Lakeside Book and Open Road Launch Multi-Faceted Partnership

Open Road Integrated Media, the book industry’s leader in applying technology to book discovery, and Lakeside Book Company, North America’s leading partner for book manufacturing, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution services, announced a multi-faceted partnership. Under the partnership, Lakeside Book’s distribution clients and its Dover Publications division will gain seamless access to Open Road’s proven digital marketing technology through its signature Ignition ebook backlist marketing program. Open Road will become, for its print books, a printing and distribution client of Lakeside Book’s rapidly expanding sales and distribution business.

“Lakeside Book is a longtime industry leader making major investments in building its distribution service,” said Open Road CEO David Steinberger. “We’re looking forward to partnering with the great Lakeside Book team on this next stage in their growth.”

“Open Road’s digital marketing is proven to lift sales,” said Lakeside Book CEO Dave McCree, “and we’re excited to bring this growth opportunity to the burgeoning list of publishers we represent and distribute.”

The new partnership builds on Lakeside Book’s accelerating momentum with their distribution solution. In November 2025, Lakeside Book acquired Baker & Taylor Publishing Services. Then, earlier this year, the company hired the veteran distribution services leader Todd McGarity in the new role of Senior Vice President of Business Development. Today, Lakeside Book provides distribution services to more than 150 independent publishers, all of which will now have access to the digital marketing power of Open Road.

“Being able to offer Open Road’s Ignition program to our clients in order to to grow their backlist sales will be another Lakeside Book differentiator in a market with fewer viable distribution options,” said Todd McGarity.

The new partnership will also further accelerate the growth of Open Road, which already markets more than 100,000 books across every genre, and serves more than 100 publishers, ranging from small niche publishers to university presses to the largest independents to the Big 5. Through its direct audience of power readers and deep understanding of consumer preferences, Open Road’s proprietary marketing technology consistently doubles the sales of backlist ebooks.

“This partnership will provide a path to boosting sales for thousands of backlist titles from Lakeside Book’s distribution clients,” said Heidi Sachner, Open Road’s SVP for Business Development.

As part of the overall partnership, Lakeside Book’s publishing arm, Dover Publications, has signed on to have ebook backlist titles marketed through Ignition. “We’re thrilled to partner with Open Road to drive sales growth and expand our market reach,” said Betina Cochran, Publisher at Dover.

Open Road has also signed a printing and distribution contract for its print books with Lakeside Book. Bringing Lakeside Book’s scale to bear will be a boost for Open Road’s publishing program, which includes a backlist of more than 10,000 titles and a growing frontlist—including its Rediscovery Lit (Re-Lit) initiative that breaths new life into reverted and out-of-print titles.

“This partnership with Lakeside Book will enhance the outstanding services we are committed to providing to our authors and estates,” said Open Road SVP and Publisher, Christine Gillespie. “Authors and agents are increasingly looking to us to publish in print and audio as well as eBook, and we only see that trend accelerating.”

The cut over from Open Road’s current distributor, IPG, is scheduled for Summer 2027. Open Road CFO/COO Rob Zaffiris commented, “We’ve been very impressed with the Lakeside Book team and their print and distribution offerings, and are excited about what we will accomplish together. We also thank the team at IPG for all their hard work and look forward to a smooth transition.”

Source: Open Road Media