Congratulations to Ian Doherty, who was voted by members of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Associations as the 2016 William Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year. He will be honored at the NAIBA Fall Conference Awards Banquet on Sunday, October 16, in Baltimore, Md.
NAIBA wrote: "Ian comes from a book background. He attributes his love of books to his father, Terence Doherty, a long time rep for Simon & Schuster. Ian started his own book career and education at Koen Book Distributors in New Jersey, which was an important wholesaler to the mid-Atlantic stores. 'I then started as a sales representative with Ballantine Books for 10 wonderful years,' Ian recalled. 'They moved me to Atlanta, Ga., to service the independent stores of five southern states in 1985. I worked there for one year when the sales position for the Mid-Atlantic region opened up and was given the chance to move back to the area I know best. I moved to William Morrow for four years before my current position at HarperCollins. I just celebrated my 20th year here.' "
Among his fans: Toby Cox, owner of Three Lives & Co., New York, N.Y., wrote: "Ian is a terrific sales rep--fun, passionate, fully engaged--and one I depend on and appreciate for all his help and expertise. We are both big English football fans, he roots for Chelsea and I root for Man U... always a lot of good natured teasing between us during his sales calls."
Susan Kehoe, general manager at Browseabout Shops in Rehoboth Beach, Del.: "The best thing about Ian Doherty is not his obvious passion for his publisher, nor his endless enthusiasm about his books and authors. It's his absolute dedication to independent bookstores that sets him above and beyond his peers. That, and the donuts..."
Rebecca Fitting, co-owner of Greenlight Bookstore, in Brooklyn, N.Y.: "I've always believed that the rep's job is a balancing act of representing the publisher's interests, while also advocating for accounts, and Ian navigates this role so well. We are lucky we have him in our corner and HarperCollins is lucky they have him in theirs."
