The panel on territorial rights issues, Will Territorial Sales Become Obsolete?, moderated by Janklow & Nesbit rights director Cullen Stanley, showed some small shifts in thinking about English-language international sales. The always entertaining Andrew Franklin, president of Profile Books, got a laugh by pointing out that the structure of today’s contracts goes back to 1947: “The British had lost their empire, they kept everything that had been their empire and gave the US the rest. It has to go. The open market is absolutely a legacy of the physical book and it has to go.” Asked if he would prefer […]
Book Fairs
Have Sales Reps Turned Into Marketers?
The sales department is in transition for a variety of reasons–declining bookstores, increased digital sales, an emphasis on just-in-time inventory, and more. At Digital Book World on Tuesday, David Wilk queried Rich Freese from NBN, Alison Lazarus from Macmillan, Michael Selleck from Simon & Schuster and Jaci Updike from Random House on the changes underway and ahead. Clearly the traditional sales rep is turning into more of a local marketing officer, though the exact expression of how that’s working varied among the participants. Lazarus expressed it most dramatically, saying “we’re telling our physical sales reps, ‘don’t sell so many of […]
Analysts See Low Profits from eBooks for Amazon and BN
A Digital Book World panel on Tuesday presenting how Wall Street views bookselling and the future of bricks and mortar brought an outside dose of reality via Goldman Sachs analyst Matt Fassler and Susquehanna Financial Group’s Marianne Wold. Fassler covers Barnes & Noble’s stock (and used to cover Borders when they were big enough to be worth following), but is down on their prospects: “There are no safe investments, but publishers and booksellers are something to avoid” in his assessment, because they don’t control their own destiny. He believes that, while the retailer’s investment in Nook was necessary and prudent, […]
Indie Bookstores Stay Optimistic in These Digital Times
It was, as expressed in the Q&A session, “a refreshingly upbeat and optimistic panel.” And indeed, the stereotypical gripes and whines that are too often associated with independent bookstores, for legitimate and not-so-legitimate reasons, were not really in evidence Tuesday afternoon. That isn’t to say this was a complaint-free session, as WORD Bookstore’s Stephanie Anderson, Andy Laties of the Eric Carle Museum Bookstore, and Nicole Magistro of The Bookstore of Edwards were pointed in what frustrations they have with publishers, most notably the reluctance to move to more efficient billing practices and the price disparity on non-agency e-books.) Shelf Awareness […]
Executives Open Digital Book World Celebrating A “Healthier” Digital Market
“We’ve heard it before,” my quotable neighbor said of this morning’s CEO panel at a packed Digital Book World, “but they said it well.” David Nussbaum, the ceo of the conference organizer F+W Media, led the discussion with Jane Friedman (Open Media), Mike Hyatt (Nelson), Brian Napack (Macmillan) and David Steinberger (Perseus). In contrast to the same time a year ago, the panel’s executives were generally pleased to find themselves in the middle of a digital market that is broadening. Echoing Steve Jobs’ remarks on the introduction of the iPad, Brian Napack said, “Amazon did us a great favor by […]
People, Etc.
Lynne Missen will join Penguin Canada as publishing director of children’s books on January 31. She has been executive editor at Harper Canada Children’s. Pamela Paul has been named children’s book editor for the New York Times Book Review, starting today. She is a journalist and book critic, the author of three nonfiction books, and is a columnist for the NYT‘s Style section. Her new position with the NYTBR is part-time. Pamela Clements has joined the United Methodist Publishing House as associate publisher for Abingdon Press’s Christian fiction program, and a new Christian Living line that debut in the spring of 2012, […]