Darby Creek, New Independent Childrens Book Publisher, Closes 2004 With 1.7 Million Dollar Retail Sales and Nominations for Prestigious Awards

Darby Creek Publishing finishes first year with great success. Titles receive recognition.

(PRWEB) January 13, 2005 -- Profits continue to climb for Darby Creek Publishing, a new independent childrens book publisher, as they celebrated their first full year with over a million and a half dollars in retail sales. Launched in 2002, Darby Creek publishes fiction and nonfiction books that are "on the cutting edge in terms of information and research, accompanied by top-notch photography and illustration." These titles include Albino Animals by Kelly Milner Halls, Miracle: The True Story of the Wreck of the Sea Venture by Gail Karwoski, and Indy 500: The Inside Track by Nancy Roe Pimm.

Recognizing an area of childrens books that was largely overlooked, Darby Creek has also focused on elementary and middle-grade sports fiction, releasing Dogs Days by David Lubar, The Warriors by Joseph Bruchac, and Willy the Scrub by Jamie McEwan.

Darby Creeks list has caught the attention of several award committees, having titles named to the VOYA Nonfiction Honor List, Bank Street Book of the Year, IRA Teachers Choice List, and nominated for the National Book Award, the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Nonfiction, among others. They have also garnered favorable reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and other review publications.

Darby Creeks forthcoming list looks as promising as its current titles, and the company looks forward to releasing about 10 titles this year.

The company was founded by S. Robert Davis. He is the chairman of the board of Oxford Resources, which owns the assets of what was formerly Pages Publishing Group, the proprietary publishing group of Pages/School Book Fairs, whose imprints included Willowisp Press and Worthington Press. Darby Creek publishes library-bound children's books and reprints some Pages backlist paperback titles, including Lurlene McDaniel's Six Months to Live and the three other titles in that series. The house's books are distributed by Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group, an arrangement that represents a first for that company.

###