Perseus Celebrates Its Former Independents

Booksellers should not be surprised if they sense a special rapport with their new Perseus Books Group sales reps. After all, four of the six reps in the new Perseus in-house sales force are former independent booksellers. "In these times of chains, online stores, and lost market share, we wanted to make sure that people knew [independent bookstores] are important to us," said John Hughes, vice president, associate publisher and marketing director of Perseus Books Group.

Perseus' initiative to create its own sales force occurred last year, soon after it announced its acquisition of Running Press. Previously, Perseus had a sales and distribution agreement with HarperCollins, but, by mutual agreement, their sales relationship came to an end, noted Hughes. In October 2002, Perseus started the process of hiring five regional sales reps and brought in Arlene Rubin, who had been the Running Press sales rep.

Though the publisher was not specifically seeking former independent booksellers, it just so happened these reps matched the Perseus job criteria perfectly, noted Wayne Jackson, field sales director for Perseus Books Group. "It was a fluke in a sense," he said. "But we were looking for people having sold books and having bought books, and who were knowledgeable about books. Buyers make the best reps -- that's my background!"

Last December, the new reps were brought in just in time for the Perseus sales conference in New York City, he added.

The new Perseus reps are Magie Crystal, sales rep for California, who was formerly manager/buyer for San Francisco State University Bookstore, and, prior to that, Stanford Book Store; Nicole Fortier, the Northeast sales rep, who was formerly a buyer at Charlesbank Bookstore in Boston; Cindy Heidemann, Northwest sales rep, formerly manager/buyer for the University of Oregon Bookstore; and Nancy Rohlen, sales rep for the Midwest, formerly manager at Shaman Drum in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Additionally, Rubin will handle Running Press titles in the mid-Atlantic states. Laura Shepherd, the Perseus rep for the mid-Atlantic states and New York City, was a sales rep at Putnam.

Jackson noted that he's confident in the new Perseus sales force and pleased with their work ethic. Regarding the former independent booksellers, he summed up, "They know the needs of the independent bookstore. They remember the great reps, the ones that went out of their way for them, and think, I can be one of those people who were so helpful to me in the past…. We weren't looking specifically for independent booksellers, but I'm not surprised that's who we hired."