MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 16- August 23, 2007 Edition
Indy Distributor
IPG to Represent
Five New Publishers
8/14/07–Independent Publishers Group, distributor to specialty and independent bookstores, has recently added five publishers to its list of distribution clients.
Those signing on with IPG include:Johnson Publishing Company, a large African American-owned publishing company; Visible Ink Press, which publishes popular culture, science, history, religion and phenomena; Black Belt Communications, publishers of Black Belt Magazine and a variety of martial arts titles; Amber Communications Group, nine-year-old publisher of African American self-help books and celebrity biographies; and Panache Partners, which publishes coffee table books about travel, custom home building, and interior design, according to Shelf Awareness.
IPG fields a large and highly sophisticated rep force that covers independent bookstores and other outlets for books in both the U.S. and Canada. The company was founded in 1971, the first organization specifically created for the purpose of marketing titles from independent presses to the book trade.
Many smaller publishers have been forced to to shift their distribution services to different companies as a result of the December 2006 bankruptcy of American Marketing Services (AMS), which served several thousand houses, both large and small. AMS’s financial difficulties nearly shut down many independent publishers that have since been recovering . IPG, which has a reputation for long-term stability, has inherited some independents as a result.
