The Bookstore Effect: The Saga of the Independent Rep Continues

By PT Editors
September 14, 2007
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The effects of one independent bookstore closing are felt throughout the delicate ecosystem of publishing, and independent reps are bellwethers for what’s in store for the rest of the industry. When Publishing Trends checked in with commission reps three years ago (see PT Nov 04), the prevailing mood could be called reservedly optimistic. Since then, even with the recent spate of legendary independent store closings across the country, consolidation across the board, and an aging rep demographic, the mood, style, and MO haven’t changed all that much. By and large, the publishing industry and independent reps themselves are both eager to discuss the recent changes afoot, but not ready to succumb to them. “I’m not at all negative about the business; it’s changing all the time and you must adapt,” said Eric Miller, a 20 year veteran who, with his brother, Bruce, runs Miller Trade Book Marketing in the Midwest. “Reps are great whiners.” Others, like Dan Fallon who’s been with the Rovers Group for 15 years, is jovially incredulous at the staying power of indy reps. “It’s hard to believe we’re still here,” he commented. “I’m completely mystified. It’s great to even have a future to peer into at this point.”

Passing on What Torch? To Whom?
In what used to be a business where reps handed down an account relationship carefully cultivated over decades to an appointed heir, these days, the heirs aren’t quite apparent. “It’s harder to find younger people who want to go into the business. I don’t see that happening as much. The commission population is aging,” said Fallon who thinks most reps seem to be at least 45. Angie Smits of Southern Territory Associates thinks she’s the youngest of the breed at 42 and if she had to replace a rep in her group, she’d be at a loss to know where to find one, but probably from the bookselling side. For the rep on the brink of retirement, doling out a few lines to another group is turning out to be a viable way of selling off an intangible business. “Dedicated New England reps are an endangered species,” said Michael Watson of Watson and Woodward in New England. “I’ve been approached by Mid Atlantic reps [to share the territory]. Whether it’s formalized with a subcontract or informal, it’s happening more and more.”

Indeed, the Rovers Group took on a few publishers from Frank Moster (Melman-Moster Associates) and Steve Williamson (New England Book Reps) in New England this year, but consolidation, such as the merger of Fuji and Heinecken, two major Midwest groups, and the consolidation at Tony Proe’s Empire Group is a new phenomenon. “I think consolidation will happen a lot more in the future. It follows from the consolidation in the publishing and distribution industries,” commented Fallon. “It’s good for people like us as it gives more access to publishers. Though it also makes some companies viable and some not at all. For us, it’s important.”

However, not everyone is thrilled about consolidation, especially booksellers who have developed longstanding relationships with their commission reps, and quiet protests pop up across the country. “There are some booksellers who, of course, buy from whoever is selling what they need, but who grumble about the groups being from outside the territory,” said Nanci McCrackin of McCrackin & Friends in New England. “One prominent bookseller claims he restricts his buys to a few lines from those fellows to make his point.” But it looks like booksellers will have to get used to being pitched to in a different accent.

Weeds of the Northeast
What else can be done to stay afloat? The Parson Weems Group in New England/ Mid Atlantic has developed a robust client list of university presses. Their regional SKUs, such as the perennial bestseller Weeds of the Northeast from Cornell University Press, backlist strongly, commented Chris Kerr. Children’s picture books that need an in person presentation also work to the commission rep’s advantage. And Parson Weems isn’t the only group to go academic, regional, and juvenile. Smits, of Southern Territory Associates, along with just about everyone else, reported a ramping up of these categories too. She reps the University of North Carolina Press and one of her accounts, Quail Ridge in Raleigh said their Encyclopedia of North Carolina “saved their year.”

Before (and if) merging becomes inevitable, some independent reps are finding other strategies to cope with changes. “Our approach is to stay the right size and increase our business by working closely with our clients and to help them grow with their publishing and distributing,” commented Stu Abraham of Abraham Associates, Inc. in the Midwest who’s been in the business for almost 30 years. Miller Trade has taken on a more active role in marketing, setting up “mini-trade shows” in key cities in its territory. In Traverse City and Lansing, Miller invited regional authors they rep to give readings and sign books. He and his brother also started a blog (www.millertrade.blogspot.com) where they feature “picks of the lists” and comment on the industry. “It’s a good way to expand our customer base,” said Miller. “One rep group can’t have all the lines or there will be fall-out. Different groups fit differently with accounts.”

Out West, the thriving museum store market just might save the commission rep. “We couldn’t survive without them,” reported Howard Karel of the San Francisco-based Karel/Dutton Group who makes the rounds to the Seattle Asian Museum, De Jonge, and San Francisco MoMA. Karel also partially reps Globe Pequot, sharing territory with GP house reps who peddle their books from vans to all manner of accounts.

Publishers Respond
At the end of 2005, Simon & Schuster’s response to the shrinking retail market was to reorganize their field sales rep force and combine adult and juvenile teams. Claimed as a way of avoiding similar layoffs at other publishers (such as Random House), the shake-up resulted in replacing commission groups with all in-house field reps to handle non-traditional accounts. The newly re-trained S&S group sells only books, a novelty to specialty store buyers used to picking up ashtrays, tchochkes, and picture books from the same rep. “Expanding past traditional markets gave reps more to do,” said Frank Fochetta, VP, Director of Field and Special Sales. “We might be missing opportunities at very small specialty stores, but we’re growing in the middle area. We’re opening fewer accounts, but the average dollar is higher.” He reported S&S is up 15-20% in non-traditional, non-bookstore accounts.

Compare with Globe Pequot which has also been moving toward a multi-focused in-house team over the past few years, calling on various accounts with their camping, travel, and outdoor lines. However, Chris Grimm, Director of Field and Specialty Sales, said he would not dream of disbanding his network of commission sales groups which have proven invaluable.

Shuffling the rep deck isn’t the best way to a healthy bottom line for every publisher. Matty Goldberg, Group VP and Director of Sales at Perseus, doesn’t think a multi-tasking in-house force alone could work for their list, saying it wouldn’t provide enough coverage to satisfy their distribution clients. With the recent mélange at Perseus Distribution Services (which now, of course, includes the varied lists of PGW, CDS, and Consortium), careful attention had to be paid to what kinds of reps would work best for which lines. Sabrina Bracco, VP Client Services at PDS, tried to bring on as many of the PGW sales force as possible which meant commission reps lost out again.

But Julie Schaper, President and COO at sister company Consortium responded to her publisher clients who begged not to be deprived of the commission reps who’d spent years selling their literary fiction and poetry collections in face-to-face meetings. “We still think [independent reps] are the best bang for the buck,” she commented. “Obviously you get more control with house reps, but the Consortium list can be a challenge. It’s very eclectic and you can’t explain these titles in one line. Independent reps have the ability to put in more time and effort.” She’s not ready to change at the moment, but the bottom line will always be how to best benefit their publisher clients.

For independent reps, and not just those who work with Consortium, Schaper’s dedication even after the PGW/Perseus merger is a welcome vote of confidence.

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Will iPhone Kindle eBook Interest?

By PT Editors
September 14, 2007
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So now there are two more e-book devices going head to head with Sony’s Reader, and neither of them is talking about it. Yet.

