Mace, former VP Product Planning at Palm and VP Marketing for Softbook Press, warned against falling in love with the way you’re doing business today—inevitably, it will change. Sure, important barriers to e-book adoption—availability, pricing, usage patterns, and marketing—mean they’re not going to take off as fast as some people think. Printed books may be the last thing to go. And since the economic structure of traditional publishing is unstable, it’s tough to figure out when the real change will take place—but when it does happen, it will go very quickly. So how to predict what’s coming? We can look at the year 2000.

In 2000, hopes were high for the many e-readers on the market (including Softbook, Rocket eBook, Go Reader, Hiebook, Franklin eBookMan, and others, “more than there are now”). That year, the Industry Standard optimistically forecast e-book device sales between 3 and 7 million for 2001. (Point of reference: Kindle has sold an estimated 2 million units.) And Dick Brass, then Head of E-books at Microsoft, predicted that by 2020 90% of publishing would be electronic. “He’s got ten years to go, but I don’t think we’re likely to hit 90% in the next ten years,” Mace said. So what went wrong at the turn of the century?

First, too few books were available. In 2000, as now, the core customers for e-books were reading enthusiasts, and they couldn’t find everything they wanted to read in digital form. Nervous publishers and agents didn’t want to make the commitment of converting too many titles.

Second, prices were too high. Consumer perception that an e-book is disposable (like a paperback) and shouldn’t be priced like a hardcover was at odds with publishers, who kept e-book prices high in an attempt to protect bookstore channels and hardcover pricing. “Publishers were viewing this as something just short of Napster,” Mace said. High e-book prices and limited availability of titles led to consumers’ strong reluctance to invest in e-readers.

Since people didn’t want to buy e-readers, publishers decided to put e-books on the things they did own—PCs and mobile devices. But PCs aren’t comfortable for long-content reading and mobile devices are too small and have a “unique usage pattern,” said Mace, “where you look up something or take a call and then put it away. It’s not like eating a meal. It’s more like snacking.”

Fourth, few digital periodicals were available in 2000. Magazines and newspapers are actually a better fit for e-readers than books are, says Mace, because they’re already viewed as disposable (so people don’t mind paying the same price for the e-version as the paper version), they’re consumed in small chunks, and the fact that there’s immediate delivery is a big benefit. However, the electronic version’s quality must be comparable to the print version’s, and so far this hasn’t been the case. And digital periodicals are competing with free websites. (Mace thinks the most successful free publisher online is Yahoo!, which takes ads from big national advertisers, mixes them with digital content, and makes a lot of advertising revenue, whereas Google’s ads are like classifieds.)

Fifth problem, now and then: Marketing. Mace says the right way to market a tech product is to determine very clearly who the consumer is and ask what “compelling problem” you can solve for them. But consumers don’t think books are broken. Mace recently examined the pitches of e-readers on the market now. He found that Kindle advertises by listing product features rather than advantages to consumers, and while Sony announces that the Sony Reader lets the consumer carry hundreds of books in his pocket, “how many people actually want to do that?” Companies make the mistake, Mace says, of “trying to convince themselves that the features they have are benefits to customers whether the features they have actually matter to customers or not.” (Whose marketing is best? Barnes & Noble, by a little bit, because of the limited sharing the Nook allows.)

Publishers have to ask themselves some hard questions… and they won’t like ’em. First up: How much reader-visible value does our editing add? “Is [editing] like CD-quality audio? Do readers notice?” Mace wondered. He’s not sure yet: It might depend on the author, or the marketplace might end up deciding what’s well-edited.

Next, How much demand generation do we really do?

Third, Could an author get the same value through contract services (freelance editing or marketing, for instance?)

And the fourth question: Do readers value our brand (versus the author’s)? This varies from publisher to publisher, “but the more that value is coming from the author’s name rather than the publisher’s, the more vulnerable you are to book buyer behavior when they are out in the marketplace.”

When does it pay an author to self-publish electronically instead of working through a publisher? Mace estimates that when between 20% and 30% of the public owns an e-reader, “financial incentives flip around” and authors make more money selling their titles digitally and directly to readers than they do with traditional publishers and a 15% royalty.

We’re not close to this tipping point yet, Mace says, because today only 2–3% of book buyers own e-readers. But he believes the iPad, as well as competition between Amazon and Apple, will accelerate change. And Mace thinks that when publishers raise e-book prices, they bring the tipping point closer by creating higher incentives for authors to switch away from traditional publication. If e-books are cheap, authors might as well stick with their traditional publishers because they aren’t losing out on much money, but when e-books are expensive, it’s in authors’ advantage to switch over early and get a bigger cut.

“Some authors will publish stuff completely on their own, and some will need a ton of help and turn to a publisher,” says Mace. “However, it’s much more fluid than it was in the past, and people providing services have to be clear about the value they are creating for people buying them.”

Create More Apps

In “Running Two Companies,” Sourcebooks CEO and Publisher Dominique Raccah spoke about the challenges for publishers managing both traditional and digital businesses, and what she said agreed with Mace’s idea about the continuum of transformation. Though change appear rapid and pervasive to those of us “on the front lines,” Raccah says the mass market takes longer to respond. CDs still comprised 65% of all music sold in the first half of 2009, despite the fact that the iPod launched in 2001 and iTunes in 2003. It takes a long time for old media forms to disappear and for a company to transfer from B2B to B2C.

“Think through the content you already own,” suggested Raccah. “Is there an opportunity to do something different with it?” She recommends trying lots of low-cost experiments, such as iPhone apps, which are easy to fix on the fly. (Sourcebooks designed all its iPhone apps in-house, with the exception of the coding.)

File Sharing, DRM, and Music Industry Lessons

In “The Impact of P2P File Distribution on Paid Content Sales,” Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media discussed the company’s research on another new challenge for publishers: Piracy. Magellan is currently tracking sales and piracy at O’Reilly and Thomas Nelson to try to determine the niches and titles for which “piracy is a direct loss and enforcement makes sense” and those for which “piracy may help build awareness…to spur sales.” When Magellan monitored peer-to-peer file-sharing sites for O’Reilly’s fall 2009 front list titles, The Pirate Bay was the only site with more than a handful. (Magellan has not yet found any of Thomas Nelson’s fall 2009 front list titles on P2P sites.) There was also an unexplained bump in paid sales of O’Reilly content after seeding (uploading) was first noted. And an average of 19 weeks from a title’s pub date passed before it began to appear on pirate sites.

O’Leary said it’s important to understand the reader’s point of view. First of all, publishers should release digital versions of their titles (might as well not frustrate demand before you even start out) and make them available in a high-quality consumer experience. Digital editions should be high-quality, not sub-standard, and publishers should manage piracy rather than trying to solve it. O’Leary also pointed out that getting pirated books isn’t that easy. The relative difficulty of obtaining pirated content is evidence that restrictions like DRM or business decisions to withhold content can frustrate readers enough that they pursue pirated content instead. O’Leary recommends that publishers visit pirate sites to see what the experience is like and to find out which of their titles are actually being shared illegally. (If they don’t know where to look, they might want to ask their interns.)

Finally, O’Leary warned publishers not to draw broad conclusions from the limited data available. Attributor grabbed lots of headlines with its recent study claiming that piracy is a “$3 billion problem,” leading publishers like Macmillan to announce detailed “piracy plans.” But more data is needed to find out what’s really happening, and a rush to DRM isn’t necessarily the answer. DRM-restricted content just isn’t wortRh as much as unrestricted content, and true pirates don’t worry about DRM since they can easily disable and strip it (or just scan the book). “We’re restricting the rights of readers just in case they turn into pirates,” said O’Leary. Publishing can learn lessons from other industries—but it’s not as simple as saying that “piracy killed the music business.”

So what can we learn from the music business? In his panel “DRM, Digital Content and the Consumer Experience,” Kirk Biglione, Principal of Oxford Media Works and contributor to Medialoper, set out to answer that question. And like Mace, he gave publishers another chance to learn from history. The future of all media, he said, is digital. And all media companies, not just publishing, are challenged by the transition. Consumers burned by DRM during the music-buying experience carry that baggage with them as they move to digital books. “Even though you haven’t done anything to consumers yet, they’re prepared for the worst already,” Biglione said.

But though everyone agrees that the music industry made mistakes, there’s been no consensus on what those mistakes were. The music industry was hugely successful in the 1990s. Consumers loved the improved sound quality and durability of CDs, and they had to buy their record collections all over again, which led to huge profits that the music industry expected to keep going up. Digital content distribution wasn’t on the agenda, and music companies weren’t worried about MP3s because they assumed consumers cared deeply about CDs’ superior sound quality. At the turn of the century, the recording industry didn’t realize that the internet had allowed consumers (who’d historically bought whichever format they were told to buy) to gain control.

