BookExpo
2001:
When You Care Enough to Give the Very
Best With Your Galley
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
AT INSIDE.COM (6/2/01)
CHICAGO -- According to a recent
survey, interest in e-books is minimal, and recent figures
suggest that retail sales of books are flat. But that
hasn't stopped publishers from hyping their new books,
whatever it takes.
And what it takes, these days,
is a diamond. Or a tie pin. Those are the gifts from
Walker & Co. as it promotes the new books, Diamond,
and Sputnik about, you guessed it, the worlds
of diamonds and the history of the Soviet Union's Sputnik
satellites.
Columbia
University Press is going one better. It's giving
away a diamond ring to promote Living It Up: Our
Love Affair With Luxury. OK, so it's not a real
diamond, but when was the last time a university press
went for kitsch?
John
Hopkins is giving away a house -- a miniature one
-- to celebrate its publication of My House Is Killing
Me!
There
was a time when bound galleys were the coin of the book-fair
realm, with publishers piling up heaps of them for booksellers
to grab at their will, while they kept the hottest books
behind locked cabinets until their best customers appeared.
This year
there is a bounty of bound galleys heaped on the floors,
but the most promoted promotions are the tchotchkes
on the counters. There are the candies and the tote
bags, for sure, and the posters and scratch pads that
booksellers swipe with abandon. In this, a year of the
flat sales and e-book ennui, it's the quality of the
booty that matters.
Outside
magazine has a cool Swiss Army knife that it gives to
special visitors. Rodale gives away chocolate-covered
espresso beans to promote its books about ''psychic
delicacies.'' Newmarket Press wins the award
for best packaging -- of tea bags, given away to promote
success@life, by Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold,
''ministers'' of the Republic of Tea. Harcourt
has a packet of flower seeds urging us to ''Wing Into
Spring,'' on behalf of its children's book line. Even
staid Norton has matches to promote smoldering
Sebastian Junger and his new book, Fire.
And then,
for thingamajig overload, there's Crown's ''Prescription
for Hot Summer Sales,'' the vial of little white pills
that smell suspiciously like mints, and are promoting
Rae Lawrence's steamy Jackie Susann homage, Shadow
of the Dolls. The label recommends ''unlimited reorders,''
and suggests that ''Transfer ... to other booksellers
is highly recommended.''
Oh, and
pick up a galley while you're at it.
©2001
Publishing Trends