First there is the iPhone, which some see as the publishing industry’s first viable ePhoneBook, though Apple’s interest appears to be nonexistent. Still, when it was first introduced, the CNET editors raved that “The iPhone’s display is the handset’s design showpiece. … its 480 x 320 pixel resolution (160 dots per inch) translates into brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements.” Contrast that with comments about the Sony eReader from Business Week: “nearly 10 months after its debut, the Sony eReader is hardly a game-changer.” (BW, 9/3/07). Those who have seen its pedestrian gray screen would be hard pressed to find “brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements.” Nor can eReader take pictures, jump online, or download your e-mail. Oh yes, and make phone calls.

Now, say hello to the Amazon Kindle which remains shrouded in mystery though Engadget raves about this “book reader device that comes equipped with a 6-inch 800 x 600 display (which we can only assume is e-ink), 256MB internal storage, smallish two-thumb keyboard cursor bar, scroll wheel, standard mini USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD slot, and get this: EV-DO data!” The user manual also outlines the Kindle Store on Amazon. And Gizmodo wonders “What service is Amazon going to announce to deliver these heaven sent e-books?”

These new devices reopen an old debate among ebook conoscienti: The multiple-use vs single-use device. And there has not been any definitive decision on either side. But maybe what we’re learning is the number of uses is the wrong question. Rather, the important factors are: “design” itself, exciting features, a good user experience, ease of access, and of course, content. These are the essential ingredients for success for electronic devices of all kinds, whether for gaming, phoning, or reading.

After much work, the International Digital Publishing Forum has now published both ebook file, and ebook file container standards (See PT, March 07) that are being endorsed by publishing and technology companies which could further simplify the process. And maybe that’s the point. The transition to handheld devices for immersive reading will not come from a single blow, like Moses striking the rock and out pours water. Instead, a rising tide composed of new devices, accepted standards, improving screen technology, and a growing consumer comfort level with small screens, will allow the publishing industry to back into a reasonable level of revenue from ebooks.

PT thanks Lightspeed’s Jim Lichtenberg for his help investigating the world of ePhones and Kindles.

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International Bestsellers: Great Danes & Swede Reads

By PT Editors
September 14, 2007
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Shakespeare may have opined “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” but it is the steady slew of crime-fiction writers who hail from the region that should be credited with doing a bang-up job of keeping the sentiment alive and well. By far the most popular genre in Scandinavia, psychological thrillers and suspense-filled novels frequently grace the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish bestseller lists. And yet, much like the twisted plots they contain, there are more to these whodunits than meets the eye. English-speaking readers may have recently been turned on to these hidden depths with the runaway success of Danish author Christian Jungersen’s sophomore novel The Exception (Undantekningin). After reaching bestselling heights across Europe, the thriller was published for an American audience by Doubleday this year and currently is going back to press for a second printing. According to editor Lorna Owen, what makes The Exception such a stand-out is that while “on the surface, The Exception is a fast-paced read with all the elements of a good crime novel… Beneath the chilling suspense lies an intelligent and provocative tale that explores how ordinary people are able to commit atrocious acts…” In addition, Overlook Press President Peter Mayer adds his vote of confidence for the region as the publisher of both “Sweden’s greatest author” Per Olav Enquist who’s been published in over 25 countries as well as Danish literary critic and historian Keld Zeruneith (whose latest book The Wooden Horse he called “a major contribution to the development of Western thought”). Heeding these endorsements as the tip of the fjord, we here at PT have decided to do some sleuthing of our own and seek out a handful of other notable Nords, Swedes and Danes who are ripe (perhaps overripe, if you ask the Bard) for some stateside recognition (and English translation).

Hopping over to Sweden we encounter a Nordic wonder by the name of Mons Kallentoft. Mr. Kallentoft has proven his versatile capabilities by successfully alternating his literary focus from the animate to the inanimate (and no, we’re not talking corpses). After dabbling in the realm of nonfiction with the release of Food Noir in 2005, a groundbreaking collection of food and travel pieces, the worldly Kallentoft has since returned to home sweet Stockholm and the equally familiar realm of crime fiction. His latest offering, Midwinter’s Sacrifice, is the first in a series that will follow Detective Superintendent Malin Fors, a single working mother struggling to prevent the tragedies that blight her personal past from affecting her professional future. In this inaugural episode, Malin Fors and her colleagues on the police squad undertake the formidable task of determining how a naked obese man came to be hanging from a tree in the dead of winter. Part crime novel, part Deliverance, Kallentoft weaves a chilling, yet compelling tale set in the isolated backwoods of the city of Linköping. Lotta Ollson of Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter pinpoints how Kallentoft’s effective narrative strategy allows a story with roots in one genre to elevate itself to an entirely different level, “The originality does not need to be based on the choice of subject matter. . . . Instead, Kallentoft shifts the perspective ever so slightly, to a different language, a different mood. Only just enough so that one feels lost. It’s a new territory, that Linköping where Malin Fors lives.” And with Midwinter’s Sacrifice recently breaking the top 10 on the Swedish bestseller list, it seems readers have been more than willing to brave this uncharted terrain with Kallentoft as their guide. Talk about getting off to a running start, Kallentoft received an incredibly warm reception for his first novel, Pesetas (Natur & Kultur, 2000), a thriller that received the prestigious Writer’s Associations award for best debut. Since then Kallentoft has not only produced an equally gripping follow-up Marbella Club, but also racked up accolades for chronicling his aforementioned epicurean adventures. Contact Bengt Nordin (bengt.nordin @nordimagency.com). Rights have been sold to Sweden (Natur & Kultur), Germany (Rowohlt), Holland (Ambo Anthos) and Denmark (Gyldendal).

But taking a step outside the scene of the crime for a moment, it is worthwhile to mention some slightly less mysterious, but equally intriguing Scandinavian authors. Enter the wildly successful Swedish memoir/fiction writer Kanja Ingemarsson, whose breakthrough came in 2005 with the lighthearted read, Yesterday’s News (Små citroner gula), a title that sold the most copies in Sweden during 2005 – beating out both Dan Brown and J.K Rowling. With this impressive track record (and presumably lifelong bragging rights), it is no wonder that Ms. Ingemarrsson has garnered some considerable international attention. And while her previous novel is in the midst of being optioned for a film in Sweden, this fall Ms. Ingemarsson will unveil her newest novel, Wheels of Fortune. The story of a quiet suburban town where three women at different stages of their lives come together when a mysterious new woman moves into town, it seems Ingemarsson has mastered a Swedish take on Desperate Housewives, with slightly more heart and slightly less teeth. After the impressive public success of her last novel, the anticipation for Ingemarsson’s fourth novel is palpable. For more information, contact Bengt Nordin. Right have been sold in Sweden (Forum, Månpocket), Germany (DTV), Finland (Otava), The Netherlands (De Kern), Denmark (People’s Press), and Russia (Fluid).

On the more serious end of the spectrum, Norwegian author Herbjorg Wassmo has met with comparable critical success and international interest. The heavily lauded Wassmo has received The Nordic Literary Prize, the Norwegian Critics’ Prize, Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize, as well as being named a First Class Knight of the Order of St. Olav. In her most recent novel And a Glass of Milk, Please. Wassmo takes on the subject of drug trafficking from the perspective of naive 15 year old Dorte, a poor Lithuanian girl who accepts an offer to work in a restaurant in Stockholm with dreams of an exotic adventure only to belatedly discover that she has landed herself in dire circumstances. Juxtaposing the horrors of human brutality with the beauty of her light linguistic touch, Wassmo’s And a Glass of Milk, Please is a novel that is bound to resonate on a universal level and possibly reunite the author with an American audience nearly a decade after her previous novels The House With The Blind Glass Windows and Dina’s Book were published in translation by Seal Press. For more information contact Eva Lie-Nielsen (eva.lie-nielsen[at]gyldendal.no). Rights have been sold in Russia, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Lithuania.