One of the industry’s mistakes, Biglione said, was to mistake consumer demand for piracy. Industry execs reacted to digital media piracy in the same way they’d reacted to bootlegs and counterfeit products—they tried to stamp it out. But this was a new breed of piracy with “no profit motive involved.” The new pirates didn’t make money from sharing MP3 files, and they didn’t have legal digital options to turn to—MP3s weren’t for sale (notwithstanding some short-lived trial runs like Sony’s Connect Sony format). So there were no credible alternatives to piracy: “Consumers were showing a preference for digital music and labels did not have anything in place.”

Biglione drew a parallel to consumer demand for e-books. “Ever try to buy a Thomas Pynchon e-book?” he asked. The author is not available in a legitimate digital format. But Google “Thomas Pynchon e-book” and the second result on the list is “The Burgomeister’s Books,” whose owner describes it as “My personal backups. But since you’ve dropped by, I’m happy to lend them to you. Naturally you’ll delete these books when you’ve finished—your way of returning them. Download and enjoy five truly free e-books on loan from my library!” The Burgomeister has scanned hundreds of titles—by authors like Saul Bellow, Agatha Christie, and, indeed, Pynchon—and promises, “More late-20th century classics are being added every week.” The site also runs a “Wanted” list of titles and authors (Evelyn Waugh, Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene) and promises, “I offer unlimited download access to anyone who can supply me with a decent digital copy of one or more of these titles. I even pay money. I am certainly willing to buy you the book if you are willing to scan it.” The new pirate: Someone who really loves the backlist and can’t get it legally. (Flashback to Michael Mace’s panel: Mace says digitizing the backlist is a major untapped opportunity for publishers to make money.)

Other music industry mistakes included declaring war on digital and using litigation as a business model, but the biggest lesson publishers should learn, Biglione says, is not necessarily to assume that DRM is the answer. Echoing O’Leary, he listed a few myths about DRM: DRM prevents piracy (the reality is that all you need is one physical copy of a book to scan and upload it); customers won’t pay for DRM-free content (they buy Amazon’s DRM-free MP3s and O’Reilly and Microsoft’s DRM-free books); DRM enables a marketplace for digital content. In fact, DRM shapes the marketplace for digital content in ways that have unintended consequences. When Microsoft launched its PlaysForSure DRM standard in 2004, they hoped to license it to every manufacturer who made devices and anyone who wanted to market digital music. In fact, many companies and content providers did license PlaysForSure—but not Apple, and Apple’s iPod and iTunes were what people wanted. Microsoft sealed the nail in the PlaysForSure coffin when it launched its own MP3 player, the Zune, in 2006 and made both the device and the content on Zune Marketplace incompatible with PlaysForSure. As publishers struggle with DRM and various e-publishing formats, Adobe’s Content Server DRM seems to have emerged as the standard. It’s been widely licensed—last fall, Sony’s e-reader store pulled its proprietary format and switched to Adobe’s. But Amazon uses its own proprietary DRM, as will Apple in its iBookstore. Biglione predicts the Adobe Content Server standard will “end like the music industry’s PlaysForSure standard ended.”

In the meantime, the top search phrases on Medialoper relate to cracking DRM, and these searches spike on Christmas Day, when people want to break the DRM on their new presents. “So sell consumers what they want, since they are going to get it anyway,” Biglione said. “You might as well get paid for it. In the 21st century, you are not going to beat the consumers.”

As was anticipated, Marie Toulantis has resigned from her position as CEO of BarnesandNoble.com. She had been with the company since 2002 and will continue to serve as a consultant. Tom Burke, VP E-Commerce, and Kevin Frain, CFO, have temporarily assumed her duties. They report to Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio.

Marjorie Braman, previously Executive Editor at HarperCollins and Morrow, will become Editor-in-Chief at Henry Holt, a position which has gone unfilled since, ironically, Jennifer Barth departed for HarperCollins in December 2006. Braman starts September 8 and will report to Dan Farley, Henry Holt President and Publisher.

Emmanuel Shalit, the Deputy Managing Director of La Martinière Publishing Group—who oversees U.S. holdings, including Harry N. Abrams—is leaving the company. A new deputy MD will not be appointed, but Group Chairman and CEO Hervé de La Martinière will assume two of his jobs.

Sarah Durand has joined Atria Books as a Senior Editor. She was previously with HarperEntertainment.

Mary Albi has been hired as Director of Sales and Marketing for the new Egmont USA. She most recently held the same title at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Egmont’s first list will launch in Fall 2009.

Jane Rosenman has been hired as an editor at Algonquin. She was formerly an Executive Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Anna Crowe has joined HMH as a Senior Publicist. She was previously at Bantam Dell.

Bill Frucht has accepted the position of Executive Editor for Political Science and International Relations at Yale University Press. Meanwhile, John Collins has been appointed General Editor of the Anchor Yale Bible Series. He is a professor at Yale Divinity School.

Marian Brown has opened her own publicity business, Marian Brown PR. She was most recently at Bloomsbury and Basic Books.

Johanna Bowman has left McGraw-Hill, where she was an editor in the trade division, to go to Columbia Business School.

Nicholas Brealey has hired Wendy Lazear as Senior Editor. Following Trish O’Hare’s departure, the U.S. office will now be run by Chuck Dresner, who has been promoted to VP, Associate Publisher.

Allison Malec has joined Clarkson Potter as an Associate Marketing Manager, reporting to Donna Passannante. She was at Madison Square Garden and previously at Rodale. Rebecca Behan has moved to Potter Craft as a Developmental Editor reporting to Erica Smith, ME of Potter Craft. She comes from Assouline Publishing, where she was an Editor. Terry Deal has joined the Crown Production Editorial department as a Senior Production Editor. Deal was a Senior Editing Supervisor at McGraw-Hill Professional.

Casualties from the newly instigated category buying at Baker & Taylor are mounting. Thirty-year veteran David Hogue, VP Director of Merchandising, has left, along with at least seven buyers. B&T has hired John Lindsay as VP, Book Merchandising, reporting to Jean Srnecz. Most recently, he was VP Marketing/Merchandising at Levy Home Entertainment with responsibilities for all areas of category management, book buying, marketing, and publisher relations.

Laura Geringer, Publisher of the eponymous Harper Children’s imprint for seventeen years (and a Harper employee since 1980), “has announced her decision to leave her position” at the end of the month. Geringer will spend more time writing, and working on “the development of a new business with the capability of delivering story content on multiple platforms, and to channel more time into First Book.”

Alison Indrisano has been appointed President and CEO of National Geographic School Publishing, starting in early September. She was COO at Prometric, a subsidiary of ETS.

Black Dog & Leventhal announced that Liz Hartman has been appointed to the newly created position of Marketing and Publicity Manager. Her appointment follows the recent additions of Nathaniel Marunas as Associate Publisher and Elizabeth Van Doren as Editor-in-Chief. Hartman was formerly VP, Director of Publicity at Pocket Books and held similar positions at OUP and CUP. She holds a Master’s degree in library science.

Joel C. Turner has become an Advertising Consultant to ForeWord Magazine, working out of his home in Asheville, NC.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Crown’s Tina Constable has “decided to restructure the department rather than hire a new Editorial Director.” Mary Choteborsky has been promoted to the newly created position of Associate Publishing Manager/Associate Editor, reporting to Constable. Lindsay Orman has been promoted to Associate Editor.

In McGraw-Hill’s Business editorial group, Donya Dickerson has been promoted to Senior Editor. She was an editor.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Craig Mandeville has been promoted to VP, General Manager for Adult and Children’s Publishing. Frank Totaro has been appointed to the position of VP, Deputy Publisher, Novelty and Licensed Publishing, effective immediately, and Alyson Grubard has been named Director of Licensing and Brand Management, reporting to Totaro.

At St. Martin’s, Tom Stouras has been promoted to VP Supply Chain and Sales Ops. Steve Faber has been promoted to Inventory Director, Supply Chain and Debbie Derevjanik becomes Director of Analysis and Forecasting, Supply Chain. Both report to Stouras.

DULY NOTED

The Daily Telegraph notes in its August 22 issue that, according to Nielsen, only a dozen books in its 1.8 million titles have appeared in the top 5,000 selling books every week for the last decade, making them the most consistent sellers. The titles include Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, and The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. J. R. R. Tolkien is there, as are J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown. For the full article, click here.

Weinstein Company has moved yet again, to 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, where Penguin Children’s is located. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses remain the same.

The New York Center for Independent Publishing (NYCIP) and the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen announced that the Jane Hope Hastings Philanthropic Trust has awarded a $25,000 grant to help underwrite the NYCIP’s 21st Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair, which takes place December 6 and 7 at the West 20 West 44th building. For more information, e-mail nycip@nycip.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The BISG Annual Meeting of Members is here again. It will be held on September 12 at the Yale Club in New York City. Speakers will include Anita Elberse, Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School, on “Revisiting the Long Tail: Implications for the Book Industry”; Susan Danziger, CEO of DailyLit, on “Books and Busy Lives: Adapting to Changes in Reading Habits”; Mike Shatzkin, CEO of the Idea Logical Company; and Sourcebooks’ Dominique Raccah.

