History
Established in 1976, PGW headquarters are located in Berkeley,
California, with sales offices in New York City and Toronto.
Process
PGW provides complete publishing services – editorial consultation, sales, customer
service, warehousing and distribution, billing and collections, and detailed reporting
for its clients. PGW sells to both retail accounts and wholesalers through an in-house
sales force. PGW stores all active client titles in its warehouse and ships them
to accounts on a consolidated basis. It bills the customer, collects, and remits
to the publisher the sales revenue, less returns and PGW’s distribution fee. PGW
maintains a balanced editorial mix in as many genres as possible, while avoiding
over-concentration. PGW actively pursues new relationships with both existing and
emerging publishing companies. Categorically, PGW clients’ strengths are: literary
fiction, serious non-fiction, self-help, personal growth and natural health, travel,
business, children’s books, gay and lesbian interest, popular and counter-culture,
as well as audio books. More than half of PGW’s net billing–not to mention much
of its editorial strength—is its backlist.
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Capabilities
PGW’s systems and processes have evolved from continual
interaction with its wide variety of client publishers. Interaction between PGW
and publishers employs the latest web application and reporting
solutions. Publisher
clients also receive feedback on everything from marketing and title positioning
to inventory management and operation logistics.
Publisher Liaisons
In addition to daily contact with publishers
by phone and email, Account Managers, PGW’s client-publisher liaisons, coordinate
presales marketing meetings with publishers seasonally each year. The agenda at
these meetings includes a comprehensive review of the publisher’s sales, analysis
of market trends, and
formulation of backlist sales goals and sales projection of new
titles. For the meetings, publishers raise individual agenda items, give new title
presentations and lead a strategy session on their overall program. PGW’s sales
and marketing staff provides valuable counsel for client publishers on acquisitions,
pricing, format, promotion strategies, as well as with art/design/production and
cover copy. Sales projections from PGW help client publishers determine print runs
and plan their seasons.
Catalog
The Catalog Department represents one of PGW’s most effective organizing tools.
Each season the Catalog Department coordinates all new seasonal titles and manages
the writing, editing, and production of the primary PGW catalog along with various
seasonal subject catalogs.
Reporting
In conjunction with software company The Cat’s Pajamas, PGW has
crafted a versatile, proprietary web
reporting database which links sales, account management,
and financial reporting. PGW delivers real-time sales information along with month-to-date
and year-to-date activity to client publishers via the Internet. |
Sales
PGW’s sales and marketing staff provides
valuable counsel for client publishers on acquisitions, contract terms, pricing,
format, promotion strategies, as well as with art/design/production and cover copy.
Sales projections from PGW help client publishers determine print runs and plan
their seasons. PGW’s 30+ person sales staff includes national accounts
coverage in New York and Berkeley, a house field force, and a 4-person in house
special sales group. Many specialty accounts are handled in house while commissioned
groups are used for gift and gourmet accounts. PGW field reps have twice won Publisher’s Weekly’s
“Rep of the Year” award in recent years. PGW’s sales and marketing organization
is highly respected throughout the trade, and has a knack for choosing breakout
titles as well as for building bestsellers. PGW has had numerous national bestsellers
in the last ten years, five of which were million copy sellers.
Marketing
The Sales and Marketing Department of
Publishers Group West is a dynamic and integral part of the distribution enterprise.
From publisher account management to chain, independent and special market sales,
the Sales and Marketing Department at PGW is designed to meet the complete needs
of client publishers. The Marketing Department at PGW is designed, as the hub of activity for a client
publisher’s day-to-day needs. With primary publisher relations divided between five
account managers. Publishers receive the focused time and attention they need to
help them run their businesses. Account
managers act as consultants and advocates
to the publisher clients. They advise publishers on topics ranging from packaging
and pricing issues to marketing plans and sales trend analysis. They also work closely with the Sales Department and its various divisions to assist them in the overall
sales process. |
Global Reach
Publishers Group Worldwide
offers premier
book distribution services in all major bookselling markets around the world. In
each territory serviced,
Publishers Group Worldwide
companies sell to the spectrum
of book retailers, wholesalers, and specialist retailers and interact with the marketplace
much like a major publisher, performing many of the functions that large integrated
publishers manage in-house. Each company within the
Publishers Group Worldwide
organization
provides complete, professional distribution services for client publishers including
sales and marketing, customer service, warehousing and fulfillment, billing and
collections, and sales and inventory reporting. In every country, our position as
a leading vendor of books provides entrée and market feedback rivaling that of the
major global publishers.
Publishers Group Worldwide
companies warehouse all active
titles and ship them to accounts on a consolidated basis. It bills the account,
collects, and remits to the publisher the sales revenue, less returns and distribution
fees. Worldwide, the combined company works with nearly 400 publishers.
Operations
PGW receives, stores, and ships all client titles, and processes all retailer returns.
Our inventory services department coordinates both the ordering of all frontlist
and backlist inventory from publishers as well as the drop shipments directly from
printers to selected retail and wholesale accounts across the country. A customer
service department provides experienced customer support to accounts and publishers
alike. A quick response profile has resulted in excellent customer satisfaction.
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