Need any more convincing about the extensive virtues of Scandinavian literature? Look to the UK where a record nine Danish titles were translated into English over the past year. To celebrate this feat, a number of publishing houses are working together to facilitate the Danish Invasion Tour where some of the leading Danish authors will tour the UK. The tour was organized by literary producer Christine Paris, and is supported by the Danish Arts Council, the Embassy of Denmark and Arts Council England. The tour began on May 22, and runs until Oct 13. Touring authors include Morten Ramsland (Doghead), Janne Teller (Odin’s Island), Leif Davidsen (The Serbian Dane) and Christian Jungersen (The Exception). The authors (and a few translators) will be presenting their books, holding public readings at all of the larger U.K. literary festival, and hosting workshops in selected bookshops and libraries throughout England. US publishers take note – To turn a phrase, it seems something is Danish in the state of Shakespeare.

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Would That We Yanks Could Be So Collegial…

By PT Editors
September 1, 2007
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A challenging economic situation. Cover prices up; consumer spending habits down. Consolidation of distributors; retailers flexing muscles. Traditional media expensive and fragmented; new media baffling and unproven. Add a new political administration on the horizon, natural disasters creating additional uncertainty, and domestic terrorism threats dominating the news. Ask yourself: is this the environment to inspire creative and successful book publishing? It is. But it isn’t the USA. This is the UK in summer 2007.

I had the tremendous privilege this summer of spending my four-week sabbatical in London immersing myself in the day-to-day of British book publishing. What I found there was inspiring, challenging, and reassuring; I also found a group of professionals, primarily at our sister company, Transworld UK, but also among other houses, literary agents, booksellers, and media consultants who were warm, generous, enthusiastic, engaged, and above all committed to the mission to make books—literature—a relevant part of the cultural landscape. I look on it as my professional out of-body experience: and yes, I saw the light.

I relearned critical lessons in London. But while I was immensely excited by the strategies I saw employed, and came away with clever ideas to apply to my own marketing campaigns, and delighted in the contacts made, the real lessons are less tangible, and perhaps therefore more important.

When you step outside your routine, but are in a parallel environment, the essentials return with great clarity; for example, appreciating the importance of teamwork, and partnership, and communication in the successful publishing plan for a book or author. In the most buoyant campaigns, each publishing professional involved backed his or her self out of the process—in other words, “I” was not the subject of the campaign, but if I didn’t carry my load, the object standing in the way of success was “me.” (Get it? Grammar? Blame my mother, the English teacher.) This is not a publishing secret: this is a simple precept that is easy to state but very difficult to enforce. What I saw was both a top-down and bottom-up application of teamwork, infused with respect, and through it some astonishingly creative ideas were fostered. The interdependence of the entire company was emphasized; all communications, all meetings, all distribution of responsibility, were predicated on keeping the The Goal (for a book or author) clear, and foremost in each individual’s work. Simple, right? A case of the urgent not dominating the important—and who among us doesn’t have to drop everything for a time-sensitive situation, every week if not every day?

You won’t see radical new media strategies for my advertising campaigns—the media landscape is different enough, and frankly so much more supportive of books and book content that much of what I learned doesn’t apply here. You might not notice a refreshed take in our creative, either (although my computer has somehow defaulted to British spellings when I autocorrect so some of the flavour may seem alien). The changes in meeting content, the scheduling of activities, the day-to-day practicality of homing in on The Goal … none of this is sexy, really, but all of it is necessary. What I learned on my summer sabbatical is to look for the connection, and keep it. Easily said.

PT thanks Betsy Hulsebosch, SVP Creative Marketing Director, Bantam Dell Publishing for sharing her Limey love-in.

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Book View, September 2007

By PT Editors
September 1, 2007
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PEOPLE

HarperCollins UK has announced that David Roth-Ey, formerly VP and Editorial Director of Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks in the US, has moved to the UK office as the new Director of Audio and E-books.

Cal Morgan, VP and Executive Editor at Harper, has been appointed VP, Editorial Director of Harper Perennial and Harper paperbacks.

With Quayside’s acquisition of Motor Books International (MBI), CEO Randy Roland has left the company, which will remain in St. Paul, Minnesota. Quayside CEO Ken Fund estimates that annual revenues will double, to about $75 million.

Dick Robinson announced that Beth Ford, who had been SVP, Global Operations and IT, is leaving Scholastic to become EVP and Chief Operating Officer at Hachette Book Group USA and Hachette’s press release, explained that “With the retirement of both Maureen Egen and Rick Hall earlier this year there was a clear need for HBGUSA to bring in a new chief operating officer, and in Beth we have found the right mix of skills and experience that that role demands.” She begins September 10 and reports to David Young.

Jennifer Bergstrom, VP and Publisher of Simon Spotlight Entertainment announced that Carl Raymond has been named Associate Publisher for SSE. Raymond was most recently consulting for Scholastic, and previously was Publishing Director for adult lifestyle titles at DK Publishing.

Leyah Jensen has joined Little Simon as Associate Art Director. Leyah was most recently at Scholastic.

Lisa Dolin has left Abrams, where she was Director of Special Sales, reporting to VP of Sales, Mary Wowk.

Julie Will has joined Rodale Books in their New York office as an editor. She was at Bantam Dell. David Kang has been named SVP and General Manager, online subscription services at Rodale. He had been SVP and COO, entertainment, at Major League Baseball Advanced Media.

Matthew Benjamin has left Collins to go to Workman as Senior Editor. Ben Loehnen is joining Collins Business as a Senior Editor in September. He’s been working as a freelance writer and editor, after working at Random House and Hyperion.

Anne Sullivan has joined The New Press as Publicity Director. She was Publicity Manager for Nation Books/Avalon for two years prior. . . . Andy Heidel has joined Houghton Mifflin as Assistant Director of Publicity. . . . Campbell Wharton has joined HarperCollins as Associate Director of Publicity. . . . Books & Such Literary Agency announced that Kathleen Y’Barbo has joined the agency as in-house Publicist.

After 22 years at Viking and six at Roaring Brook Press, Deborah Brodie is starting her own business as a freelance editor for children’s, teen, and adult books. She may be reached at Deborahbro@ aol.com or 212-932-9506.

The NYC offices of Hay House are up and running, with Patricia Gift as the Director of Acquisitions, Cheryl Woodruff as President of SmileyBooks, a joint venture between Hay House and Tavis Smiley, and Laura Koch as Associate Editor. Hay House is at 33 W. 19th Street, 4th floor New York, NY 10011; 646-619-1314.

Jennifer Daniels has been named VP General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Directors of Barnes & Noble.

At Borders Group, Susan Harwood has joined the company as the new Chief Information Officer.

John Molish has joined Tantor Media as VP Sales & Marketing. He was formerly Executive Sales Director at Brighter Minds Media.