The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival will be held on Sunday, September 14, at Borough Hall, from 10 AM to 6 PM. Participating authors will include Joan Didion, Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A. M. Homes, Chuck Klosterman, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Elizabeth Nunez, Cecily von Ziegesar, and many more.

J. P. Leventhal, Publisher and Founder of Black Dog & Leventhal, has been named the honoree at the Goddard Riverside Benefit Gala on October 27.

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP)’s annual Spelling Bee has been rescheduled and will now take place on Monday, November 3. It will be hosted by Diane von Furstenberg and held at her new studio. Publishers may submit the names of authors who would like to participate to jlependorf@clmp.org. CLMP celebrates its fortieth birthday in 2008.

The American Book Producers Association (ABPA) hosts its semi-annual all-day seminar in New York on November 5. This year’s afternoon panels will include “The Internet: Its Impact on Publishing” and “What’s Next?: Future Trends in Publishing.” For more information, e-mail office@ABPAonline.org.

• Contact: Director Joyce Meskis. (303) 871-2570; e-mail pi-info [at] du.edu
• 2008 dates/length: July 12–August 7 (four weeks)
• Cost: $4,150
• Number of students: 95–100
• Notable faculty: Dominique Raccah, Sourcebooks; Roger Scholl, Doubleday; Susan Moldow, Simon & Schuster; Carl Lennertz, HarperCollins; Larry Kirshbaum, LJK Literary Management; Bob Miller, HarperCollins; Kris Kliemann, Wiley.
  
• Notable alumni: Charlie Spicer, St. Martin’s; Charlie Conrad, Broadway; Meg Ruley, Literary Agent; John Drayton, University of Oklahoma Press; Eva Bonnier, Albert Bonniers (Stockholm).
• Teaching style: Focus on book publishing; hands-on editing and marketing workshops; panels and lectures; career counseling and interviewing
• Focus on new media: Lecture/teaching sessions on e-books, online editing, internet marketing
• Grads go on to jobs at: HarperCollins, Penguin, Random House, Scholastic, Wiley, Hachette, Rowman & Littlefield

New York University Summer Publishing Institute (program founded 1978)

• Contact: Director Andrea Chambers. (212) 998-7171; e-mail pub.center [at] nyu.edu
• 2008 dates/length: June 1–July 11 (six weeks)
• Cost: $4,760 (tuition)
• Number of students: 90–100
• Notable faculty: Michael Pietsch, Hachette; Reagan Arthur, Little, Brown; Carolyn Reidy, Simon & Schuster; Ellen Archer, Hyperion; Jennifer Barth, HarperCollins
• Notable alumni: Seale Ballenger, HarperCollins; Judy Hottensen, Weinstein Books; Josh Marwell, HarperCollins; Katherine Allan, Wiley; Doris S. Michaels, Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency; Sylvia Barsotti, About.com
• Field trips: Rolling Stone, Vibe, Time Out New York magazines
• Teaching style: Skill development workshops; strategy sessions; field trips and real-world assignments including a simulated magazine launch and book imprint launch.
• Focus on new media: Digital is integrated into every session and there are separate panels on video, social networking and other digital strategies
• Grads go on to jobs at: The Walt Disney Company, Abrams, The Wylie Agency, Scholastic, McGraw-Hill, The New York Times, Princeton University Press, Time Inc.

Columbia Publishing Course (founded in 1947 as the Radcliffe Publishing Course)

• Contact: Director Lindy Hess. (212) 854-1898; e-mail publishing [at] jrn.columbia.edu
• 2008 dates/length: June 23–August 1 (six weeks)
• Cost: $4,200 (tuition), $2,460 (room and board)
• Number of students: 102
• Notable faculty: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group; Chip Kidd, author; Ann Patchett, author; Sesalee Hensley, Barnes & Noble; David Remnick, author and editor; Amy Astley, Teen Vogue; Will Dana, Rolling Stone
• Notable alumni: Arthur Levine, Arthur A. Levine Books; Gary Fisketjon, Vintage; Morgan Entrekin, Grove/Atlantic; Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit; Jordan Pavlin, Knopf; Scott Moyers, Wylie
• Field trips: Condé Nast, HarperCollins
• Teaching style: Intensive workshops and lectures
• Focus on new media: Digital publishing, online media (InStyle, Yahoo!, Slate), and blogs (Jezebel, Eater)
• Grads go on to jobs at:  Knopf, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Men’s Vogue, GQ, Marie Claire

Richard Charkin has resigned from CEO of Macmillan to become Executive Director of Bloomsbury.

Amy Hertz is returning to Penguin as Editor-at-Large at Dutton, reporting to Brian Tartt. Most recently, she was the VP and Publisher of Morgan Road Books, an imprint she founded in 2004. Before deciding to run her own imprint, Amy had been an Executive Editor of Riverhead.

Gina Centrello announced that Nancy Miller, SVP Executive Editor at Random House, is leaving the company in October.

Charlotte Abbott is leaving Publishers Weekly but will remain as a contributing editor. She is available to pursue other freelance opportunities as a publishing consultant and writer. She may be reached at 718 619-6794 or at abbcha@gmail.com.

David Shanks announced the appointment of Jeff Gomez to the position of Senior Director of Online Consumer Sales and Marketing at Penguin, effective October 29th. Gomez was most recently the Director of Internet Marketing for Holtzbrinck Publishers and is the author of the forthcoming Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age.

HarperCollins announced Doug Jones has been appointed SVP, Director of Sales for the Collins Division, reporting to Josh Marwell, President of Sales. Jones had been VP Director of Marketing for the Putnam and Riverhead imprints at Penguin, and previously VP, Sales Director at Crown.

Steve Rotterdam has been named SVP Director of Sales and Marketing for DC Comics reporting to President and Publisher, Paul Levitz. He was SVP/Chief Creative Officer at the EastWest Marketing Group. Meanwhile John Nee has been promoted to SVP of Business Development.

After several years in nonprofit and educational space, most recently as Editor in Chief of Redleaf Press, Sid Farrar returns to Hazelden as Director Content Development and Product Management, overseeing acquisitions. He may be reached at SFarrar@hazelden.org.

Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum has moved to Adobe. He will be assuming the publisher relations responsibilities that Jim Alexander once held.

Lisa Berkowitz has left Meredith following Linda Cunningham’s departure earlier in the summer. She may be reached at lisaberkowitzpr[at] yahoo.com.

Kathy Wiess has been named VP, International Sales, for Ingram International. Wiess spent 16 years with Random House and most recently served as Senior Sales Director of the International division.

David Naggar announced that Robert Manger has joined the Crown Group as Director of Direct Marketing. He will oversee the existing Direct Marketing continuities programs, including the long-lived Louis L’Amour continuity, as well as the Direct to Consumer (D2C) business. Manger was most recently Senior Director of Customer Marketing for BMG Direct and Columbia House.

Shawn Coyne, former co-founder and publisher of Rugged Land Books has joined Endeavor in their New York book division as a literary agent, working with Richard Abate and Rebecca Oliver.

Michael Murphy has left the Queen Literary Agency to launch his own literary agency, Max & Co.: A Literary Agency & Social Club. Go to www.maxliterary.com or mmurphy[at]maxlit.com.

InkWell Management announced the arrival of Rose Marie Morse as Public Relations Strategist. She will oversee publicity and media planning for the agency’s clients. Prior to joining InkWell, Morse ran Morse Partners, a boutique public relations company. Inkwell’s previous publicity guru, Beth Davey, moved to Rodale earlier this year.

Haights Cross Communications, Inc. (HCC) announced that Peter J. Quandt, Chairman, CEO and President, has resigned. Quandt founded HCC in 1997. Paul J. Crecca, EVP and CFO, assumes the role of Interim-CEO/President.

Abrams’ newly named Art Director, Michelle Ishay-Cohen, was most recently Art Director at Hyperion Books, where she art directed and designed for three imprints including the visual branding for the newly launched imprint, VOICE.

Sterling announced that Dave Nelson has been named Executive Acquisitions Editor for Mind/Body/Spirit titles, as well as health and self-improvement. He reports to Philip Turner, VP and Editorial Director of Union Square Press. Nelson was Publisher of Beaufort Books.

Meanwhile, National Book Network announced that Marie Hergenroeder has joined NBN as Director of Special Sales. She was formerly Director of Premium Sales at HarperCollins and before that was director of special sales for Random House. Tracy Fortini has joined NBN as an Account Manager/Marketing Director. Fortini was most recently an account manager at PGW and was earlier a senior buyer at Waldenbooks and the Nature Company.

Anne Hollinshead DeCourcey has joined HarperCollins as Sales Rep, reporting to Jeannette Zwart and selling both Children’s and adult titles in the New England region. She was head of sales for Gibbs Smith.

PROMOTIONS
Random House Chairman and CEO Peter Olson has taken on the additional responsibility of overseeing Direct Group North America (which now will operate under the name Bertelsmann Direct North America), retaining his Random House day job.

