Dram Good Books Aquire Rights To Whisky Bible

[William]

This is a press release from the Dram Good Books Website:

Publishers Dram Good Books have today [Thurs] acquired all rights to the best-selling drinks book Jim Murray's Whisky Bible for an undisclosed sum.

The annual Whisky Bible had been produced as a joint venture between multi award-winning whisky writer Jim Murray and London-based publishers Carlton Books since 2003.

Mr. Murray, through his company Dram Good Books Ltd, specialized in selling his Bible through the drinks trade worldwide whilst Carlton sold the publication into the more traditional book markets.

Between them annual sales reached 40,000 and 50,000 copies a year in English language alone, an extraordinary number for a specialized reference book. It is now recognized the world over as the most important publication on the subject and high marks for rarer whiskies can see their value increase overnight.

However, today's deal sees Dram Good Books, whose offices are in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, take over all aspects of sales and moving into the British book trade for the first time.

Said Mr. Murray: "There are unique dynamics involved in the production of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible each year, which is an expensive and complicated process. We employ a dedicated research team to find all the whiskies worldwide and get them to my tasting lab and then we have the costs of warehousing to store the samples afterwards. This year, for the 2009 edition alone, I spent five months tasting over 1500 whiskies, more than 1200 of them fresh to market. That makes it unique in the publishing world.

"To maximize sales and get the book out into foreign language editions it therefore became imperative that the entire operation was brought under one roof with an emphasis on strategic planning and the need to act quickly to capitalize in certain markets and avoid accidental cross-selling. That is harder to do when you have two sales forces working independently.

"Carlton recognized this also and so we have agreed a deal which suits both parties and is a clean break settlement.

"I would like to thank Carlton for the part they have played in helping make Jim Murray's Whisky Bible become a mainstay in the book market of Britain and elsewhere."

Carlton's managing director Jonathan Goodman said: "We have enjoyed being part of a genuine success story. However, for us, it made far better business sense for Jim Murray and Dram Good Books to develop the title as the nature of the beast means it will always sell more copies through the massively growing world whisky trade than through normal channels. We wish them continued success."

William

[Kenny M]

Thanks for the info William, this explains why i havent been able to find a Whisky Bible 2009 available to order anywhere. But when i think about it they have been quite late releasing the Whisky Bible in the last couple of years. Perhaps this is what has lead to Dram Good Books acquiring all the rights.

Cheers

Kenny

[Mal]

I havent seen the 2009 book available in any book shops yet either but you can get a signed copy direct from Dram Good Books web site.

Mal

[Gregor]

I would love to see them print a bigger size version where the book would actually stay open at the page you were looking at as it always closes over which annoys me. I dont need a pocket size version as i dont take it anywhere in my pocket a little bit bigger table top version which stays open is what i would love to see them produce.

Gregor

[Jacko]

I usually add a whisky bible to my order when shopping at amazon around christmas time which saves on postage and i found they were usually the cheapest £6 - £7 but i did notice it is not even available to pre-order yet on amazon which i think it usually is by this time of year. Hopefully due to the changes at Dram Good Books there wont be an availability problem.

By the way great forum i it has made my afternoon at work go in faster reading through the older posts.

Jacko

[Big Mac]

My latest copy of the whisky bible is a couple of years old now and i was going to update it this year, hopefully there isnt a problem getting hold of one.

Mac

[Whisky Joe]

I wondered why i couldnt find a copy. I also wonder whether it will now be available at all from the usual outlets such as Amazon.

Joe

[William]

Hi everyone

The Whisky Bible 2009 is now available form amazon for £7.25 including free delivery/

You will find it here: Whisky Bible 2009

William

[Kenny M]

Thanks William, they must have just got it in.

Kenny

[Alastair]