Beagle Bay Books barks up the right tree

If Jacqueline Simonds hadn't received enough rejection letters to wallpaper a small bathroom, Beagle Bay Books never would have come about.

In 1999, Simonds was searching for a way to publish her book, "Captain Mary, Buccaneer," an historical adventure about an 18th century woman pirate.

After the novel was turned down by two dozen or so publishers, Simonds was considering going through a so-called vanity press which publishes books for authors for a price.

"But we realized that maybe if we took the time to teach ourselves the business and learn the ropes we could do it ourselves," said Robin Simonds, Jacqueline's husband and partner.

"We wanted to do a commercial book.

Anyone can print a book, but selling it is a whole other thing." That's how Beagle Bay Books named after the couple's baying beagle Bert was born.

Now the Reno-based book publisher and distributor has a catalog of seven books and at least five more in the pipeline.

Jacqueline has quit writing, but the success of her book led to inquiries from other authors.

The company's second book, "The Witch from the Sea," another historical adventure, this time by Lisa Jensen, came about after Jensen saw the company advertised on a web site for pirate aficionados and submitted her book.

"I had started contacting all these pirate reenactment groups," said Jacqueline.

"Worldwide, there are probably half a million people into pirate reenactment.

And we advertised on the two most popular sites." Beagle Bay took on the book, which had already been published in Germany, edited it down to half its size, changed it from a third-person to first-person narrative, and published it.

"By now, in 2002, we conceived of ourselves as women's historical adventure with a little traction in romance," said Jacqueline.

"So we picked up 'Mahalo, My Love,'" a romance set in Hawaii by Ida Hills, an 83 year-old friend of "Witch" author Jensen.

A friend of Jacqueline's mother put them in touch with Whitney and Anne Galbraith, authors of the next Beagle Bay book, "European Menu Translator," the first in what has become a healthy travel niche for the company, said Robin.

"We created a different imprint for it, Creative Minds Press, and we've done remarkably well with it," he said.

It was recently featured on Crain's Business News and Kiplinger's investment newsletter.

"It was a hot seller this Christmas," said Jacqueline.

But 2002 was one of the worst years for the publishing industry, said Robin, and a handful of book wholesalers that handled small publishers folded.

That led to a Beagle Bay getting into a new branch of the business book distribution.

"The 'Travel with Others' author got caught in the collapse of Seven Hills Distributor," said Robin, so Beagle Bay Books agreed to distribute it for her.

Next up are two more travel books, one for single parents and another on sailing by a correspondent for National Geographic's cruising web site.

In April, the company plans to publish another historical fiction, called "Gudrun's Tapestry," and in August will re-release a now out-of-print book from the 1990s called "How to Love the Job You Hate." Travel books have turned into a good line of business, said Robin, because other than guidebooks, which represent a saturated market, there is plenty of opportunity for unique titles.

In fact, travel may lead the company into its biggest venture yet.

"We're working on an opportunity that may greatly expand our travel line and make our distribution business very important" said Robin.

Romance, on the other hand, is a tough business because bigger publishers such as Harlequin crank out books by the dozens.

The company also carries a photography book, printed in Italy using silk paper.

"It's a unique product," said Robin.

"I wouldn't do too much more of those.

It's expensive and takes too much time, but it has helped us to be taken more seriously." Like titles, variety is good when it comes to printers too, said Robin.

The company bids out every project, and routinely uses new printers to ensure the lowest cost.

"Keeping our manufacturing costs down is the number one thing keeping us alive," he said.

Also keeping costs in line is the company's use of the Internet for nearly every aspect of doing business.

"Our business couldn't function without the Internet," said Robin.

"It allows us to work with minimum overhead." A bit of luck, though, may have been the key to the company's success, he said.

Beagle Bay managed to get in the door of Ingram Book Co., one of the country's largest book wholesalers, before the economy went south and the distributor was still open to working with small publishers.

The company also works with Baker & Taylor, another large distributor with warehouses here in Reno.

This year, the company will likely move into its own warehouse space, if the travel books distribution deal comes through.

Beagle Bay hopes to grow and grow and grow, said Jacqueline, but the company isn't planning too far ahead for now.

"It's exciting every day just to pick up our phone or email," she said.

"Every month we have some new opportunity."