Leigh Ann Ambrosi has been promoted to VP, Marketing & Publicity for Sterling & Lark Books. Ambrose joined Sterling in 2004 as Director of Publicity and was promoted to Director of Marketing & Publicity.

David Naggar named Jacob Bronstein Associate Director, Interactive Media for the Crown Publishing Group. In the Marketing Department Michael McGinley has been promoted to Creative Director, Advertising and Promotion.

Abrams, Inc. announced the promotion of Deborah Aaronson to Abrams Editorial Director. She reports to Steve Tager.

In the expanded Perseus sales organization, Matty Goldberg announced: Elise Cannon was promoted to VP, Field Sales, responsible for PGW, Perseus Books Group and Perseus Distribution sales into the independent channel. Clay Farr was promoted to Director, National Accounts, BGI; Keith Arsenault becomes Sales Manager, mass retail; and Peter D’Erasmo is now Director. Charles Gee is now a National Accounts Manager; Laura Robinson is now a Senior Sales Rep; Holly Demeter becomes Special Markets Manager.

At RH Children’s Books, Christine Labov has been promoted to Director of Publicity. Noreen Marchisi moves up to Publicity Manager, Kelly Galvin is joining the group as senior publicist, moving over from the Random House Audio group, where she was a publicist.

Jeanne Kramer has been named VP, Marketing for NBN. She has been with NBN for two years as Senior Director of Marketing and heads the account management team that works with NBN publisher clients.

Harper announced that Rachel Brenner has been promoted to National Account Manager for Baker & Taylor and Target. She will report jointly to Rhonda Rose and Jeanette Zwart respectively.

OCTOBER EVENTS
The Quill Awards are upon us, taking place on October 22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Ann Curry and Al Roker host, with Stephen Colbert a “special guest.” Go to www.thequills.org for details.

To Bee or Not to Bee: The annual spelling bee to benefit the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses will be held Monday October 29. Bob Morris MCs, Jonathan Burnham, Sara Nelson, Alex Kuczynski, Patrick McGrath and others will spell, and Jesse Sheidlower will judge. Doors open 7.30pm, Bee 8pm. At Exit Art, 475 10th Avenue at 36th Street, New York. Check www.clmp.org for details and to buy tickets.

Also on October 29th, Goddard Riverside Community Center holds a “Festive Evening of Raucous Roasts and Snappy Toasts” honoring Random House Children’s Books’ Chip Gibson, at Tavern on the Green. Go to www.Goddard.org for details.

DULY NOTED
Bookspan has moved to One Penn Plaza, 250 West 34th Street, New York, N. Y. 10119. The phone number (212-651-7400) remains the same. And, after working 54 years at The Book-of-the-Month Club, Mary Idoni is retiring on October 12, 2007.

Tony Lyons launched Skyhorse Publishing in 2006, and will move his distribution from Sterling to Norton in 2008.

The 20th Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place on Saturday, December 1 (between 10am and 6pm) and Sunday, December 2 (between 11am and 5pm) at the New York Center of Independent Publishing, at 20 West 44th Street. More than 100 presses from the U.S. and abroad will exhibit. Contact the NYCIP at 212-764-7021, www.nycip.org, christopher[at]nycip.org.

Congrats to Sourcebooks and its indomitable founder, Dominique Raccah, on the company’s 20th anniversary this month.

Days before Bill Clinton’s My Life went on sale last month, a handful of shrewd and Internet-savvy book buyers were auctioning off their copies of this “rare” edition on eBay – and promising to ship the book the day it hit store shelves. That number jumped to over a hundred in the early hours of the release date, many of whom guaranteed autographed copies, though the book signing event was later that day or week. The “Buy It Now” prices for these signed copies ranged from $150 to $450 — an exorbitant increase from the $35 list price, or Amazon’s $21. A mere week after the autobiography was released, about 300 used copies (including audio versions) were up for sale on Abebooks, Amazon and Alibris — the top three used-book-selling sites. (Note: It’s hard to know exactly how many because the online listing categories “New” and “Like New” are rather subjective.) These sites, along with a horde of smaller online used book vendors, make up a sales channel that not only denies publishers profit and authors royalties, but wreaks havoc on publishers’ attempts to track titles’ popularity.

Welcome to the new used-book market: It’s now more of a science than a leisure time activity — both for the buyer as well as the seller. Gone are the days of squeezing through a maze of dusty used books and happening upon a 1926 first edition of Pheasants: Their Lives and Homes for the birdwatcher in your family; now you’re practically guaranteed a copy of the hottest new beach-appropriate paperback for a fraction of the list price, and you’ll find it in less than a minute with the help of your favorite shopbot. For those on the other end of the transaction, the Internet can provide hefty profits without the overhead of a traditional store.

The number of US readers who feel comfortable buying used books is surging, thanks in large part to Amazon, and its handy listing of used copies when a shopper searches for a title. Americans bought 150 million used books in 2003, or 14 % of the general trade books purchased between April and December 2003, according to Ipsos BookTrends. Online used book sales could double and reach $2 billion by 2007, Forrester Research predicts. Current studies indicate that about 5% of US household dollars spent on books goes toward used copies, but a spokesperson for Abebooks says the company, which as one of the leading online used bookseller may be in the best position to track such numbers, thinks this estimate is low. Although publishers have long been aware that used book sales over the Internet are skyrocketing and, many believe, infringing on their new book sales, they have had no concrete way to measure this, let alone combat it; so many have just brushed it off as an insurmountable problem. For example, even though the AAP has taken a very definite stance against used text book sales, there has been no visible effort to counter used trade book sales. “We have more information on used book sales affecting the new textbook market, and we don’t have any information for the trade market,” explains VP Katie Blough. “We have to convince booksellers to give us their data. The more information publishers have … the better off they are.” Given the Book Industry Study Group’s recent formation of a research committee with used book tracking high on its agenda, publishers may have some legitimate statistics in the near future. Having said that, the industry studies that have emerged in recent months show many contradictions, and emphasize how difficult this task will be.

One recent report, “A Portrait of the US Used Book Market,” published earlier this year by Book Hunter Press (www.bookhunterpress.com), deduces sales trends based on the survey responses from 827 used book dealers. It describes 2002 as the year that the Internet took charge of the used book market, surpassing book stores as the buying channel of choice. The report illustrates — perhaps unintentionally — who the publishers’ biggest online foes are in this battle for consumers’ dollars. In 2003, Abebooks easily topped the list of Internet sites purveying used books (39.2%); Amazon followed (17.3%); Alibris placed third (12.7%); eBay was fourth (9.0%); and independent dealer sites ranked fifth (8.6%). A similar hierarchy existed for the number of dealers who post their wares on the various sites: Abebooks (78.8% of dealers); Amazon (58.1%); B&N (50.7%); Alibris (44.4%); and individual dealer websites (39.8%). Many survey respondents said they post books on a number of websites for maximum visibility, according to report co-author Susan Siegel. (Note: One obvious flaw with this survey is that it doesn’t include the great number of individuals who decide to post books for sale on Amazon, or those amateur eBayers in their livingrooms.)

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

Abebooks, which boasts an average of 20,000 book sales each day on its site, has evolved from the place only rare book collectors went to the largest used book portal on the Internet. Depending on the time of year, it’s the place people go for used textbooks (fall), classic children’s lit (winter), and light beach reading (summer). After an announcement at BEA last month, Abebooks now offers new books alongside the old, and about 10% of its daily sales are new copies, spokesperson Marci Crossan said. This move could eventually make the company a contender in the arena currently dominated by Amazon and B&N. But, more importantly, Crossan said that since the company started offering space for new books alongside the old, a few (“under 10”) U.S. publishers have shown interest in selling directly to the consumer through the site, à la Penguin. Publishers are seeing it as a way to sell backlist titles and remainders, as well as newly released books, she said. Just like Abebooks’ other 12,000-plus booksellers (spanning 48 countries), publishers are subject to a modest monthly subscription charge against an 8% commission. If you can’t beat the used book seller, then join ‘em.

Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, thinks the biggest problem with used sales are their encroachment on a book’s launch. Publishers need to track down the source of galleys that make it onto the Internet right around launches, she says. But, ultimately, she’d like booksellers to be a bit more cooperative. “Authors are really being ripped off. What I’d really like to see is a moratorium on the part of booksellers for six weeks from the publication date. I’d like to see booksellers give authors a chance.”

Hope on the Horizon?

In the past year and a half, BISG members’ grumbling over used books sales has reached such a din that BISG president Jeff Abraham said its board couldn’t ignore the subject any longer. Though neither Abraham nor the committee chairperson Kelly Gallagher, of Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, could hazard a guess on how long the study would take or what methodology would be used, Abraham said, “We believe we have the right participants to brainstorm the problem and come up with a good project. Everybody has anecdotal evidence to show used books’ cannibalization of new books, but we don’t have any accurate numbers.” The research committee includes members from the publishing segment (Random House, S&S), manufacturing (Banta, RR Donnelly), the retail segment (Abebooks, B&N, Powell’s, NACS), as well as market research firms Ipsos and Bookscan. What numbers would most help publishers counter the so-called cannibalization? According to Abraham, “The big question is what is the year-on-year trend? Is this growing, and if so, how quickly? And is it growing at the expense of other channels or in addition to other channels?”

