crud monkeys...goodbye PGW

[Guest guest]

as of next Wednesday...PGW...publisher's group west..will cease to exist...

we will officially enter limbo land here....

we will be a " transitional " company...meaning basically we exist on the whims of

the company that was awarded our contracts...

 

goodbye PGW

 

Thursday, January 11, 2007

PUBLISHERS GROUP WEST, 1976 - 2007

 

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of a dear friend. Soon, our

phone calls with our partners at PGW in Berkeley will no longer be interrupted

by the rumble and clanking of passing locomotives. The trains will remain, PGW

will not--not the PGW that we know or recognize.

 

Charlie Winton started PGW thirty years ago in a small hole-in-the-wall

storefront a block away from historic Cannery Row. The room was perhaps 10 x 30,

with Charlie shipping and packaging the books himself. It would be a decade

before PGW publishers would have a written contract, with some not putting pen

to paper until the early 1990s.

 

To understand why there was a place for PGW in the book trade, it helps to know

that America's publishing houses in the 1970s were focused on creating and

launching books; getting them into stores was mostly an afterthought. This meant

that America's book stores--big, beautiful, vital independents--would hear about

a title and order it from the publisher, but perhaps not have it shipped to them

for six months or more.

 

Since they didn't want to tempt the fates twice, the stores would order a dozen

or more copies of a book that they only needed two or three of. So Charlie's PGW

began as a book wholesaler that would stock dozens of each title, and send book

stores the two copies that they needed when they needed them. We call that

Ingram today. But unlike Ingram, Charlie stocked the books of tiny independents

and self-publishers--books that today's Costco, Wal-Mart and Target wouldn't

touch with a ten-foot pole.

 

With favorable winds from the ganja and a business that was thriving, Charlie

moved PGW to Emeryville, California. He had an idea that was new and novel for a

book wholesaler--he would hire sales reps to sell the books he stocked into the

stores. The presence of Charlie's sales reps made it necessary for the book

trade to create the new term " distributor. " The term wholesaler was kept for

companies that simply warehoused books and shipped them once an order was

placed, as PGW once did.

 

By the late 1980s, Charlie hired PGW's first sales manager. His mission was to

convert the sales reps from a commissioned group to a house staff. In 1988, PGW

had sales of nearly $23 million. Ten years later it was doing close to $110

million annually.

 

The truly remarkable thing about this nearly 500% increase in sales is that it

didn't happen because PGW went out and consumed a huge number of publishers or

distributors. The crowning compliment to Charlie Winton and PGW is that he

provided the kind of environment where the small presses he distributed for

could grow and thrive. PGW has grown by helping its publishers to grow.

 

One of the great contradictions about PGW since Charlie sold it to Satan of San

Diego in 2002 is that for many of us, PGW has never been better. Many of us had

our best year ever in 2006. Much of the credit for that goes to new PGW

president Rich Freese. He was able to take the torch from Charlie and energize

an already productive PGW crew. Unfortunately, the sins of AMS would eventually

be visited on PGW.

 

We join all PGW publishers in offering the staff of PGW our deepest thanks and

in wishing you well. You made PGW a home for those of us with our funky and

anything-but-mainstream presses. You made it possible for us to have a voice and

a presence in an industry that is dominated by huge publishers.

 

In an upcoming Radio Free PGW we will take a look at the AMS part of the

equation. For now, we say goodbye to the best friend that a small press could

ever have.

 

Posted by RadioFreePGW at 3:28 AM

 

 

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to

tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been

enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money

power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the

prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and

the republic is destroyed. I feel, at this moment, more anxiety for the safety

of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my

suspicions may prove groundless. " Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins

on November 21, 1864