NEWS

Malloy Experiences the Oprah Effect

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Red Wheel/Weiser's
The Book of Awakening

Malloy Experiences the Oprah Effect

Ann Arbor, MI – December 30, 2010 - During this fall, Ann Arbor has been a hotbed for the production of national best sellers. We’ve been following the news about Thomson-Shore’s production of the first volume of The Autobiography of Mark Twain, published by the University of California Press, and we congratulate both of those organizations on their success and good fortune. In the meantime, Malloy also has been fortunate to be called on to produce a title that rose to the top of the best seller lists when the book was selected as one of “Oprah’s Ultimate Favorite Things”.

In mid-autumn, our customer, Red Wheel/Weiser, learned that a recommendation of their title, The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo, would be forthcoming from Oprah Winfrey. This title originally was published by Conari Press in the spring of 2000. A year or two later, Red Wheel/Weiser purchased Conari Press and has maintained it as an imprint ever since. Malloy has done all the printings of The Book of Awakening since it was released, and up until this year we had produced about 50,000 copies. When the folks at Red Wheel/Weiser learned of Oprah’s recommendation they were very excited, but they also were concerned about building a large speculative inventory of this ten year old title. So, they asked us about our ability to flexibly respond to their needs and ramp up production if sales really took off. They found the expedited schedules we offer as part of our Title Support Services to be a perfect fit.

“This has been fun and exciting,” says Malloy’s president, Bill Upton. “We’ve posted the best seller lists on the bulletin boards in the plant, and everyone here has seen The Book of Awakening right there at the top. In the past six weeks, Red Wheel/Weiser has come back to us again and again for more reprints. Our entire staff has worked together beautifully to keep turning out these orders. No one is ready to cry uncle about working overtime. In fact, the level of enthusiasm has ratcheted up with each additional order. It’s been like going to a concert and hearing the crowd cheer louder and louder with each encore the band performs.”

Cathy Strider, Malloy’s Sales Representative for Red Wheel/Weiser, had this to say: “I’ve been really proud of our manufacturing team and process. So far this fall, we’ve produced over 120,000 copies of the title, and we have more in the pipeline. We’ve turned each order around in just a few days, they’ve all shipped on time, and most have actually shipped ahead of the dates we’ve promised. On top of that, the plant has made it seem easy.” Cathy added, “This scenario of Oprah picking a backlist title as one of her “Ultimate Favorite Things” for the holidays is every publisher’s dream. But, that dream can turn into a nightmare if the publisher can’t get books quickly enough to keep up with demand. If the books aren’t available, the orders from consumers can disappear. Our ability to do fast schedules on short notice enabled Red Wheel/Weiser to avoid being in back-order situations. Also, our flexibility in doing large drop-shipments directly to retailers helped accelerate delivery of the books and helped eliminate some supply-chain costs.”

Bill Upton summed things up saying, “I couldn’t be happier with the way this holiday season has gone. Not only have we handled The Book of Awakening, but during this same stretch of time we’ve done several print-runs—350,000 copies in all—of two other hot sellers: one is a hard-cover book that has been featured on a popular TV show, and the second is a New York Times best seller that we aren’t at liberty to name. This is exactly why we created our expedited schedule options under Title Support Services a year ago. We’ve actually outperformed ourselves by being able to do many print runs that exceed our stated maximums for expedited schedules. I hope publishers will keep giving us these opportunities to prove how we can support them. In the meantime, we congratulate Red Wheel/Weiser and our other customers on the well deserved success of the titles they’re publishing.”

About Malloy Incorporated: Malloy is a family owned book printer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Book printing has been at the core of Malloy’s business since its founding in 1960. Their customers know them to be a blend of old fashioned values – honesty, dedication, thrift, and accountability – the knowledge of seasoned craftspeople, and an innovative spirit that delivers worry free service.

Contact:
Malloy Incorporated: Joe Upton, 734 665-6113, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.malloy.com.
Red Wheel/Weiser: Michael Kerber, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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