Barrie Rappaport, chief analyst at Ipsos who has been tracking the book market for many years, thinks publishers should be most concerned with knowing “who the consumer is and what he’s looking for.” Why so many readers choose used copies over new is, of course, the obvious question. “There’s a variety of reasons,” Rappaport suggests. “Some of it’s price. … Particularly for those online. If you can go online and see a new book that’s selling for $30, and then right below it, you can see the same book in nearly new condition for significantly less — yes, that is very attractive to some.” But, there is some salve for publishers’ worries. Rappaport’s survey indicates that most used book buyers are committed readers who also buy new books. In April 2002, she started asking her 16,000 household survey participants — who fill out purchasing diaries for a variety of product categories — if the books they purchased were new or used. “Am I going to be matching Amazon’s numbers? Probably not.” (One concern with Ipsos’ methodology is that it may not represent the entire US book-buying population. The company’s caveat in its “2002 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing”: “… because of circumstances beyond our control … [there is] an under representation of the African-American and Hispanic populations.”)

Others are not so optimistic about the viability of tracking used book sales. Al Greco, professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Business Administration, likens tracking used trade books in any meaningful way to “statistical work that rivals rocket science.” He jokes that at an accurate study would “cost as much as the GNP of Bolivia.” Having studied the used textbook business in depth, Greco says the “average textbook is flipped five times.” Assessing used trade sales involves modeling similar to that used in population studies, Greco explains, adding that you would want to separate out rare and out-of-print books, since they aren’t taking sales away from publishers. He lists a number of reasons for the recent climb in used book sales: the rise of e-tailers, such as Amazon, which solicits people to resell the products they have recently purchased from the site, shopbots, and auction sites like eBay, which taught people how to bargain hunt online; the economic downswing of the last three years, which has hindered discretionary spending; and the increase in book prices, which some believe is in response to warehouse clubs discounting higher priced books.

Despite recently publishing a tome of stats, Book Hunter Press’ Siegel also thinks some numbers are impossible to get. “There is absolutely no way to compute the number of times a used book was resold,” she says, listing unknown factors like dealer-to-dealer sales and bulk library purchases. “Also, I don’t think it’s possible to determine with any degree of accuracy what percentage … is for books still in print or out of print,” the latter of which is not taking sales away from new books. A proponent of the used bookseller, Siegel can get a little defensive about booksellers’ rights, as well as the consumers’. “It’s not for me to tell them how to market books, but … it’s a fact of life that as [new] books get more expensive, people look for an alternative. It’s a changing world … Publishers are clever, and I have faith in them that they can figure out how to adapt. Anything that encourages people to read and buy books is good.”

Michael Powell of Powell’s Books, which sells new and used books, says the Internet has made used book sales more visible, but they’ve always been a part of the book marketplace. Powell’s sales are split, half used, half new; however, its inventory is two-thirds used and one-third new. In recent years, Powell’s has increasingly sold more books online (some books are listed online and stored in warehouses, not even shelved in store). “I haven’t heard publishers complain very much — and I’ve never had any direct complaints. I have heard authors complain about royalties. In fact, when publishers have visited, they’ve admired the breadth of selection we have.” In general, he has little sympathy for publishers who lament the growing sales of used books. On the other hand, he said he would cooperate if publishers were interested in tracking used sales. “It would be possible to give them an aggregate number in dollars, but not possible to do on a title-by-title or publisher basis.”

New York’s The Strand is another example of a bookstore — and some would call it a literary institution — that has benefited from online sales. Owner Nancy Bass reported the store’s used book sales grew by 5% from June 2003 to June 2004 to reach 42% of its total sales. This increase would have been greater, but the store has been under construction, deterring some sales, she says. The Strand’s expansion will require a change to its longstanding catchphrase: “8 miles of books” is now “18 miles of books.” “Having our books online has been helping us tremendously, and it didn’t involve much of an investment,” she says.

What’s a publisher to do? Textbook publishers’ response to what is now an institutionalized used book market has been to increasingly move their content online. Ebooks, anyone?

After a working lunch (participants joined whichever roundtable offered a topic of interest), NBN’s Jed Lyons presented the first Miriam Bass Award, which went to Alexander Skutt of McBooks. Skutt said he should have been awarded it for the “creative survival skills” he used when his distributor went bankrupt. He gave thanks to Edwards Brothers printers (as did Texere’s Lee Thompson) for being patient as well as creative.

The afternoon was spent reviewing cost-effective methods for small presses to sell, market and generally get business done on shoestring budgets. Eric Yaverbaum, President of the PR agency Jericho Communications, handed out four very different press releases for his book, Leadership Secrets of 100 of the World’s Most Successful CEOs, all aimed at different audiences and demonstrating a very cost-effective way to deliver the message. In a segment on sales, Bloomberg’s John Crutcher claimed that by focusing on special sales last year, they rose from 21% to 32% of total sales. And Sterling’s Marty Schamus said he made up some of the lost special markets sales after its sale to B&N by recruiting Sterling’s publicity people to pitch for him.

Sandra Killen, president of Tech Materials, got the most laughs when discussing export sales—she was once asked by a US publisher, “what part of Turkey is Oslo in?”—an area where the US has not made much of a name for itself, despite recent advances. After years living and working around the world (not in publishing), she returned to the US and in 1985 founded her company where she acts as an intermediary between US publishers and the international bookselling community. She is, she said, “paid by foreign retailers so they do not have to deal with US publishers.”

The session ended with discussions of how to increase staff productivity when most of them are virtual or part time. The former head of HR for Madison Square Garden terrified everyone when she talked about working for an organization that grew from 900 to 18,000 employees and 132 union contracts.

Following the doldrums of December, January brought some major moves, including Michael Jacobs’ sortie from Scholastic, and David Steinberger’s installation as the President and CEO of the Perseus Books Group.

Movement is everywhere: Random House has combined its two separate retail sales forces into a single unit, resulting in the departure of at least ten people, including Tom Lovett, Jay Cosgrove (heyjaycjayc@netscape.net), and Alan Trask. Paul Kozlowski will direct the combined force as VP Director of Retail Field Sales. Chris Waters remains VP Deputy Director of Retail Field Sales, and Ruth Liebmann continues as Director Independent Bookselling; both report to Kozlowski. In other Random news, Candice Chaplin has moved from Random National Accounts to Hyperion, where she assumes the title Director of Sales from recently departed Michael Burkin. Sid Albert, who retired from Random, is now Sales Director of Other Press, replacing Paul Harrington, who has been named powerHouse’s new Sales Director.

Finally, the ex-Randomites Kathleen Spinelli (kspinelli@ brandstobooks.com) and Robert Allen (rallen@ brandstobooks.com) have founded Brands to Books Inc. Literary Agency. They will specialize in creating books from recognized or developing brands and will also advise on brand extension.

Eric Kettunen has been named Director of Marketing at PGW, replacing Michele Crim, who left PGW for NBN, taking the position held by the late Miriam Bass. He was most recently at SF-based graphic novel publisher Viz.

Carol Roeder has left Intervisual, where she was EVP Global Concept Publishing. Previously she was at S&S Children’s. She may be reached at cr21@earthlink.net or by phone at (914) 428-9580. . . . Laurie Bernstein has left Rodale, where she had been Editor-at- Large. She may be reached at (917) 648-7007. . . . Wiley Senior Editor/Culinary, Susan Wyler has left the company to reopen her writing/packaging/editing operation, King Hill Productions. She may be reached at (570) 727-3939.

Penguin has also had a busy month: HarperCollins’ Megan Newman has moved to Penguin in the newly created position of Publisher of Penguin Reference, with responsibility to oversee a reference-oriented program, including Avery Books and Viking Studio. Kate Stark has been named Associate Publisher. Lots of promotions, too: Barbara O’Shea has been promoted to the position of President, Non-Trade Sales and New Business Development at Penguin. Joel Fotinos was promoted to VP of Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. (Tarcher/Penguin). Susan Allison has been named VP, Editorial Director of the Berkley Publishing Group. Finally, Laureen Rowland announced that her imprint will be called Hudson Street Press and publish its first titles in Winter 2005.

Meanwhile, Tracy Tang has left her position as President and Publisher of Puffin Books “to pursue other interests.”

Barron’s has hired Mike Campbell as Sales Manager, reporting to ex-Penguinite Alex Holtz. . . . Ed Lenk has left Modern Publishing after 25 years. He may be reached at (201) 947-4710 or FLNJ@aol.com. . . . Erstwhile editor Bob Levine is returning to publishing via a relationship with John Cerullo’s Amadeus Press, where he will package several lines of books and CD/DVDs aimed at educating and entertaining the classical music loving public. Levine may be reached at operafella@aol.com or (212) 535-3346.

