Presses
powerHouse Gets Random (House’d)
Here’s a piece of industry news. Brooklyn-based powerHouse Books (a publisher of visual arts books, as well as a bookstore/event space) is “going to Random House,” according to a press release I just got from them. The letter begins, “Dear powerHouse follower– You are, with any luck, a retailer, a reviewer, a promoter, or just someone vigorously involved in the visual arts…” Well, yes and no, but I am a guy with an INBOX, and apparently, plenty of free time on a Wednesday. The full announcement is copied below.
Dear powerHouse follower—
You have witnessed many changes over the years: you’ve seen us produce era-defining tomes of urban culture, fashion, portraiture, and historic monographs; you perhaps saw us evolve from being simply an American illustrated book publisher to one incorporating a visual space bringing books to life (first in that rat haven Hudson Square area and now at the cavernous Arena on the dynamic Brooklyn waterfront). But that all pales in some ways to what is coming next.
powerHouse is going to Random House. More precisely, the pH back end—warehouse services and sales representation to the book and specialty trades—will be unified for the first time under the awesome forces belonging to the last and greatest storied pantheon of conglomerate trade publishing on the planet. What does that mean? We might be doing more trade-like items—might—but more likely, we will be teaching our corporate compatriots how to hand-sell and hand-promote compelling visual books like ours, and in turn learn from them how to best position and leverage these beautiful books’ publication for the widest possible exposure to trade, academic, non-trade, and niche markets in ways we may never have known possible.
It’s a wonderful new world in these strange times; we intend to make the most of it. Please join us.
CEO
Tags: powerHouse, Random House
“Going to Random House” — odd phrasing, almost makes it sound as though they’re being acquired by Random House, and will soon be an imprint there. But they’re just talking about distribution, if I’m reading correctly. So, it all sounds fair and reasonable. More books to more people = good.
Tone on the “might … might” line was funny, like he’s afraid we’ll think there’s a secret plan for RH to transform pH into a publisher of Rachel Ray cookbooks. No worries, man, they make t-shirts for that: http://bit.ly/dhtaZp
Anyway, good for them and congrats.
“Going to Random House” — odd phrasing, almost makes it sound as though they’re being acquired by Random House, and will soon be an imprint there. But they’re just talking about distribution, if I’m reading correctly. So, it all sounds fair and reasonable. More books to more people = good.
Tone on the “might … might” line was funny, like he’s afraid we’ll think there’s a secret plan for RH to transform pH into a publisher of Rachel Ray cookbooks. No worries, man, they make t-shirts for that: http://bit.ly/dhtaZp
Anyway, good for them and congrats.
Isn’t Melville House already doing the same thing? Seems like a good many indie publishers with demand exceeding the hours in a day could use the help of someone else distributing their books…. yes?
Isn’t Melville House already doing the same thing? Seems like a good many indie publishers with demand exceeding the hours in a day could use the help of someone else distributing their books…. yes?
I have no idea. Are they? And yeah, it’s entirely reasonable for indie-major partnerships to develop outside of or in lieu of the “we acquire you / drink your milkshake” paradigm. Dalkey Archive, for example, is distributed by WW Norton. I wasn’t indicting pH- quite the contrary, people should grow their businesses in the way they feel is right for them, even if that eventually means selling themselves off, a la Richard Nash turning Soft Skull into an imprint of Counterpoint. No business is sustainable indefinitely, and if an owner chooses to go out with a buck instead of a whimper- more power to ’em.
I have no idea. Are they? And yeah, it’s entirely reasonable for indie-major partnerships to develop outside of or in lieu of the “we acquire you / drink your milkshake” paradigm. Dalkey Archive, for example, is distributed by WW Norton. I wasn’t indicting pH- quite the contrary, people should grow their businesses in the way they feel is right for them, even if that eventually means selling themselves off, a la Richard Nash turning Soft Skull into an imprint of Counterpoint. No business is sustainable indefinitely, and if an owner chooses to go out with a buck instead of a whimper- more power to ’em.
Don’t forget that New Directions is distributed by Norton, too, and Europa (along with Overlook) by Penguin, where I work. I’ve talked to people at Europa, MH, and ND, and here, and I can assure you that none of the distributing companies have ANY editorial sway at all. These deals simply aren’t set up that way. All RH does is sell the books into the stores with the massive team of sales reps (which puts whoever pH was using before to shame), warehouse, and ship the books. The indies do their own editing, designing, printing, and PR. RH gets a cut for distributing, but in the end the real winner is the small press: they get their books into hundreds more stores, get streamlined shipping for when a title succeeds and is reordered, and get forced into an editorial schedule, whereas before they probably weren’t the best at that.
Don’t forget that New Directions is distributed by Norton, too, and Europa (along with Overlook) by Penguin, where I work. I’ve talked to people at Europa, MH, and ND, and here, and I can assure you that none of the distributing companies have ANY editorial sway at all. These deals simply aren’t set up that way. All RH does is sell the books into the stores with the massive team of sales reps (which puts whoever pH was using before to shame), warehouse, and ship the books. The indies do their own editing, designing, printing, and PR. RH gets a cut for distributing, but in the end the real winner is the small press: they get their books into hundreds more stores, get streamlined shipping for when a title succeeds and is reordered, and get forced into an editorial schedule, whereas before they probably weren’t the best at that.
They’re just changing distributors. It’s really not much of a partnership. Random distributes 30-40 publishers, Penguin a few less, Norton ditto, and Perseus about 300 through their own unit, as well as through their PGW and Consortium units. This is really a nothing-to-see here kinda situation.
Oh and when I sold Soft Skull, it wasn’t really by choice, it was because PGW had gone into Chapter 11, owing us four months of sales! That said, I agree with Jason that a publisher should have the scope to make decisions in the best overall interest of their readers and writers, and that might result in selling the business, or a minority investment, or something as minor as changing distributor.
They’re just changing distributors. It’s really not much of a partnership. Random distributes 30-40 publishers, Penguin a few less, Norton ditto, and Perseus about 300 through their own unit, as well as through their PGW and Consortium units. This is really a nothing-to-see here kinda situation.
Oh and when I sold Soft Skull, it wasn’t really by choice, it was because PGW had gone into Chapter 11, owing us four months of sales! That said, I agree with Jason that a publisher should have the scope to make decisions in the best overall interest of their readers and writers, and that might result in selling the business, or a minority investment, or something as minor as changing distributor.