PROMOTIONS

Following his move into the Touchstone/ Fireside group of imprints, EVP Publisher John Howard now reports to Mark Gompertz, EVP and Publisher of Touchstone/Fireside. Howard will remain in West Monroe, Louisiana.

At Running Press, Director of Marketing and Publicity Craig Herman has been promoted to Associate Publisher. Jennifer Kasius has been promoted to Executive Editor.

And at sister company Basic Books, Lara Heimert has been promoted to VP and Editorial Director, responsible for overseeing the editorial staff, and Executive Editor William Frucht has been promoted to VP.

Tina Bennett and Eric Simonoff have both been promoted to Directors at
Janklow & Nesbit.

Jared Kieling has been promoted for Publisher at Bloomberg. He was Editorial Director, a position that Executive Editor Mary Ann McGuigan will now fill.

Andrea Sheehan has been promoted to the position of VP, Director of Online Sales and Merchandising at S&S, reporting directly to Larry Norton.

Watson Guptill has promoted Joy Aquilino to Executive Editor. She handles crafts titles and has two senior editors, Julie Mazur and Abigail Wilentz, reporting to her.

At the Hachette Book Group USA, Little, Brown Publisher Michael Pietsch and Warner publisher Jamie Raab were both promoted to EVPs, and Megan Tingley has been promoted to SVP. Maja Thomas has been promoted to SVP of Hachette Book Group USA Audio and Digital Publishing.

With the promotion of Gary Gentel as Interim President of Houghton Mifflin Trade & Reference, Maire Gorman has been promoted to VP, Director of Sales.

At Workman, Page Edmunds has been promoted to Associate Publisher. Edmunds, who has been Director of National Account sales, will continue to sell to Ingram and the warehouse clubs and will continue as in-house liaison with HighBridge Audio.

Julie Strauss-Gabel has been promoted to Associate Editorial Director of the Dutton Children’s Books.

Giuseppe Castellano has been promoted to Art Director for Simon Spotlight.

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

The French-American Foundation, German Book Office and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy have joined forces to organize three days (Sept. 16-18) of public, professional, and networking events in New York City “in an effort to strengthen ties between French, German and American publishers and to encourage interest in foreign literature and translation.” For further information contact Margaret Bensfield at 212.255.8455×214 or mbensfield@ groupsjr.com. Weekend events will be tied in with The Brooklyn Book Festival (see below). On September 17, a variety of discussions are scheduled, including a luncheon panel on “Publishing Trends,” with Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director, National Book Foundation, Rachel Deahl, Senior News Editor, Publishers Weekly, Peter Mayer, Publisher of Overlook, and Eric Banks, Editor-in-Chief, Bookforum. All events take place at Deutsches Haus, 42 Washington Mews.

The National Book Critics Circle is opening the fall season in New York with a week-long symposium, The Age of Infinite Margins: Book Critics Face the 21st Century. Panelists will include leading authors, publishers, and critics. The first three panels are being held at the Housing Works Bookstore Café, while the final event is being held at the Brooklyn Historical Society, in conjunction with the Brooklyn Book Festival (see below). For more information, please go to http://www.bookcritics.org/. For further information at the events listed above, please contact John Freeman at jfreeman4@nyc.rr.com (646-246-8565).

The National Book Foundation will once again participate in this year’s second annual Brooklyn Book Festival, to be held in downtown Brooklyn on Sunday, September 16, 2007 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The festival will present National Book Award authors Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Paula Fox, Mary Gaitskill, Gloria Naylor, and Jacqueline Woodson. Other authors scheduled include Jim Carroll, Mike Farrell, Kimiko Hahn, Philip Lopate, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and Colson Whitehead. For more information on the festival, visit visitbrooklyn.org.

DULY NOTED
The Club for Unesco of the Department of Piraeus & Islands is organizing an International Poetry Competition. Greek and foreign citizens from all over the world can participate. Any language can be used for participating in the competition. The final evaluation of the 100 poems will be made by a special committee and the results will be published in the daily press. Each participant will take part with two poems from which one will be chosen. The selected participations will be subject of a special compound publication.

Submissions may be sent to Post Restant, Piraeus Central Post Office, 185 01 Piraeus, Greece by October 12, 2007. For further information, call: 210 4110212; 6977238764

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Bookview, August 2007

By PT Editors
August 1, 2007
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PEOPLE

Following the recent news of Houghton Mifflin‘s planned acquisition of Harcourt, Gary Gentel has been appointed Interim President of the Trade and Reference Division, effective immediately. HM Chairman, President and CEO Tony Lucki told employees that “Gary will lead the division’s strategic direction with the support of the Trade and Reference management team, who will report directly to him. He will also be an instrumental part of planning the integration of Harcourt Trade with Houghton Mifflin Trade and Reference.” Gentel has served as the division’s Corporate VP, Director of Sales for the past four years. Prior to joining HM, he was VP of Trade Sales at Scholastic, and had previously worked at Candlewick Press as President, and at DK and Random House.

Separately, it was announced that George Hodgman is moving to Houghton Mifflin Adult Trade as VP, Senior Executive Editor, starting in the New York office in early September and reporting to Publisher Janet Silver. He had previously been Executive Editor at Holt.

Will Balliett, former Publisher and Editorial Director of Carroll & Graf Publishers and Thunder’s Mouth Press, is joining Hyperion as Editorial Director, as of August 8 and reporting to SVP Editor in Chief Will Schwalbe. Meanwhile Katie Wainwright, Executive Director of Publicity and Associate Publisher of Trade Paperbacks at Hyperion, has joined Crown as VP, Executive Director of Publicity, reporting to Jenny Frost. She succeeds Tina Constable, who last month was named VP and Publisher for Crown Publishers, Crown Business, and Crown Forum.

After two months at Hilsinger-Mendelson, Brian Belfiglio is leaving to take Elizabeth Hayes‘ place as VP Publicity at Scribner. He starts in mid-August. Hayes – who had moved over from S&S to Scribner six months ago, is leaving to work in the film industry, as a producer.

Pamela Cannon will join Ballantine as Editor at Large on September 10, acquiring and editing lifestyle books, and reporting to Libby McGuire, SVP and Publisher. She will work from her office in Connecticut, where she previously ran Cannon Literary Services, specializing in editorial, publicity and marketing services for authors, agents and publishers including The New York Times and Bon Appétit.

Garrett P. Kiely, President of Palgrave Macmillan, has been named Director of the University of Chicago Press. He succeeds the retiring Paula Barker Duffy, who is moving to the East Coast. Kiely will begin on September 1; Deputy Director Chris Heiser is serving as interim director as of July 1.

Lots of movement in sales and marketing circles:

Greg Brandenburgh has become Sales and Marketing Director of Hampton Roads Publishing. Earlier he worked for Thorson/Element, Tuttle Publishing and HarperOne. . . . Unbridled Books has hired Steven Wallace as Sales Director. He was a field rep and then Divisional Director for Field Sales at Random House for more than 18 years. . . . Mike Rohrig has gone to Dalmatian Press in Atlanta, as Senior Director of Sales. Most recently he had been at Scholastic. Michelle Patterson has left Globe Pequot and is now Senior Director of Marketing at Kaplan Publishing. Yulia Borodyanskaya has also gone to Kaplan, as International Sales and Rights Manager. . . . Phaidon has hired Sharon Huerta as North American Sales Manager. She was Director of Field and International Sales at HNA/Abrams. Meanwhile, HNA has hired Julia Coblentz as Director of Marketing. She was at Broadway Books/Random where she was most recently Associate Marketing Director. Justin Nisbit has joined HNA as Director of Digital Initiatives and comes from Workman Publishing where he was Web Manager. Both report to VP of Sales, Mary Wowk who now officially takes on the responsibility for marketing in addition to sales. . . . At Harper, Campbell Wharton will join the company as Associate Director of Publicity. He had been at Publicity Manager for Crown Forum.

