Specialty distributor to offer e-commerce
services over global inquiry and ordering network
Somerset, NJ, September 13, 1999 . . . Airlift Book Company, a specialty distributor of
US, UK, Canadian and Australian publishers in the UK, and PubEasy.com™, the Internet
inquiry and ordering service for the book industry, announced today that Airlift will
launch a PubEasy.com e-commerce web site for access by booksellers around the world.
Airlift, a leading UK specialist distributor of over 200 well-known small and
medium-sized independent US publishers, as well as several in the UK, Ireland, Canada and
Australia will join the quickly expanding network of e-commerce web sites linked through
PubEasy.com and used daily by booksellers from over 52 countries. Booksellers will
have access to Airlift’s title categories, which include: mind, body & spirit,
contemporary fiction and poetry, women’s studies, feminism and lesbian, as well as a
broad general section. Airlift currently handles over 10,000 active titles and has
nearly half a million items in stock.
Airlift represents such publishers as: Ten Speed Press, Town House & Country House,
Shambhala Publications, Samuel Weiser, Llewellyn Publications, Tuttle Publishing, Keats
Publishing, Hay House, Eden Grove, Black Sparrow Press, City Lights Books, Naiad Press and
Silver Moon Books. In addition to books, Airlift distributes audio tapes and
posters.
"As an Affiliate on the Pubeasy.com inquiry and ordering service, Airlift will be
able to provide round-the-clock customer service by offering booksellers direct access to
our title database, order status and order placement capabilities, catalog’s and
marketing materials," said Don Skirving, Chief Executive Officer of Airlift Book
Company. "We have a firm commitment to e-commerce. We view PubEasy.com as
the new standard in facilitating the supply of books over the Internet and look forward to
building even closer relationships with our international customer base through
PubEasy.com."
"Airlift’s participation on PubEasy.com will bring representation to our
service of a wide range of independent, specialized publishers and imprints which is
exactly what our registered booksellers are asking for," said Peter F. Clifton, Chief
Executive Office of PubEasy.com. "It is interesting to note that with Airlift
joining PubEasy.com, we are seeing a widening group of specialty publishers and University
Presses gaining worldwide exposure to booksellers who depend on PubEasy.com as an
information tool."
PubEasy.com, the Internet inquiry and ordering service
represents the new standard in e-commerce for the global bookselling industry. More
than 1,300 booksellers from over 52 countries spanning the UK, Europe, North America and
Asia are using the service to access title, price and availability information, to place
orders, to check the status of their orders and to access catalogs from participating
publishers, distributors and wholesalers. Booksellers with a PubEasy.com password can
directly access any participating Affiliate web site on the network or the Whitaker UK
bibliographic site.
The service is free to booksellers and is available via the Internet 24
hours a day, 7-days a week.
Macmillan Distribution Ltd., Marston Book Services, Exel Logistics,
Bookpoint (Hodder Headline), TBS/Grantham Book Services and J. Whitaker & Sons
provided early support and endorsement of PubEasy.com. Participation from the bookselling
industry continues to grow, with recent Affiliate sites launched by Penguin UK,
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. and Littlehampton Book Services. Gardners Books, John Wiley
& Sons Ltd. and Airlift Book Company are scheduled to launch PubEasy.com web sites
over the coming months.
US Affiliate web sites scheduled to launch include: Broadman &
Holman, Von Holtzbrinck Publishing Services (Henry Holt, St. Martin's Press and Farrar
Straus & Giroux), National Book Network (the second largest US book distributor) and
the LPC Group Distributors.
To access PubEasy.com, booksellers require a password, a computer with
a Web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer 3.0 or later) and an Internet connection.
Login to http://www.pubeasy.com and click the 'Register' button to obtain a user ID and
password.
PubEasy.comTM is a registered trademark of VISTA Computer
Services
PubEasy.com is a subsidiary of VISTA Computer Service
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