Jeff Press, World Publications, Inc.
 
From a humble 1984 beginning in Press’ garage (he had to move the family car out to make room for the books), World Publications, Inc. has grown into one of the world’s largest wholesale distributors of remainder and promotional titles. In a recent conversation with Bargain Book News, Press shared his insights on the industry and explained the connection between bargain books and baby diapers.
 
How did you get started in the business?
 
I grew up in the book business. My father, Bernie, founded Modern Publishing. He also had a company called Modern Book Distributors, which at one point was one of the largest book distributors in the nation. When he passed away in 1984, he had a small remainder company. My brother, Mitchell, who was a land use planner in Montana at the time, came back home to Massachusetts to help me liquidate the business. We put a small quantity of his remaining stock in my garage and started from there. Before we knew it we were buying and selling on our own.
 
Were you working in the book industry at the time?
 
No. I had my own career as an executive with Colgate Palmolive. Actually I was a manager of their baby diaper business. I’ve had to take lot of ribbing over the years about that one!
 
Is your brother still part of World Publications, Inc.?
 
He has his own remainder book business out in Bellingham, Washington. But this is still a family business. My wife, Gail, is the co-owner of the company. We work together. It’s quite unusual. I don’t think you will run into any one else in the business with the arrangement we have. She’s really in charge of the publishing side of our business, JG Press. We combined the first initials of each of our names to name the company.
 
Where are you located?
 
We’re headquartered in North Dighton, Massachusetts, which is south of Boston. We also have a showroom at 230 5^th Avenue in New York City.
 
Would you classify your company as a remainder wholesaler, distributor, or promotional book company?
 
I would call it a remainder wholesaler and a promotional book company. We buy books that the publishers are done with and we resell them, yet about 20% of our business is publishing books for the promotional market under JG Press.
 
How important is JG Press to your overall business?
 
It is very important. We publish 20 to 30 titles a year under that name and have had some really big home runs. We mainly produce coffee table books, such as the 1,000-page History of the World, which we sold out of this year. It was a major hit. We also did a book on the Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. It has nothing to do with the current movie “Frida” starring Selma Hayek, but because of the film the book did very well. We also have a number of Norman Rockwell books.
 
How many titles do you have on backlist?
 
There are more than 500 titles in our backlist.
 
Do you envision JG Press becoming more important to your business in the future?
 
Yes. In fact, we recently hired Amy Simon as director of JG Press. She comes to us from Advanced Marketing, which is the major supplier to warehouse clubs. She was a key person there and now will help lead our publishing and sales efforts and sales.
 
How many people do you employ?
 
There are about 80 total. That includes our headquarters in North Dighton, the office and showroom in New York, and the sales people who work out of their homes.
 
How many trade shows do you attend each year?
 
It seems to increase each year. I’d say now we must attend about a dozen. Because of the publishing side of our business, we go to some additional shows that most remainder wholesalers don’t attend, like the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
 
What are your sales?
 
We really don’t reveal that, but I can say that we probably move about 30 million books a year.
 
In your opinion, what are the biggest issues in the book business?
 
I think everyday is a new challenge. You never know where your supply is going to come from, particularly when you are at our volume level. I believe this is why so many remainder book companies have failed along the way. It is hard to set budgets and make projections. You just never know. This is such an opportunistic business. You have to be flexible enough to grab those opportunities when they are there. I don’t how many times we have wondered what we were going to do for the next deal and then the phone rings and something big comes along.
 
When you bid on a remainder book, what is the average number of books you purchase?
 
There is no average. We have won as many as 300,000 of a title. With some of the big bestsellers it is very common to purchase over 100,000 per title. Usually we won’t bid on a title unless there are at least a few hundred books available.
 
Could you compare your international sales to your domestic?
 
Our international side is very small, probably ten percent. Selling overseas depends on the world economy and the value of the dollar. When the dollar is too strong it is tough for people outside the U.S. to buy.
 
How large is your distribution center?
 
It’s roughly a quarter-million-square-feet.
 
What are your long term goals in the business?
 
You sound like my accountant! I don’t know. I’m in my fifties and that’s when you start to think of an exit strategy. I’ve been doing this for about 20 years, so if somebody came along and offered us enough money to sell, I suppose that would be a great thing. One thing about the business that I’ve found is that you can’t force growth. We have seen so many companies go out of business that push for growth when it is not there.
 
How do you see the industry changing in the next five years?
 
I don’t really anticipate much change. Over the last few years, a lot more people are going after hurts, which has become more of a factor. But other than that, it has been relatively stable the last five years. Now in the previous five to ten years we went through quite a shake out period and a lot of companies disappeared. Today, there are few major companies and most of these are doing OK. It doesn’t seem like these recessionary times have really impacted us. We are in the bargain book business so the downturn in the economy has made us even more attractive.
 
What is the business philosophy you follow?
 
Don’t force growth and be totally honest with vendors and suppliers. This business has kind of an uneven reputation. In the whole remainder business there are a lot of good people, but there are also plenty of shady people. I think we have one of the best reputations in the business and a lot of people like to do business with us. If you treat people straight and try to be honest you will have less problems. This is a wheeling and dealing business, so you have to be careful. We just try and do it straight.
 
What is your favorite book?
 
I read a lot of books. I like almost anything John Irving does. I just reread David Copperfield. I like books with substance. My favorite movie is Field of Dreams. I am a big baseball fan. Recently my wife and I moved to Boston where we live close enough to walk to Fenway Park and watch the Red Sox.
 
Maryellen Duckett is a Tennessee-based freelance writer for National Geographic Traveler, Family Fun, and On the Road with Hampton magazines. She and her husband, Randall, are co-authors of the family travel books 100 Secrets of the Smokies and 100 Secrets of the Carolina Coast (Rutledge Hill Press).
 

Trade Show Tip:  Statistics show that 80%, that’s right, 80% of contacts made at trade shows are never followed up.  Return on investment (ROI) increases dramatically when contacts become customers.  Consider spending the day after the show organizing business cards and orders so that follow up can be quick and effective.  Just following up on 2 additional contacts out of every 10 will double what most vendors do.  It’s worth the effort.

  
Remainders:  people often use the term “remainders” to encompass the bargain book industry as a whole.  The original term represented books that “remained” in the warehouse. A publisher may have printed 20,000 copies of a book and sold 10,000 copies. The 10,000 that never left the warehouse were called “remainders.” These books are typically boxed and in pristine condition and generally sold to wholesalers, or large chain stores by a bid list.