The Ingram Book Group has hired Skip Prichard as its COO. He was formerly president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning.

Following on the resignation of Ric Vanzura, EVP emerging business and technology, chief strategy officer, Teresa Wright was appointed VP, Merchandising, Paperchase U.S. Division and Myles Romero was named VP, Strategic Marketing and Entertainment Alliances.

Bill Nasshan, SVP of trade books at Borders Group, has left the company. Rob Gruen, EVP, merchandising and marketing, will assume his duties.

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd announced the appointment of Oliver Gadsby as Chief Executive of its worldwide publishing business. His previous role was as Director of Strategy & Acquisitions with Informa PLC, which includes Taylor & Francis and Routledge. Continuum also announced the appointment of Bob Marsh as Chief Financial Officer of the group reporting directly to the Gadsby. He had been the CFO of the North American business of Continuum and prior to that of Morehouse Publishing. Ed Suthon has left the company and may be reached at edsuthon@aol.com.

Helen Atsma has joined Holt as Editor, Adult Trade. She has been an associate editor at Little, Brown. . . . Counterpoint has hired both Sharon Donovan as Publishing Director, reporting to CEO and Publisher Charlie Winton, and Abbye Simkowitz as Publicity Manager. They will work from the company’s new Berkeley, CA office and be responsible for both the Counterpoint and Soft Skull imprints. Donovan was Publishing Manager at the Foundation for Deep Ecology and previously worked at Conari Press and Sierra Club Books. Simkowitz was a publicist at St. Martin’s.

In children’s books: Susan Yeager has been appointed Associate Director of Mass Merchandise sales for HarperCollins Children’s Books. For the past 15 years, she worked for Borders Group in inventory, category management and buying/merchandising. She will oversee Tim Synek and Mikki Plaskett. . . . Melanie Chang is joining Little, Brown Children‘s in the new position of Executive Director, Publicity and Communications, reporting to Associate Publisher, VP Marketing Andrew Smith, starting on August 20. Chang will both oversee the publicity team and direct the PR strategy and overall communications for the division. She has been Director of Publicity at Random House Children’s. . . . Meanwhile, Carl Raymond has completed his consulting assignment at Scholastic and may be reached at craymondny@aol.com. Anica Rissi has also left Scholastic for Simon Pulse, where she is an Editor.

Laurie Parkin, VP and Publisher of Kensington Publishing announced that Karen Auerbach joined the company as Director of Publicity and Public Relations. Previously Auerbach was the Senior Director of Publicity at Avalon Publishing Group.

PROMOTIONS
Following Jeannie Emanuel’s departure for Candlewick, Adams Media announced that Phil Sexton has been promoted to Sales Director.

Rica Allannic was promoted from Editor to Senior Editor at Clarkson Potter. Her promotion is effective immediately. She will continue to report to Doris Cooper.

At S&S, George Hedges has moved to the BGI sales team as a National Account Manager for Atria and Pocket.

At Random House Children’s Books, Erin Clarke has been promoted to Senior Editor, and Jack Lienke has been promoted to assistant editor.

Sean Yule, Domestic Rights Director at Knopf, announced that Thomas Dobrowolski has been promoted to Assistant Manager, Domestic Rights for the Knopf Publishing Group.

AUGUST EVENTS

Poets Billy Collins and Paul Violi will read from the works of Frank O’Hara (who was awarded the National Book Award for Poetry posthumously in 1972), as well as from their own works, on August 2nd at Madison Square Park. Poet and critic Craig Morgan Teicher will moderate. On August 9, dogs and their owners are invited to attend a reading and talk by Mark Doty, author of DOG YEARS: A MEMOIR (HarperCollins, 2007). Doggy treats will be provided.
For a complete listing of Mad. Sq. Reads events, visit www.madisonsquarepark.org.

DULY NOTED

Susan Naythons left PGW/AMS in 2005, and, as she now tells PT, “I went off to Italy and the rest is history,” or more accurately, her future job: Naythons launched eyeItalia.com last month to celebrate (and sell) all things Italian. “Some friends have teased me a bit about offering books on the site (“who are you kidding by trying to compete with Amazon?” etc.) , but to not offer books as a complement to the site would be anathema to me,” she writes from her house near Volterra.

Biographer James McGrath Morris (Rose Man of Sing Sing and the forthcoming Joseph Pulitzer) has recently launched a free monthly newsletter and website for writers and readers of biography that will serve as a great resource for publishers, authors, bookstores, librarians, and readers. It’s called The Biographer’s Craft, www.thebiographers craft.com.

The BISG offices are still not habitable, but the website is operational, and everyone can be reached on their regular emails: Michael@bisg.org, Angela@bisg.org, Sara@ bisg org.

MAZEL TOV

Mazel tov to the proud parents of William Francis Held born 7/16/07. Proud dad Ivan tells us that he joins Margaret, 2 and George, 4, who’s “declared him “cute,” which is accurate.”

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Full Cast vs. Podcast: Digital Audiobook Update

By PT Editors
August 1, 2007
Comments (4)

It’s over, tape worms. Audio Renaissance published its last cassette this year: Janet Evanovich’s Lean Mean Thirteen. Random House Audio reports a format breakdown of 85% CDs and 15% digital downloads, with tape sales negligible. Retailers don’t sell cassettes, duplicators don’t duplicate them, and publishers don’t produce them anymore. Audible.com, often considered the benchmark of the digital spoken word industry, continues to see major growth, with annual revenue of $82 million in 2006 up from $64 million in ’05 and $34 million in ’04. It took over ten years for consumers to make the switch from tape to CD, but it looks like the shift to digital won’t be glacial. “In the next five years, downloads will take over,” said Madeline McIntosh, SVP and publisher of the Random House Audio Group. “Initial digital growth came from new consumers who discovered audiobooks on the web. Now, CD consumers are switching to digital.” Indeed, digitizing miles of cassettes and CDs is no longer the seemingly insurmountable task facing audiobook publishers. Instead, they’re having to re-frame the audiobook as “downloadable content,” insinuate it into the digital mainstream, and hopefully attract some of the 600 million MP3 player owners worldwide. A tall order.

“We Don’t Do 99¢ Downloads. That’s Music.”