Where are they now? Gerry Helferich, Publisher of Wiley’s general books, and his wife, Teresa Nicholas, Production Director at Crown, left their jobs in 2002 and moved to Mexico to write. Now Helferich’s book Humboldt’s Cosmos, about naturalist and adventurer Alexander von Humboldt, will be published by Gotham this spring. . . . David Kirkpatrick, the last admitted NYT book beat reporter, is now covering the conservative beat. . . . Michael Lynton, one time CEO of Penguin and recently named Chairman of Sony Pictures, was spotted schmoozing with the stars at the Golden Globe Awards.

FEBRUARY EVENTS

“Many of these books are simply insane,” says Nancy Balbirer, co-creator of Cause Celeb in a recent NYT article. She’s referring to the weekly Monday night “highly-theatrical autobiography reading series” at the Noho club, Fez. Each week centers around a different theme, with February 2 devoted to Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll. “A rotating roster of performers will read the juiciest passages from stories by Marianne Faithfull, Bebe Buell, David Cassidy, Pamela Des Barres, and many more.” February 9 stars Michael Musto, Carl Andress, and Larry Bullock as Cupid. Audience members are invited to pick from his grab bag of over-the-top autobiographies, which the cast will then read, with feeling. Call (212) 533-7000 for tickets and times.

• On February 4 BISG and VISTA host a conference on “Making Information Pay.” The focus of the half-day conference is how publishers, distributors, and
retailers are reinventing traditional industry practices to improve channel performance. Speakers include Michael Cairns, President of Bowker, Jonathan Nowell, EVP, Nielsen BookData; Dominique Raccah, President and Publisher, Sourcebooks; Mike Shatzkin, CEO The Idea Logical Company; and Jean Srnecz, SVP of Merchandising, Baker & Taylor. Ted Hill will moderate. For information, go to http://bisg.org.

• The 2004 National Book Foundation Gold Medal Tour kicks off on Wednesday, February 18 at 6:30 p.m. with “An Evening With the Winners” at The Celeste Bartos Forum of The New York Public Library. The Winners of the 2003 National Book Award — Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana; Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire; Polly Horvath, The Canning Season; and C.K. Williams, The Singing: Poems — will give a talk on their “writing lives” and answer audience questions. The event will be followed by a reception.

• Meredith Vieira hosts the Eighth Annual “Books for a Better Life Awards” ceremony on Monday, February 23rd at the Millennium Broadway Hotel from 6-8 p.m. For information or tickets, go to www.msnyc.org or call (212) 463-7787.

• The Small Press Center hosts a panel on “Getting Published: What Literary Agents and Editors Are Looking for in 2004.” The panel includes agent James Fitzgerald, Kim Goldstein from the Susan Golomb Literary Agency, P.J. Dempsey, Senior Editor at M. Evans and Company, and Caroline White, Senior Editor at Viking Penguin. Lloyd Jassin, a media lawyer, will moderate. The event takes place at the Small Press Center, 20 West 44 St., on Thursday, January 15th, 2004, 6:30 to 9:15 p.m. For more information, go to www.smallpress.org.

AND IN MARCH

The annual Poets & Writers Gala Benefit Dinner takes place March 2 at Tribeca Rooftop. Judy Blume, Oakley Hall, and Sharon Olds will be honored. For more information go to www.pw.org.

DULY NOTED

According to the AAP, net trade sales in 2002 were responsible for $6.93 billion (roughly $12 billion at retail), and 2003 looked pretty flat. Which makes a recent article in USA Today even more impressive — or distressing, depending on your point of view. According to the article, DVD retail sales for 2003 hit $17.5 billion, with another $5.4 billion in rentals, representing an average of 17 DVDs per owner. While the article contrasts these figures to the lackluster revenues from the box office, music sales, and TV, books are barely mentioned.

The Wall Street Journal takes up where USA Today leaves off, showing in a recent article that everything is relative: consumers spend an average of 2 hours per week reading, versus just over 1 hour per week watching videocassettes and DVDs. So how are they spending the rest of their leisure time? TV watching is up to 20 hours per week.

Don Fehr, nearly a year into his tenure as Director of Smithsonian Books, needed a distribution fix. The august publishing concern (formerly Smithsonian Institution Press) was gunning for trade sales growth — aiming to reverse its mix of 80% academic and 20% trade-bound titles — and outstripping the reach of fulfillment partner Books International and a road-weary sales force of independent reps. “We weren’t able to grow at the pace we were being asked to grow by the Smithsonian,” Fehr explains. The company, of course, was a plum for those publishers vying for the profitable business of distributing other publishers’ books. “Holtzbrinck, Penguin, Harper, they were all interested,” Fehr says, what with the blockbuster brand (studies say close to 90% of Americans know the Smithsonian name). The lucky winner? Norton. “Aside from the fact that they gave me a great deal, they had representation in the academic marketplace as well as the trade,” Fehr says. Moreover, the Smithsonian’s nascent line of books for young adults filled a niche Norton was eagerly eyeing. Sweetening the deal, Fehr notes, Norton affiliates are handled by a special marketing staff, and topping it all off was the palpably excited Norton sales team when they found the backlist bonanza in the bags of Fehr’s former reps: “When they looked at our backlist, they were like kids in a candy shop.” Advance print runs will now hit as high as 20,000 copies, where they previously had peaked at 6,000. Bottom line: “We’re looking at possibly a 25% increase in sales this year,” says Fehr. “It’s a good shot in the arm.”

‘The Age of Distributors’

With Random House back in the client distribution biz — which it had all but abandoned in 1999 — and the announcement last week that former Motorbooks CEO Rich Freese would take the helm of Publishers Group West, what you might call the “competitive metabolism” of the book distribution business seems to be getting booster shots all around. As PT’s survey of selected distributors shows (see chart), despite languishing overall book sales and ever-jostling competition, many distributors are grabbing double-digit sales growth — and they’re bullishly predicting a profit-filled future. “The market for distribution in the book business is so strong, and the arguments for working with distributors are so compelling that there’s enough room for everybody,” Freese tells PT, as he shoves off for the Bay Area. “CDS is starting to grow. Consortium is starting to grow. There are so many publishers that need these services and the economies of scale these services represent. This is the age of distributors. I think it’s only going to get stronger.”

Word on the street can be almost surreally cheery, with so much growth one feels one’s stepped through some book-world looking glass. “As of the end of last month we’re up well over 25%,” reports Curt Matthews, CEO of Independent Publishers Group, “and unless the world goes to pieces we’re going to be up a bunch for the year.” Matthews’ total number of clients is stable at 300 — core larger publishers number about 50, and the largest client kicks in between $4 and $5 million in sales — but those clients are building business by the minute. “A lot of them are just simply growing,” he says. “They’re just plain publishing more books and getting better at what they do.” A dozen in-house sales and marketing staffers handle major accounts, augmented by 23 commission reps, all of whom are profoundly grateful for the growth of smaller houses. “It absolutely continues,” Matthews says about the burgeoning small presses (see PT, 4/03). “The little guys are taking market share from the big guys. It’s a fact.”

Like IPG, National Book Network is looking to boost revenues among its existing clients, says Miriam Bass, VP Marketing and New Business Development, while being “much more careful” about reeling in new customers. The majority of NBN’s 85 active clients fall into the $500,000 to $1.5 million range. Despite the emphasis on internal growth, the distributor is delving into the children’s market, taking on publishers such as Child & Family Press. Meanwhile, NBN division Biblio continues to barnstorm though the small press world, now at 575 clients and counting. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up signing 150 publishers as a result of BEA,” says Director of Sales and Marketing Jen Linck, who adds that Davida Breier has been brought on as Marketing Coordinator. Unfortunately, Linck reports, some clients have been shocked to learn that they’ve initially racked up negative sales with Biblio, because booksellers sitting on unsold copies have been only too happy to return them for an NBN credit. Nonetheless, sales are on track to more than double this year, with the 1,000th-client mark on the horizon.

Even in the face of downshifting chain bookseller orders, business is swell, says Aaron Silverman, President of SCB Distributors, which services an eclectic mix of 60 clients from its Gardena, CA distribution center. “We grew 25% last year,” he says. “More books are being sold, even if the chains say their business is anemic.” Borders’ category management initiative, he notes, effectively boosted SCB’s sales at the chain; fewer titles are being purchased, but quantities are up on those that sell, like the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (SCB has shipped 53,000 copies). Though Silverman receives up to 1,000 submissions every year, he lets only half a dozen in the door. “We’ve always been very cautious about taking on new publishers,” he explains. “This is not a quick dollar.”

