The World According
to Hoover
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (SEPTEMBER 2001)
Gary
Hoover, whose book Hoover’s
Vision is being published in November, gave PT
an email and telephone interview while touring the country
on speaking engagements. A website, Hooversvision.com,
will launch simultaneously with the book.
PT
asked if Hoover’s Vision is for business moguls
only, or does it appeal to a broader audience? It’s
for “anyone who leads anything,” says Hoover. “I go
around the world speaking to folks who run steel plants,
universities, dotcoms, and dry cleaners. Enterprises
of all types — for profit and non-, from tiny to titanic
— all succeed and fail on the same principles. Because
a key part of my message is creative thinking, it often
rings especially true to entrepreneurs. But those in
large corporations often do not realize that a lack
of entrepreneurial thinking is what can make them the
next Lucent, Sears, GM, or AT&T.”
As to why he chose Texere as his publisher, Hoover explained:
“I developed a personal rapport with Myles Thompson
of Texere and this was key to my decision. Like myself,
he got his schooling while working for established industry
leaders, then took the plunge and went out on his own.
By working with Texere, I get the outstanding Norton
marketing and distribution team coupled with a smaller
publisher who pays attention to my book as if it were
his own: the best of all possible worlds.”
PT
wanted to know what Hoover thought had changed most
since he was a book retailer: “Changes in the book business
have been more evolutionary than revolutionary since
we sold Bookstop to Barnes & Noble in 1989. . .
. More power has shifted from the manufacturers to the
retailers, which is parallel with what has happened
in groceries and many other categories. With Oprah,
the power to move books has become more concentrated.
On the other hand, the rise of the superstore means
that more backlist and more small authors and publishers
get exposure to more consumers. The publishing industry
seems resistant to change — the formats, pricing, and
trim sizes are not moving. While there have been a lot
of mergers, most of the exciting action is on the part
of smaller, more innovative publishers like Motorbooks,
Workman, and Taschen. I believe this was
true when I entered the business: companies like Ten
Speed and Lonely Planet were tiny startups.
“Going
forward into the future, I would question the soundness
of many of the business approaches at work today. The
‘department store of books’ at either the retail or
publishing level would not appear to be the best strategy
for most competitors, if you study the history of other
industries that have gone down the same path. Narrow
is better than broad, focus is better than diversity.
There is room for one or two winning ‘all things for
all people’ plays, but not for 3 or 6 or 20.”
©2001
Publishing Trends