Digital spoken word audio borrows technology and a marketplace from its cousin, the music industry, but like all hand-me-downs, the fit isn’t perfect. “The biggest challenge is that consumers don’t understand how much it costs to make a master recording of an audiobook,” said Ana Maria Allessi, publisher of HarperMedia. “The 99¢ song creates a tough expectation.” Unlike music whose value can be extracted over and over again, audiobooks deliver it all upfront in a single, longer listen, making it virtually impossible to chunk and monetize fiction, the most popular audiobook category. “The music industry is a good place to watch for trends that might relate to us,” said McIntosh of RH Audio, “but music and audiobooks have totally different manufacturing economies.” With the near ubiquity of free podcasts and the consumer’s resulting unwillingness to pay for the spoken word, audiobook publishers either have to fit the mold or break it. In certain ways, they’re doing both.
To fit in, publishers release their own newsy podcasts for free on iTunes and elsewhere. Audio Renaissance has “Backstories: Tales from Behind the Mike,” 16 to 17 minute segments about the audiobook making process. Penguin’s podcasts focus on interviews, news, and excerpts that typically run between eight and 20 minutes bimonthly in an “enhanced format” for iTunes. RH’s are shorter book excerpts, usually between five and ten minutes. At the iTunes store, however, audiobook podcasts don’t exactly get face out treatment. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find one without scrolling through pages and pages of podcasts or inputting “the Penguin Podcast” into the search box.

If the newsy podcasts don’t snag new consumers, other shorter spoken word content could. HarperCollins recently partnered with iAmplify.com to get audio content in the hands of interested parties, whether they’re audiobook listeners or not. At iAmplify, customers browse both audio and video digital content across a gamut of categories that range from health/fitness to gaming/sports to personal growth. With a variety of subscriptions and “bundled” options, the customer can download, for example, a free ten minute guided yoga workout from a famous instructor and if s/he likes it, can then purchase a monthly subscription or a package of downloadable guides. iAmplify helped create the Digital Media Café on Harper’s site, and Harper supplies them with content.

“We’re going beyond the book, pushing content to the edge,” said Murray Hidary, co-founder of iAmplify. “These products are an experience that complements what’s written. We find categories where we can charge $100 or more. We don’t do 99¢ downloads. That’s music.” Hidary’s enthusiasm was greeted with skepticism by some at the Audio Publisher Association Conference last month where he spoke on the “Channel Panel.” The iAmplify ethos of driving up prices for more valuable bundles of digital content seems counterintuitive to publishers under pressure to keep price points down à la iTunes.

Nevertheless, several “major publishers” are joining the iAmplify roster this fall, according to Hidary who wouldn’t disclose specifics. Random House Audio is already on board with twelve hour-long Louis L’Amour stories ($7.50 each or bundled for $49.95) and has repackaged its popular Don’t Know Much About History into 52 weekly downloads for $19.95. The unabridged audiobook sells for $27.97 on Audible. “We’re just starting with iAmplify,” said McIntosh. “What’s interesting about them is they package content and then go after that market aggressively.” Once iAmplify has developed a subscription service or package around an author, it pursues already established websites that work in the same category. Its proprietary inSite software, essentially a flash player that can be embedded on any website by copying and pasting a few lines of code, plays a sample of the content and then leads the potential consumer to buy it at the site or back at iAmplify.

While Audio Renaissance has yet to join iAmplify or start a subscription program of its own, AR’s publisher Mary Beth Roche reports an active and optimistic attitude toward chunked digital content, even finding a way to bend an audiobook into the tough 99¢ format. It’s released ten podcasts from This I Believe, a book of essays from the eponymous weekly NPR broadcast, for 99¢ on iTunes. The unabridged version that includes 80 essays and lasts almost six hours goes for $18.95. “Podcasting is broadening the definition of what an audiobook is,” she said. “It opens possibilities for serialization as in Dickens’ day.”

Who Stole Moby Dick?

Though audiobook publishers are finding creative ways to chunk the unchunkable and beat pricing pressure, other digital worries continue to linger in the industry. Some doubt that the MP3 itself is the most appropriate file for spoken word content which, coupled with the perceived amateur podcast production style, could change the high-quality reputation of audiobooks and turn off longtime listeners accustomed to pristine recordings. “Podcasts present an inexpensive way to join the market,” commented Michele Cobb, president of the Audio Publishers Association, “but we have to make sure standards are upheld.”

Much like in the music industry, the DRM debate persists with audiobooks. Proponents fear that going DRM-free will drive paying audiobook customers to the library where unlimited borrowers could theoretically “check out” unlimited digital downloads of the same book. Currently, libraries offering downloads lend a limited number of digital “copies” that can only be accessed by one person at a time thanks to DRM. Piracy concerns many, especially those who watch the digital music industry as an estimated 90% of tracks are downloaded illegally. “There would be lots of piracy without DRM,” said Beth Anderson of Audible. “Historically, there was never a way to download music legally. There was just Napster. Audiobook customers have always had a legal way to download content.” Attracting and, at the same time, re-training the younger, more digitally savvy demographic presents one of the greatest challenges to the industry. No one has a solution yet.

But others think that for once the audiobook industry might be in a more advantageous position than its music counterpart. “Audiobook files are much larger which makes file-sharing difficult,” said McIntosh. “Also, since the demo-graphic tends to be older and more affluent, audiobook listeners put a premium on time rather than money, so they’re more likely to just buy an audiobook rather than spend the time figuring out how to steal one. On the whole, digital audio-book theft is a small factor. Even in the last six months, people in the industry seem to be more open to going DRM-free.”

The large-file argument, however, doesn’t convince everyone. “A lot of the top selling audio-books, the biggest revenue generators for publishers, are shorter files like The Secret and David Sedaris titles,” commented Anderson. “No one’s looking to steal an unabridged recording of Moby Dick.”

iPod on Wheels

Indeed, digital technology and the debate around it change from month to month, developing at an unquestionably faster pace than the infrastructure that supports it. Since the commute is the precious listening hour for the majority of audiobook enthusiasts (approximately 53% in the last APA poll) and MP3 players have reached critical mass, or 15-20% U.S. household penetration, MP3 car integration becomes a critical issue. In fact, there’s a website devoted entirely to listening and driving, tunevroom.com, and companies such as Griffin Technology sell all manner of iPod auto-related accessories, including TuneFlex, a charger that anchors the iPod in a sturdy holder and plugs into the 12 Volt accessory outlet. If listeners want to hear a digital audiobook, they have to deal with cigarette lighters, FM-Modulators, cassette adapters, and fumbling with a device while driving.

However, car manu-facturers are responding. Already, most new car models come with an auxiliary input jack for cell phones, PDAs, and music players. As more consumers demand more hook-ups, auto manufacturers realize the wide-mouthed CD player takes up too much room on the console. By 2012, the standard CD player could disappear completely according to a VP of Siemens at the Ward’s Auto Interiors Show this June as reported by the Detroit News. According to a survey released by Harris Interactive last year, 65% of adult vehicle owners who have an MP3/iPod player use an adapter to listen while driving. When it comes to buying a new car, 52% of them said they’re extremely or very likely to consider purchasing MP3/ iPod Audio System Inter-face technology. Steve Jobs even commented on MP3 car integration at a press event last September, saying that in the coming year 70% of all cars sold in the U.S. would offer iPod inte-gration, up from 40% nine months earlier.

Despite the myriad issues and fluctuating sentiments of the digital spoken word industry, growth remains the constant. Results of the 2007 Audio Publishers Association sales and consumer surveys will be released shortly and with the recent formation of the Association for Downloadable Media (downloadablemedia.org), solutions, or at least a more structured debate, are on the way. “Information is not going to be consumed in one way anymore. People are willing to cross formats according to their needs more and more,”said Harper’s Allessi. “During the summer and around Thanksgiving, people come to my office asking for audiobooks because of the long car trips coming up. Soon, people will have a hardcover on the bedside table and the same title as an e-book to read on the Sony Reader during their commute.”