Strong internal growth may soon be followed by a notched-up public profile at Midpoint Trade Books. “Our biggest clients have been producing wonderful growth in sales year in and year out,” says President Eric Kampmann, whose revamped booth at BookExpo America drew raves from clients, particularly after a lackluster show last year. For Midpoint, where gross sales stand at $12-$13 million, the successful BEA can be read as a bid to join the big leagues. “We have been really quiet about who we are and what we do,” Kampmann says, “and that’s going to change very shortly. We think we’re ready to be considered seriously along with PGW, IPG, and NBN.” Midpoint aims to seamlessly integrate a number of core services (what Kampmann calls “in-sourcing the out-source,” or simulating distribution services as if they were done by the publishers themselves) and its stripped-down sales philosophy — selling chiefly to national accounts — and “extremely competitive” pricing are pitched as a sensible solution at a time when clients rule the bargaining table. “The publishers are more in the driver’s seat in terms of demanding and getting better pricing and better service,” he says.

Price sensitivity is also a key concern for CDS, which is now up to 35 clients, according to COO Stephen Black. “Given the difficult economic times, people are really looking at their operating costs. We are extremely competitive in our pricing, and that’s given us an opportunity to talk with people.” Black says sluggish sales have been offset by the explosive “manga” and “anime” segments. “We’re probably the largest provider of graphic novels, and that business is going through the roof,” he says. “Marvel and TokyoPop are really leading the way.” TokyoPop has been growing at least 200% each year for three years running, according to Steve Kleckner, TokyoPop’s VP Sales and Licensing, who adds that the growth may be slowing but it ain’t over yet: “We think we’ll double again this year.”

Throwing another option into the ring is Baker & Taylor, which opens next month with the first client for its new Distribution Solutions Group, according to VP John Phillips, who says he’s spent the past 18 months developing a suite of “value-added” services for clients — everything from printing a book to freight management. The latter service is a typical B&T forte, Phillips says. “We do over $30 million a year with UPS. Since we do the volume, we’re able to create a revenue channel for publishers within the shipping and handling area.” A key selling point is the program’s “à la carte menu” of services; sales representation is available via independent rep groups, but the option to use one’s own sales force is pitched as a competitive plus. “If you go with NBN or PGW, you’re really locked into their sales force,” Phillips says. “With DSG, your inside sales team can handle 90% of your business, and rep groups can cover the rest.” The division targets clients with at least $750,000 in sales, aiming to sign on six in the first year: “We’re looking over the long term to make this a significant chunk of Baker & Taylor’s income.” (They’ll be battling Random House Distribution Services, where there’s capacity for the taking — 1.8 million square feet of it — and the gamut of supply-chain services. Still, Random’s keeping the door open to offer sales as well. “Random House sales support for a prospective client’s book is an option which we’ll offer to the right fit among prospective clients,” a spokesman says.)

For most publishers, the distribution truism is this: if the right client complements what you’ve got in your bag, it’s a no-brainer. “We’re always looking for new client publishers,” says Lynne McAdoo, Director of Client Publishers for Andrews McMeel Publishing, specifically houses topping the $1 million mark in sales who jive well with the Andrews McMeel forte: gift and other special markets (the last catalog mailing went out to 14,600 accounts). Book clients include Carlton and Welcome, with a number of others on board for calendar distribution. Fulfillment comes via Simon & Schuster’s Bristol, PA distribution center. “For our distribution clients, it’s the best of both worlds,” McAdoo says. “They enjoy the one-on-one personal relationship with Andrews McMeel, but then they also enjoy the state-of-the-art distribution facility that Simon & Schuster offers. They’re getting a lot of bang for their buck.”

That’s certainly how S&S would put it, as they boost their own distribution biz. “We’re very committed to this business,” says spokesman Adam Rothberg. “It’s a major source of income for us. We’re absolutely on the lookout for new clients.” Simon & Schuster handles full-service distribution for 10 clients including National Geographic and Reader’s Digest, while offering back-office services to the likes of AMP and Millbrook. Next year S&S adds Hodder Headline’s US operation, according to Larry Norton, President of S&S’s Sales and Distribution Division. “We do want to leverage our infrastructure and we do have some capacity,” Norton says, cautioning that clients must meet a minimum sales threshold. Distribution at S&S logged double-digit growth last year, as it did at Holtzbrinck, according to Patti Hughes, VP Sales and Marketing for Distributed Publishers. Her eight clients include Rizzoli and Rodale, and Hughes oversees a staff of 10 supporting distribution clients. “We focus actively on the distribution lines,” Hughes says. “We will definitely look to grow the business, selectively and intelligently.”

Even in the museum world, players such as Yale University Press are moving to beef up relationships with key distribution clients and bring on new ones when they find the right fit. “We’ve expanded the number of museums we’re working with on an exclusive basis,” says Publishing Director Tina C. Weiner, noting that Yale’s 14 such partners include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s National Gallery. While Yale has previously worked with many museums on a single-book basis, its growing roster of exclusive deals is a full-service program. “We’re doing the whole package,” she says. “Sales, marketing, fulfillment, publicity, and promotion.” Illustrated book distributor D.A.P., meanwhile, just added the Guggenheim to its list of 100 active clients (200 total), and recently had a year of 70% growth (chalk it up to MoMA’s Matisse Picasso, among other titles), says VP Trade Sales Director Avery Lozada, who adds that average growth over the past five years has been about 15%.

For an extremely selective take on distribution, there’s Sourcebooks, which recently signed as its sole client startup Reed Press. Publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah explains point-blank: “We are not in the distribution business, nor do we want to be. The only time we look at distribution is when it has real strategic impetus.” Hence Reed Press, whose access to 120 Reed Business magazines fit well with Sourcebooks’ reference business (i.e. the U.S. News Ultimate College Directory), expanding Sourcebooks’ library and specialty retail business, while taking Reed into the trade channel. Reed Press Publishing Director Nicholas Weir-Williams notes that Sourcebooks’ special sales force has already been a boon: “Our first book, Oscar Fashion, is being looked at by Costco and Target and a whole range of catalogs that most book sales forces don’t reach.”

Unit sales have flatlined, of course, said Workman Publisher Bruce Harris in his briefing on the entropic book market, with each title selling fewer copies than ever before. Vital signs have been perking, however, in the children’s paperback segment, which Harris called the biggest growth area in the business — even keeping the book clubs afloat, due to rising children’s club sales in schools. Meanwhile, damaged book returns are becoming a mini-epidemic, provoking Harris to email customers photos of the carnage, with a little note saying: “Are you serious?” (For her part, Sourcebooks Publisher Dominique Raccah urged the audience to tackle returns head-on by ratcheting down quantities shipped to accounts, and told of one customer who had ordered 10,000 copies of a title — having a track record of selling just one copy. That account, Raccah said, received zilch.) But you can’t give everyone the brush-off. Harris said sales calls to massively powerful retailers have become one-way conversations. “Can’t I get my fishing book in with the fishing reels?,” a Wal-Mart buyer is asked. “No, you can’t,” goes the reply.

Speaking of massive power, Barnes & Noble VP, Merchandising Patricia Bostelman checked in with a few retail diagnostics. The mass-market category seems to be reviving (as consumers’ pockets get ever emptier, that is), and the teen arena is exploding. But computer titles are toast, the new-age market has gone into meditation (although anything on yoga or Pilates is still selling), and — yep — even brand-name authors aren’t selling like they used to. Consequently, the chain is re-energizing its storefront with segments that do show promise, principally quirky books priced for impulse grabs. And fully one-third of all transactions occur at the cafés (books, lattés, whatever), a trend B&N is actively encouraging. Bostelman underscored that consolidation among publishers has left market-share open to independent houses, noting that the greatest sales increase at the chain has come from those publishers ranked 21-100 among B&N’s top suppliers. Pointing to targeted opportunities, she added that only 30% of B&N’s titles are sold in stores chainwide.

Helpfully for niche marketing, Kelley Maier, Ingram’s SVP for Product Management and Marketing, brandished her newest promotional weapon: the precision-guided electronic flier. Ingram had just completed a study of these missives with an eye to delivering more immediate, targeted, and flexible marketing messages, and sales bounced eight-fold when e-fliers were deployed for on-the-fly titles such as Good Morning America picks. Elaborating on the power of e-marketing was Cindy Cunningham, Amazon’s US Catalog Librarian, who touted the “Small Vendor Co-Op Merchandising Program,” available to publishers whose annual sales with Amazon are less than $1 million. The program includes the supposedly stellar “Single New Product Emails,” sent to past buyers of the same author or to buyers who have purchased similar titles, and then there’s the old “Buy X, Get Y Promotion,” which Amazon users know as those offers to pop a similar book in your cart for a combined discount, showering publishers with “incremental impressions for your titles on both your detail pages and those of your competitors.”

In any case, Amazon was now accounting for 6% of National Book Network’s sales, said President Jed Lyons, who added that the share of sales to B&N had risen from 14% five years ago to 20% last year, while Borders was 16% and growing. Lyons noted that however jaded one might be to the travails of independent publishing, some epochal shifts in the business can still raise an eyebrow. Charlie Winton retiring from Publishers Group West, he said, is like Mick Jagger retiring from the Rolling Stones.

