Lakeside Book Company reorganizes sales to grow its distribution arm

Lakeside Book Company has reorganized the distribution business it bought last November from Baker & Taylor, now renamed Lakeside Book Distribution. The company combined sales staff from Dover Publications, which it has long owned, with former Baker & Taylor Publisher Services reps to sell both Dover titles and books from distribution clients.

Jeff Tegge, vice president of client services, and sales director Mark Hillesheim lead the 11-person in-house team, which is backed by commission rep groups. The acquisition brought roughly 150 distribution clients, and Lakeside has recently signed about a dozen more publishers.

Six of the new distribution clients also use Lakeside's offset, digital and print-on-demand manufacturing. Todd McGarity, who joined in January as SVP of business development for the Book Services division, called the changes the start of a growth phase.