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International Bestsellers: Russia, Russia, Russia

By PT Editors
August 1, 2007
Comments Off on International Bestsellers: Russia, Russia, Russia

“Intellectual Bestseller” may sound like a contradiction in terms for the U.S. book market, but Russia’s literary tradition of complex allegory and existential musing is still going strong. Cheap romance novels and Lord of the Rings knockoffs haven’t faltered (whatever happened to censorship?) – but Russian book prizes are what make or break many of the country’s authors. As a result, readers are exposed to as much highbrow literature as they are to “guilty pleasure” books. “There’s no unified bestseller list,” says agent Julia Goumen of the Goumen & Smirnova agency.
“However, there are several influential sources and book stores (chains) that provide their lists. And titles that enter short lists and become finalists and winners of book prizes often end up selling the most copies.”

This month, Ilya Boiashov was the first writer from the city of St. Petersburg to win Russia’s National Bestseller prize for his most recent book Way of Murrie (Limbus Press). In the novel, a cat named Murrie is abandoned by his human family following the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia. Guided by spirits and voices, he embarks on a journey through Europe to locate his owners, and his travels tie together the novel’s many subplots. Along the way, Murrie meets some eccentric characters who are all victims of their obsessions: a paranoid Croatian astronomer, an Arab businessman who wants to fly nonstop around the world, a crippled mountain-climber, and a whale which is on its 50th circle around the world to fight a giant octopus, amongst others. The cat observes the behavior of his new acquaintances (of which there are a dozen), but to the reader’s surprise, treats them very badly, abandoning them at critical moments and breaking promises. Murrie never does find his family, but the themes of moving on with one’s life and aspirations remain constant. The author has had an equally multi-faceted life, playing in a Soviet-rock band Jungle, giving guided tours of the Navy museum, writing about submarines and civil wars in Russia, but this is his first novel. Contact Aleksander Troitsky (a.troitsky@limbuspress.ru) for foreign rights.

A slightly more risqué release from Limbus entitled I Love You, Neither Do I is also causing quite a stir. In the vein of William S. Burroughs, Siberia-based architect Sonya Adler offers tales of one-sided lesbian love, lust and obsession in her brutally honest and graphic debut novel. The protagonist, Irina, is on a quest to find the ideal woman – but in her relentless affairs, ends up feeling alone and alienated from her lovers. Adler makes apt comments about the nature of human relations through her explicit sex scenes and unflinching attitude towards the darker side of sex; however, this is not a novel for the squeamish reader.

Dmitry Bykov’s latest, How Putin Became President of the U.S.A: New Russian Stories (Amphora) is also set to win over fans of political satire. According to literary agent Goumen, Bykov’s books are very long – “which is usually a disadvantage for the Russian market (unlike Germany) – but being very media active, he is always on the bestseller lists.” His biography of Boris Pasternak won the Big Book Award and the National Bestseller prize last year. Subsequently, he enjoyed considerable media attention, which spurred the sales of many books. Bykov is also a journalist, poet and TV personality whom the Moscow Times praised for being “prolific”. For rights information about his works, including Pravda, a book about Lenin written in satirical prose described as the “literary sensation of the century” – contact Lena Koposova at Amphora Publishers (lena.koposova@amphora.ru.)

Some of Bykov’s work has already been translated by the Moscow-based book series publisher GLAS, which specializes in exposing the best of new Russian literary fiction to English speaking readers. The Times Literary Supplement said GLAS “gives us a sense of Russian literature in motion. If it cannot perhaps mercifully convey fully what it is like to live in Russia at present, GLAS at least gives us a taste of what it is to be a reader there.” Since translations make up only 2% of the U.S book market, GLAS plays an important role in giving people an opportunity to enjoy Russian literature that isn’t necessarily a classic text. GLAS is distributed in the U.S through Northwestern University Press and represents over 100 writers and poets. Some of their translations have been picked up by bigger publishers: The Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl by Nina Lugovskaya, published in the US by Houghton Mifflin and in the UK by Transworld as well as in 20 other countries; Arkady Babchenko‘s One Soldier’s War in Chechnya, coming out this year from Grove Atlantic as well as in 10 other countries; Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky‘s novellas, now translated for the NYRB‘s Classics as well as in many other countries, and many more. Krzhizhanovsky’s Seven Stories also received the International Rossica Translation Prize. Contact Natasha Perova (perova@ glas.msk.ru) or go to www.russianpress.com/glas for more information.

Needless to say, there are more authors than prizes, and not everyone gets first place. Alexei Ivanov is one of the most talked about writers in the Russian scene (“the most unassuming star of Russian belles-lettres”, according to Harper’s Bazaar), but hasn’t won anything (yet!) despite having sold over 50,000 copies of every published title. His latest, Cheap Porn, takes place in the small Russian town of Kovyazin, near the Ural mountains. Boris Morzhov, an artist, alcoholic and ladies’ man, works in the Municipal Center for Continuing Education with his friend Kosterych, the company’s regional specialist. When the local authorities want to shut down the center and fire a large number of its teachers, the pair take action. Cheap Porn is a novel full of depressing provincial realities, loveless sex, dirty money and social commentary with a humorous side, conveying Russia’s version of American suburbia. The Goumen & Smirnova agency handle Ivanov’s foreign rights; contact goumen@gs-agency.com or smirnova@gs-agency.com for details.

Mass marketing techniques are also developing at an astounding rate in Russia, to the benefit of the book industry and up-and-coming authors. In June, a virtually unknown publishing house named Popularnaya Literatura released a 10,000 copy print run of a book by an equally unknown author, Eduard Bagirov. The book was an enormous hit without any prior credentials, and the publisher’s follow-up effort, Metro 3033 by Dmitri Glukovsky, has had equal similar success, topping the lists for the past four weeks. Rumor has it that the President’s public relations committee was behind the advertising plan, which the Moscow Times reported billboards to have lined the city’s highways with just one word: Gastarbeiter, the title of Bagirov’s book and German term for “Guest Worker.” Gastarbeiter is a timely account of an immigrant worker’s life; protagonist Yevgeny comes to Russia from Turkmenistan at the age of 21 to make a living, spends time selling cheap back-massage machines, then works his way up to a career in real estate, construction and transport. The novel details his close brushes with the law, the mafia, and the immigrant discrimination so prevalent in Russia today, with the character struggling to stay honest. The author had similar experiences and has told the press that his book is “80% autobiographical.” Contact poplit@newmediastars.com or go to gastarbeiter.ru.

Similar marketing techniques also helped Liudmila Ulitskaya, who has previously been published by Random House in the US, promote her most recent novel entitled Daniel Stein. Just don’t compare her to the likes of Danielle Steel: “It is quality upmarket fiction, challenging even a professional reader,” comments Julia Goumen. Goumen describes the promotional campaign as “unprecedented: huge posters across central prospects of Petersburg and Moscow, POS materials, TV advertising–never before has a publisher invested as much in the promotion of a book. And it was for the first time that a book of a “living classic” author sold out in terms of mass market fiction.” Daniel Stein tackles the ageless question of what “good” really is, setting the story of a Polish Jew in Germany, modern-day Israel, the U.S. and Russia amidst during the turbulent times of World War 2, the fall of the Soviet Union and the tragedies of the Holocaust. Stein, the protagonist, escapes the Nazis and saves hundreds of lives by pretending he is a Gestapo officer and translator, and ends up converting to Christianity and moving to Israel. But the novel features many more characters, and looks closely at the significance of Christianity, Judaism and guilt. Gallimard has already published. For info, contact agent Elena Kostioukovitch (elkost@perevod.it) or Linda Michaels (lmlagency@aol.com) for US rights.