Two major magazine publishers announce new hires: Linda Cunningham, most recently Publisher of Questia Media, has been named Editor-in-Chief of Meredith Books in Des Moines. . . Sara Levinson has been named to the newly created position of President of the Women’s Group at Rodale. She will oversee magazines, books, and websites in this group. She was previously CEO and Chairman of ClubMom, Inc., and before that, at the NFL.

Crown President and Publisher Jenny Frost has announced a re-org: Associate Publisher Andrew Martin and Harmony Executive Director Linda Loewenthal are leaving the company. (Email Martin at akmartin@worldnet.att.net.) Steve Ross has been promoted to SVP, Publisher of Crown, Crown Business, Three Rivers Press, and Prima Lifestyles, and Lauren Shakely to the same title at Clarkson Potter. Shaye Areheart has been promoted to VP, Publisher, Harmony Books. Philip Patrick has been named to the newly created position of VP, Director of Marketing, Crown Publishing Group. All will report to Frost. . . Terence Cheng is leaving Random House, where he was Director of Corporate Website Marketing, and will work on his next book, “partially set during the Japanese occupation of China during the 1930s,” he tells PT. He can be reached via his website, www.sonsofheaven.com. No word yet whether the position will be filled. And Leda Liounis is also leaving Random, where she was Executive Director, Operations for the Children’s Division. She may be reached at Lliounis@aol.com. . . Harriet Dorsen has left Random, where she was SVP, Secretary and Treasurer. Kathy Trager has been appointed SVP, General Counsel, Random House, Inc., referred to in every press release — while it’s still true — as “the world’s largest publisher.”

Philip Rappaport has gone to Bantam as Senior Editor, working for Tony Burbank. He had been Senior Editor at the Free Press. . . Adrienne Moucheraud has been named Director of Marketing for Bulfinch. She was in charge of marketing for museum publications at Abrams.

In children’s books, personnel changes continue apace: Scott Chambers has been hired by Sesame Street Workshop to oversee its publishing licenses, and to develop new business opportunities. He had been at Disney Publishing. . . Richard Dobbs has been named Director of Sales for HarperCollins Children’s Books. He was most recently doing co-editions with the Met Museum. Coincidentally, his other half, Sharon Hancock, has left Hyperion to join Holt as Director of Children’s Marketing, replacing Lori Benton. . . Joan DeMayo has been named VP, Director of Random House Children’s Sales, replacing Jack St. Mary. DeMayo was previously at Crown. . . Susan Van Metre has been named Senior Editor of Abrams Books for Young Readers. She had been at Dutton Children’s Books. . . Paula Wiseman moves from Harcourt to S&S Books for Young Readers.

HarperCollins has announced that it has expanded its newly named Harper Design International publishing program (formerly known as HBI) into the US market. Harriet Pierce has been hired as Director of Sales and Marketing in the US, reporting to Roland Algrant, SVP and Publisher, HarperCollins International. Pierce was formerly VP Marketing, Assoc. Publisher at Watson-Guptill.

As reported elsewhere, Gerry Howard, Broadway Editorial Director, resigned from his current job to serve as Executive Editor at large for Doubleday Broadway, reporting to Steve Rubin. Bill Thomas, Editor-in-Chief at Doubleday, will add this job to his current one. Stacy Creamer, whom he named Deputy Editorial Director, will continue to serve as Executive Editor at Doubleday. . . Running Press announced the appointment of Michael Ward as Editorial Director, succeeding Jennifer Worick, who resigned. Ward most recently served as Associate Publisher of Regnery’s Lifeline Books division. . . Several new hires at Abrams include Stan Redfern, who has been named VP Production. He had been with several publishers including Reader’s Digest; Tony Ponzo has been named controller. He had been at Penguin and Troll, among other publishers.

Penelope Chaplin, ex-Special Sales Director of Kingfisher and Rights/ Licensing Director of DK, has set up “Buy the Book,” a sales service for packagers and publishers in the UK, Canada, and the US who want to access sales channels but do not have the resources. She may be reached at penelopechaplin@hotmail.com.

Perry Janoski, who sells book-page advertising for Harper’s, among others, will add ad sales for The Economist to his roster at Allston Cherry Ltd.

Mary Sunden, VP Penguin International, will be leaving the company at the end of October. She may be reached at msunden@sunden.com.

WHAT THEY’RE DOING NOW

Andrea Chambers, whose editing career has spanned both books and magazines (Time, People, Penguin Putnam, and Primedia) has a new venture: She has turned a “longstanding interest in education” into The Study Center, an after-school homework center for kids in the fourth grade and above. The Center opened September 23 at 106 East 86th Street. Later in the year, The Study Center also plans to offer writing workshops and an introduction to newspaper and magazine editing for high-school students. For more information, call (212) 831-5343 or email StudyCenter101@aol.com.

Joe Esposito, onetime President of Encyclopedia Britannica, and prior to that, head of Random’s Reference Division, was appointed President and CEO of SRI Consulting, a for-profit subsidiary of SRI International, a not-for-profit research organization. He can be reached at jesposito@sric.sri.com.

PROMOTIONS

Anne-Lise Spitzer has been named VP Creative Marketing Director for Knopf. She was VP Director of Sales Promotion
. . . Harcourt announces that Jennifer Gilmore has been promoted to Publicity Director, Adult Books, replacing Arlene Kriv who has left the company. . . Michael Fragnito has moved from BN.com to Alan Kahn’s new Barnes & Noble publishing division.

OCTOBER DATES

Small Press Center holds its first workshop of the season, “Today’s Best Book Promotion Options — Online” on October 3. On October 8, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt will interview Jason Epstein at the Small Press Center, at 20 W. 44th Street. Go to www.smallpress.org.

• The Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the AAP Journals Committee presents a Luncheon Roundtable: “To Renew or Not to Renew…And What to Renew,” on October 17 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the AAP’s NY office, 71 Fifth Avenue (between 14th & 15th Streets). Among those participating are Virginia Massey-Borzio from the Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins; Nathan Baum, Digital Resources Librarian, Stony Brook University; Carol Bekar, Group Director, Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Suzanne Fedunok, head of Coles Science Center, NYU. Contact Sara Brandwein at (212) 255-0200 ext. 257.

DULY NOTED

New York Is Book Country celebrated its 24th anniversary on September 29, with record crowds and 190 exhibitors. After a hiatus of a year (the show had been cancelled last September), and despite competing fairs and events (including the New Yorker’s literary festival), initial research suggests that many more books were sold this year than in previous years. This is in part due to the number of attendees, says new Executive Director Courtney Muller, but also because more exhibitors chose to sell books directly at their booths. In addition, there were a broad range of high profile writers and celebrities on hand: Target, the fair’s sponsor, had a performance stage where Julie Andrews and R.L. Stein were among those autographing; Barnes & Noble had Isabella Rossellini; Mysterious Bookshop featured Mary Higgins Clark, Lawrence Block, and Harlan Coben; the NYPL booth featured Art Spiegelman (a major attraction); and Bank Street had John Lithgow on hand.

• PW and Bookseller contributor Gayle Feldman is doing a bio of Bennett Cerf, to be published by — you got it — Random House. Feldman tells PT, “The idea for doing a biography came during my National Arts Journalism research fellowship year at Columbia, when I spent some time going through a fraction of his papers and found them hugely entertaining. So I did a proposal and sent it myself to Bob Loomis for his advice. Loomis was hired by Cerf in 1957 and also has a particular interest in publishing history.” Loomis will edit the book, and Betsy Lerner is the agent.

PARTIES & EVENTS

Otto Penzler and Thomas Cook co-hosted a party with Vintage to celebrate the publication of Best American Crime Writing on September 17 at the Lotos Club. Vintage honcho Marty Asher was present, along with several of the writers from the anthology, and various publishing and media types, including PW’s Jeff Zaleski, Michele Slung, and Lynn Goldberg.

• NYIBC’s Mayor’s Reception, which kicked off the organization’s events, took place at the imposing Surrogate’s Court on September 24. Mike Bloomberg himself was there, though he barely had time to take his flak jacket off after his trip to Afghanistan. Also present were retiring NYIBC President Linda Exman, and Courtney Muller, who takes over October 1; Alyse Myers, Chair of the organization; and a slew of authors including Judy Blume, Nelson DeMille, Dominick Dunne, Leonard Lopate, and Malachy McCourt.

MAZEL TOV

To Ballantine, at 50 and to AMS, turning twenty later this year. Meanwhile, according to the press release, “Fifteen years ago — on September 30, 1987 — Dominique Raccah invested $17,000 from the 401K she accumulated during her 7 years at advertising giant Leo Burnett. She started a publishing company in an upstairs bedroom of her home with the publication of one title: Financial Sourcebooks Sources. That one title blossomed into more, and today Sourcebooks publishes approximately 120 books per year in nearly every shape, size, format, and subject.”