operations and development director. Fulfillment and customer service operations will be handled by Ware-Pak Inc.
Osprey's trade sales in the U.S. have grown 40% over the past two years, and success "showed us we should be doing this on our own. We have a very unique line," Corsa told PW. Osprey specializes in military history and has more than 1,100 active titles. Its flagship series, Men-at-Arms, has 420 volumes. Corsa said that while OPI's priority will be on sales and marketing for at least the next 18 months, the company will be looking to develop some U.S.-based projects. Simone Drinkwater, business development manager, "will work on concepts on both sides of the Atlantic," Corsa said. Drinkwater is also looking to broaden Osprey's customer base and is looking, in particular, to find formats to attract younger readers.