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The Future Revealed

By PT Editors
July 1, 2007
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During summer’s first month, the much debated future of publishing was, well, debated some more at venues across the country. The much-reported O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in San Jose, featured an array of stellar presentations running the gamut from “the book is dead,” to “the book is gloriously alive!”

Back east, software producer Klopotek offered eight majors the opportunity to pitch their wares and their services in the form of the much ballyhooed DADs (Digital Asset Delivery) and MUMs (Mechanism for Unlimited Metadata) to a wary bunch. Notwithstanding expansive programs and promises, all agreed that the future was a big unknown even as they geared up, dispensing dollars and technology in all directions. But comments from mid-sized publishers such as Norton indicate a watch and wait posture.

The New York Public Library’s Science Industry and Business Library, celebrated the installation of the first Espresso Book Machine (EBM), an ingenious print on demand system. Walk right up, present your credit card, and zippity-do-dah (when it works), it prints the book you requested in about the same time it takes to make a latte. This machine is the product of On Demand Books, founded by legendary publisher Jason (“A rattle of Pebbles”) Epstein and his partner Dane Neller, and has been the subject of much discussion on industry blogs.

Another technology, radio-frequency identification (RFID), was the subject of an SRO session at the ALA annual conference just concluded in Washington, DC. A unusually broad set of issues, from the harmonizing of international standards to the “launch and learn” enthusiasm of the Maricopa County library system, held the crowd’s attention. A young Dutch PhD student had eyebrows raised recounting all the security dangers that “might possibly” affect RFID. Her conclusion, however, was that libraries should certainly embrace the many benefits of RFID: just make certain that their system is reviewed by a security expert.

Meanwhile, at a luxury Manhattan hotel earlier in the month, members of the publishing community participated in a morning conference devoted to the “world of premium publishing,” hosted by SAP, the giant German software company. The morning provided a platform for speakers from Disney, Courier Corporation (both printer and publisher), Adobe and Pearson, to talk about first steps in “living in an intellectual property economy.”

Marianne Nebel, Disney’s director of IT was, like the other publishing presenters, modest in her assessment of their accomplishments to date. While Disney is ramping up its online licensing, she noted that these are really early days. Similarly, Mitch Grossman from Pearson described his company’s still measured approach to digital content delivery. When asked whether Pearson was considering a digital ‘warehouse’ such as those of HarperCollins and Random House, that would protect their digital works and serve up ‘snippets’ to satisfy Google (and other search engines) inquiries, he replied, “We have no agreements with Google. We aren’t working with them.”
Vince Benenati, Houghton’s Director of Demand Planning and Inventory Management, and Kevin Flannery, VP Technology Strategy at Pearson were also among the several senior publishing executives in attendance.

SAP’s David Lipsey explained that the company has ramped up its efforts to serve the media community, offering smaller, more flexible packages based on “mySAP” Business Suite solutions.

Readers will know that much blood, sweat and ink has been spilled, over the past decade, as SAP systems were installed by large book publishers. Now in its R3 version, SAP software was originally designed for large-scale manufacturing businesses like Mercedes Benz and Coca Cola. In 1996, both Pearson and Random House first installed major elements of SAP packages in the hopes of creating an efficient, enterprise wide software backbone to support their major business activities and thus resolve the “data nightmare” caused by too many legacy systems–the detritus of a spate of mergers and acquisitions.

If there is a silver lining for publishers in being able to enjoy the benefits of such enterprise software systems, it may come thanks to Adobe. The company seems to have ‘tamed’ SAP software by integrating familiar functions of PDF into Web-based SAP applications. Last year, the CEOs of both companies met to review how Adobe had internally adapted SAP software, and to explore how these adaptations–that look, feel, and work more like things publishers do–could be offered to the media community at large.

Instead of a “one-size (which never) fits all” approach, the Adobe-based SAP Interactive forms are being presented as adaptable to each company’s own business processes. The proof of the pudding, of course, will be in the eating.
Taken together, what these (and other) events portend is that book publishing is NOT facing an either/or future. On the contrary: Print on Demand, and other technologies such as RFID, not only inspire new products and services, but also endow legacy products with new capacities that make them “better, cheaper, faster” in the marketplace, allowing them to remain competitive with the new. Not so fast digital, the book still has legs.

Most important, it’s beginning to look like publishers will in the future be able provide the customer with exactly what he or she wants, needs, or desires, from the most traditional of books to the most rich and strange of digital concoctions. Your cake, and eat it.

Who knows, the future may be a lot closer than anyone realizes.

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DM Days with DM Hints

By PT Editors
July 1, 2007
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Imagine attending the Direct Marketing Days NY conference at Javits, and finding out that the thumping music, whirling characters and international crowd are there for Licensing Show, not the lettershops and list brokers.

But whatever DMD Days doesn’t have, it can claim to have a corner on e-commerce.

This was not always so: for years, as the direct mail world was being challenged and, in some cases, replaced by online marketing and sales, the Direct Marketing Association continued to focus on postal hikes (still an issue) and the future of telemarketing (ditto). But in recent years, every session has at least some online component. The General Session addressed social networking and one panelist warned that, if eBay/Paypal and Google/Checkout limit sharing buyers names with the vendor, social networking becomes more important as a way to reach an audience. At another social media session, speakers had many stats (social media websites comprise 12% of internet traffic and influence one third of internet purchases) and recommendations: Get users to bookmark your site in Google, as it pulls up contextual sites; add Swickis to your site; add social bookmark links to your website. (For a list of bookmarks, go to www.toprankblog.com/ tools/social-bookmarks/).

As direct marketers are trained to provoke response, every session had its hook – in one, the moderator had the audience snap pictures of the panel, add a caption, and email or text the photo to him. The best captioned picture would win the owner $500, courtesy of the DMA. In another, a panelist’s book (Search Engine Marketing, INC.) was given to an audience member whose card was picked from the large plastic bag. In one of the most enlightening panels, audience members were invited to have their websites critiqued by Aaron Kahlow, of Business Online (www.BusinessOL.com), and the audience.

In preparation, Business Online presented their principles of website creation, based on a recent usability study. While some of the principles are more obvious, others were not:

1. Describe the site’s purpose on the Home Page. Show, rather than tell the user where they can go, and how to get there. Group information into meaningful chunks. (If users can’t identify what a site is, or can do in four seconds, they leave. If there are more than seven chunks of information on the Home Page, users get lost.)

2. Design so that the reader can scan the page. Use bulleted lists, groupings.

3. Include the company name on every page, to help orient users. The header page also enables on-page SEO.

4. Use descriptive link text, eg. don’t say “to Learn more,” but “Learn more about Publishing Trends.” It’s good for SEO rankings.

5. Give clear indicators in the shopping cart process: 64-70% of users abandon the shopping card because the process is too long and/or too confusing. High shipping costs are another major reason.

To sum it all up, “Users don’t want to think; they’re focused on their task.”
For information on the DMA go to DMA.org. For information of its upcoming seminar on search engine marketing go to DMAsearchcertification.org.

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