About Us
The people that make up Midpoint Trade Books
Eric M. Kampmann
President
Eric Kampmann entered book publishing through an entry level sales position at Viking Press in 1970. He became Assistant Sales Manager there and then in 1974 moved on to St. Martin’s Press as Director of Sales. In 1977 Eric moved to Simon & Schuster as National Sales Manager where he focused his energy on building a sales organization that could deal with the significant sales growth at S & S. In1980, he was promoted to the position of Vice President, Director of Sales.
Eric has worked with independent publishers since 1981, first as the President of Kampmann & Company, then as one of the architects that engineered National Book Network’s growth in the early 1990’s.
Eric is one of the three original founders of Midpoint which shipped its first title in February 1996. From the beginning Midpoint has focused its talent and energy on helping independent publishers build successful publishing programs in the trade marketplace. Midpoint has worked with several national bestsellers, but the sales people at Midpoint take special pride in working with back list titles. Midpoint currently works with more than 250 independent publishers. Many of Midpoint’s largest publishers have worked with Midpoint for nine years or more.
Eric is the author of The Book Publishers Handbook: The 7 Keys to Publishing Success to be published by Beaufort Books, Inc in May 2007. Eric has also taught book publishing courses at Harvard, Columbia, Hofstra and New York University. He has also served on panels at PMA University, SPAN,and other venues.
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Chris Bell
Executive Vice President, Director of Sales
Chris Bell has been involved in both sales management and book retailing since 1976. He developed his retail merchandising and marketing skills through ten years experience with Walden books, working both in the field as a store manager and as a buyer for the entire chain. In 1986, Mr. Bell brought his hands-on book retailing experience to publishing as a National Account Manager for Sunset Publishing, Pocket Books and Avon Books, representing books and programs to all national, retail and wholesale accounts. His experience from "the other side of the desk" provides a sense of empathy for what book merchants really need from publishers.
Before joining his partners to create Midpoint Trade Books, Chris ran his own sales and marketing company representing Time Life Custom Publishing, National Textbook and Leisure Arts.
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John Teall
Manager, National Accounts
John Teall began his publishing career with Publishers Group West in1994, after five years spent working for independent bookstores in Northern California. He left PGW in 2001 to work more closely with small publishers, both as a consultant and as marketing director for two publishing companies in San Francisco. John joined Midpoint in2004 to launch Midpoint's West Coast Office, selling to Amazon.com,B&N.com, Partners West, Virgin Mega stores, the Barnes & Noble western regional buyer, and other accounts, including the top independent bookstores.
John serves on the board of the Northern California Book Publicity& Marketing Association, and is Midpoint's representative to the Publishers Association of the West.
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Margaret Queen
Manager, National Accounts
Margaret began working in the book industry in 1994when she went to work in a sales position at Walnut Grove Press in Nashville. Walnut Grove produced a line of books which sold mainly to the gift industry. She became the National Sales Manager overseeing sales through the hiring of gift reps across the country and working with Midpoint Trade books who sold Walnut Grove gift books to the book trade.
Margaret worked at Walnut Grove for 8 years. When they closed their doors to retail sales, she began selling several accounts for Midpoint Trade Books. This was an easy transition as Margaret had worked with Eric, Chris and Gail for a number of years as they sold Walnut Grove titles.
Margaret now covers several Midpoint accounts including Ingram,Ingram Library, Books-A-Million and several special accounts including catalogs, grocery and drug store sales. She lives in Tennessee.
Margaret is the author of several titles including So You’re Off to Summer Camp, Baby Tips for Moms and Dads and Baseball Wisdom for the Old Timers.
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Alex Kampmann
Manager, National Accounts
Alex Kampmann joined Midpoint Trade Books in September 2005 as a Sales Associate. In January 2006 he became a Sales Representative handling accounts such as Baker & Taylor and other library wholesalers. Throughout the year his sales responsibilities expanded too there markets and accounts. During the summer of 2006 he attended the Colombia Publishing Course, a six week intensive course focusing on all areas of book and magazine publishing. Alex graduated from Lehigh University in January 2004.
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Bill Huhn
Manager, National Accounts
Bill Huhn started his career with a Midwest based general merchandise store retailer. He spent eleven years as a store manager and seven years as a buyer with this 65-store chain. His buying responsibilities included books, stationery and other categories.
In 1992, he moved to the sales side of the retail store business working for an independent manufacturers sales rep firm. From 1999 to 2007 Bill represented Leisure Arts/Sunset Books. his responsibilities included most of the major mass-market retailers in the US. These included general merchandise retailers such as Target, Walmart, Kmart, and Meijer stores as well as the major US grocery, drug chains and airport gift shops.
Bill joined Midpoint in 2007 to cover the mass market division and the wholesalers servicing this section of the industry. These include Levy Home Entertainment, The News Group and Anderson News.
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Julie Hardison
Communication Services Manager
Julie Hardison has a background in journalism and has had a variety of temporary jobs from working in a shoe factory to working in a psychiatric hospital. She began her career at Midpoint in 1997, working at Midpoint Trade Books’ fulfillment provider as an administrative assistant concentrating on the Trade Books account. Her responsibilities focused on marketing (catalogs, BEA and ads) as well as operations, financial, and inventory control.
In 2004, Midpoint Trade Books hired her but changed some of her responsibilities. Julie is still responsible for some marketing but now also manages the website and all aspects of title management and data integrity.
Julie lives in the Kansas City metro area with her husband and two children.
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Laurie Little
Executive Assistant
Laurie Little has an undergraduate degree in Organizational Communication from Pepperdine University. Upon graduating, she moved to New York City and worked as a legal assistant for a year and a half,primarily dealing with organizational and financial matters. She joined the Midpoint Team in 2005, excited to be part of such a dynamic group. Laurie oversees Midpoint’s new publisher acquisitions department and handles the company’s financial administration.
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