Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year
Trudy Kallman Recognized as 2008 Regional Sales Rep of the Year
Trudy Kallman of Penguin Group has been awarded the William Helmuth Award, which recognizes an exceptional salesperson who serves booksellers in the highest manner of professionalism. The William Helmuth Award goes to the person that best embodies the dedication, book knowledge and heart shown by the late William Helmuth of BookTravelers fame.
Upon hearing the news, Trudy was deeply touched and moved. "I am absolutely thrilled to receive this honor. I feel once again so fortunate to sell an extraordinary wealth of books to savvy independent booksellers. I grew up in a family business so hard work, loyalty and service to your customers were already in my bloodstream—I just added the magic of books."
One of the accolades for Trudy came from Mark LaFramboise of Politics & Prose. He wrote “This illustrates how hard Trudy advocates for her independent bookstores. After books failed to arrive at a conference downtown, Trudy was tasked to find any available copies in DC. (They had been ordered online.) After doing all she could to alleviate the crisis, Trudy stressed to them the importance of using local stores to meet conference needs. The following week we received an order for 500 copies of "Three Cups of Tea" for a downtown conference. This is just one instance where Trudy stood up for us. Whether she’s working within her own company, Penguin, to help her accounts, or making sure we are knowledgeable of strong titles and good deals, her efforts are always appreciated. Her book knowledge and knowledge of the industry have proven indispensable time and again."
Unlike many in our industry, Trudy took a direct path from academia to book publishing. She received her MA program in Library Science and Business at University of Denver. During that time she worked at Trilogy Bookstore. In the summer of 1975, Frederick Praeger, who was founding Westview Press in nearby Boulder, hosted the first Publishing Institute at the DU Library School and the dean asked her to be his assistant. “It was a wonderful experience and I met my mentor Elizabeth Geiser, who was visiting speaker for the summer seminar and later became director of the Publishing Institute. Elizabeth’s love of our industry was contagious and I am exceedingly grateful that she encouraged me to consider book publishing."
And so she did. Upon graduation, she drove to New York City. She began as Assistant to the Editor, Margaret Klee Lichtenberg, at Frederick Warne & Co. “Since Warne was small, and Margaret incredibly generous, I learned firsthand the overview of publishing from reading manuscripts to the finished book.”
She later returned to Denver to work at CBS Fawcett Books where she became Regional Sales Manager. “I believe I was the first rep to sell Joyce Meskis of Tattered Cover Bookstore the day she took over the keys to the original store on 3rd Avenue.” There she met the Random House rep Gerry Kallman (now with Oxford University Press), the love of her life. Trudy joined Simon & Schuster as hardcover sales rep in the Rocky Mountain territory, and frequently she and Gerry traveled together, as friendly rivals from Random and S&S. “We would toss a coin to see who would get to sell the buyer first.” In 1993, after being at home for a decade raising two children, she jumped back into the publishing world and joined Penguin Group USA as the Paperback Sales Rep for DC, MD, VA & WVA.
Trudy Kallman will receive the Helmuth Award at the Opening Reception of the NAIBA Fall Conference, September 21 at 6:00pm.
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