Tell us how and why your press got started.

There were 2 main events that contributed to the creation of Poisoned Pen Press. The first was that The Poisoned Pen had hosted a crime conference in Scottsdale in February of 1996, AZ Murder Goes...Classic, that had been extremely well-received. A number of attendees asked us if we planned on publishing the papers from the conference, and if not, whether we would consider doing so.

The second was that my wife, Barbara Peters, and I started bemoaning the shrinking midlist. Barbara kept seeing more and more books dropping out of print long before "their time". Consolidations in the publishing industry were causing a significant loss of authors and works. We also recognized that it is the backlist that is the lifeblood of and independent mystery bookstore. So, we decided to start a publishing company.

Initially we focused on getting the conference papers printed and reprinting out-of-print mysteries. Last year we printed the first US edition of Val McDermid's The Wire in the Blood. This year we did the first US edition of Ruth Dudley Edward's Publish and Be Murdered and will soon be releasing 3 previously unpublished mysteries.

The biggest advantage that readers get from our books is that we select our titles based on merit, not bottom-line results or mass-market appeal. This is not meant to be a knock on Grisham or any other author or publisher, but the fact is that the big publishers today basically won't print a book unless they feel they can sell 25,000 plus copies in an 18 month timespan. We have done several with a goal of selling 1000 and basically feel that if it has merit we are willing to publish a book if we can break even in 2 years.

Some books that we do, we may never break even on. This fall, for example, we are publishing a mystery in verse by H.R.F. Keating. Though a wonderful work, we doubt we'll ever break even, but we feel this work should be published. It's just a different agenda.

Don't think, however, that we aren't profit oriented. We are. We intend to make a profit--just not as much nor as quickly and not on every book and it isn't our raison d'etre.

Did you have a mission in mind when you began producing books?

Very much so. We hated what we saw happening at the large houses. So many of the authors that Barbara really liked were losing their publishers and their books were not staying in print. Basically we set our mission to make available mysteries, whether reprints or originals, for today's mystery readers.

How are your books published?

So far we we have done both conventional ink on paper and docutech books. We are looking at doing e-books, but as a VERY small company, I just haven't had the time to create them. I am sure that before the end of 1999 we will have some of our titles available as e-books, but I believe that the biggest demand will still be for conventional books.

Do you do print-on-demand books? How does that work for you?

Most of our Missing Mystery line is done as print-on-demand. The basic rule of thumb that I am using right now is that if I feel I can't sell 700 to 800 books per year, it is a candidate for POD. If I can sell 1000 plus I will almost certainly go to ink. I'm not sure that this is the right choice, but it is the one that I have made so far. The reason is fairly simple. With ink, I can't print fewer than 2000 books economically. If I have to warehouse books for more than 2 years I have considerable (for us) money tied up in inventory that is sitting in a warehouse that costs money every month. I try to minimize those costs and make what funds we have available to publish more books.

How are your books distributed? Do you get help from Ingrams or B and T, or are you on your own?

Let me make a distinction between distributors, wholesalers and fulfillment houses. Ingram and Baker &Taylor are wholesalers. They buy books from a Distributor or publisher and they take orders from Bookstores and Libraries (primarily) and fill the orders. They do not actively sell our titles. Independent Publisher Group and Publishers Group West, for example, are Distributors. They have a commissioned sales force that goes out and promotes publisher's books to various accounts, including Ingram and B&T and of course the large chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders.

A fulfillment house packs and ships orders. They may actually receive the orders directly, but basically they are like a large shared warehouse. Currently Independent Publishers Group distributes one of our titles, Ngaio Marsh: A Life, and we are evaluating whether we want to have all of our titles be distributed.

Most of our books we sell either directly to bookstores or libraries or to Ingram and B&T. We don't get "help" from Ingram or B&T except to the extent that they have various advertising media that they publish that we are starting to use.

Tell us how you advertise. Where do the dollars go, primarily?

Most of what we have done has been in cooperation with Publishers Marketing Association which is an association of independent publishers. We have participated in direct mail to libraries and bookstores. We have displayed titles in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal in the PMA section. We have bought occasional space ads in Booklist and Firsts. We have gone to several trade shows and displayed our titles there and we have used Combined Book Exhibit at trade shows to display some of our titles. Most of the money, however, has been spent in the PMA advertising programs that we have been involved in.

Who are some of the authors you've contracted with? What releases do you have out or soon out?

Val McDermid, Susan Moody, Bill Tapply, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Robert Rosenberg, Nora Kelly, P.C. Doherty are some of the authors. We have about 20 different books out right now and another dozen coming this year. Our most recent new books include The Affair of the Mutilated Mink by James Anderson and Robert Barnard's A Scandal in Belgravia. The forthcoming books we are most excited about include Robert Skinner's Daddy's Gone A-Hunting, Wendell McCall's Concerto in Dead Flat, and a new historical mystery set in 6th century Byzantium, One for Sorrow, by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer. This will be Mary and Eric's debut novel and features John the Eunuch, Lord Chancellor to Emperor Justinian, and involves Christianity and Mithraism among a number of other fascinating storylines.

What is the price range for your releases?

Most of our books range from $11.95 to $24.95. We have done a couple of limited editions that were considerably more pricey and we did several mass market sized paperbacks in the $7.95-$8.95 price range.

How can readers purchase your books?

We'd like to see most people buy directly from their favorite independent bookstore. Even if they are not in stock, any bookstore can get our titles either directly from us or from Ingram or B&T. All of our titles can be ordered directly from us at 6962 E. First Ave. #103, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, or they can buy them from Amazon.com, or the any of the other online booksellers or chains. My wife's bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, A Mystery Bookstore in Scottsdale (not surprisingly) stocks all our titles.

-Cathy Scova, The Mystery Reader Small Press Spotlight, 9/22/99