For writers, and especially publishers, it can sometimes seem like all roads lead through Amazon (much to the dismay of independent booksellers everywhere).
But Educational Development Corporation, a publisher of children’s books and resources based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is seeing phenomenal growth and record-breaking net sales since making the risky decision to cut the Amazon cord in 2015.
The Winston-Salem Journal recently profiled EDC.
The company produces Usborne and Kane Miller Books, championed by tens of thousands of parents and educators around the world.
Ending their relationship with Amazon meant EDC has to quintuple its staff and work around the clock. Handling their own customer service meant learning (and failing) on the fly: their first holiday season, “the company had 25,000 customer service errors in three months at a cost of roughly $1 million.”
Now, though, after spending some $7 million to fully automate their order fulfillment process, profits are up 30 percent and sales have nearly tripled in the past three years.
It helps too that they make quality products. Many of the books are richly illustrated and constructed with durable material. You may pay a bit more in shipping (no Amazon Prime deals here), but this is a company that knows what kids like and what the kids’ parents want to buy them.
The company is set to introduce more than 200 of its titles in Spanish. The move is aimed both at school book fairs, particularly schools that offer Spanish immersion programs, and at families who prefer to speak Spanish in the home.
For more information about EDC, visit http://www.edcpub.com.