Remainder
No More?
Today's $50
Lifestyle Books Just Might Be Worth Every Penny
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (JULY 2002)
Early
this year, the illustrated book market was declared
dead, or at least mutilated (blame the blood-curdling
discount battle between Könemann and Taschen),
with high-end art houses such as Abrams, Abbeville,
and Rizzoli said to be wallowing hip-deep in
a glut of coffee-table books. Just as publishers hiked
up their waders, however, this discount deluge joined
still more masses of cheap proprietary volumes peddled
by Barnes & Noble, and also coincided with
mounting price pressures from all points in the industry
— but especially from Len Riggio — that seemed
poised to consign those lavish, $50 volumes to the dustbin
of kinder, gentler coffee-table times.
But as margins bottomed out and price pressures peaked,
a curious thing happened. Unable to compete in B&N’s
profit-poor bargain bins, many illustrated publishers
responded by ditching what one executive described as
the “dumb blondes” of the business — the airy photo
spreads that cost a bundle but didn’t demand too much
of a reader’s IQ — and creating fact-packed, text-heavy
illustrated titles pitched to carefully targeted consumer
niches as a sort of “smart” coffee-table alternative.
And they’re charging champagne prices for the privilege.
Behold today’s high-end lifestyle book, which has met
with such success that even mainstream publishers seem
to be hopping on the bandwagon. HarperCollins
has named SVP and Creative Director Laurie Rippon
to the new position of Director of Illustrated Book
Publishing, suggesting heightened attention to the glossy-tome
market. (As Rippon tells PT, however, “We will
not necessarily be publishing more illustrated or packaged
books, but we certainly consider them to be part of
the mix of books we’re interested in bringing to market.”)
Meanwhile, AOL TW’s Bulfinch Press reflects
a big swing toward lifestyle territory in its new executive
team (see People, p. 1),
installed by VP and Publisher (and former QVC-er)
Jill Cohen.
The
Lifestyle Life Cycle
Ample
evidence suggests that the lifestyle category is the
go-to niche for the illustrated market. According to
Bookscan figures, retail sales in the art, architecture,
and photography category increased 8% for the first
six months of this year, compared to the same period
last year, and — charting the largest increase of all
lifestyle categories — cooking and entertaining titles
jumped 16%. Granted, the “home gardening” category was
down 14%, but that’s the category perhaps most glutted
at the low end by B&N (on a recent visit, 7 of 16
gardening titles prominently placed on a display table
were B&N publications, priced from $12.98 to $19.98).
Those
bargain bins may still be full to overflowing, but what
you won’t find there are promotional editions of high-end
lifestyle titles. Indeed, the life cycle of the high-end
illustrated book, once robustly filled with reprints,
repackagings, freshener-uppers, and bargain-bin editions,
seems increasingly focused on one precisely aimed edition
priced at up to $40 and in some cases as high as $60.
That’s the philosophy, anyway, at Clarkson Potter,
where Publisher Lauren Shakely says that, pace
Riggio, there is absolutely a place for high-end, beautifully
produced, and relatively expensive books. As publishers
refine their ability to place books in exactly the retail
outlets where the prospective audience will find them,
and booksellers’ deploy ever more sophisticated inventory
control systems, a level of cost efficiency has been
attained in an area not previously known for frugality.
Last year’s Tropical Houses, for instance, by
Tim Street-Porter ($60), was ten years in preparation,
and at an earlier time would probably never have found
its way to market. But all those Florida retirees have
gotta read something, and Potter is happily in its second
printing. The book is expected to sell indefinitely,
and a paperback edition is unlikely. In fact, it’s already
considered a backlist staple and is — get this — making
money.
Taking the high road to top dollar is also Steve
Tager, Marketing Director for Abrams and Stewart
Tabori & Chang. Tager agrees that a title given
enough initial bounce will sell profitably for five
or six years, as stores model the book and reorders
kick in regularly. STC’s three-year-old title The
New American Cheese, for example, has been selling
steadily at $35, as has Rozanne Gold’s Healthy
1-2-3 cookbook at the same price. Neither title
is slated for subsequent iterations (at most, a paperback
five years down the line), and even a cheaper edition
from Abrams’ promotional imprint, Abradale, is
unlikely. (In fact, Abradale will only publish three
titles this year.) Drifts to down-market territory do
occasionally happen — Abrams’ Earth From Above,
which sold for $65, went to Abradale at $35, and is
slated for a “value” edition this fall, selling to the
trade at $45.
You won’t find much moping around the bargain bin at
Workman, either, where Bruce Harris has
engineered the Artisan imprint to publish $60
to $70 books — and price them at $50. Their French
Laundry Cookbook is going strong at over 200,000
copies in its third year, and Workman is hoping for
a replay of this success with Le Bernardin gastronome
Eric Ripert’s A Return To Cooking, to
be published later this year at $50. And there’s not
a promotional edition in sight.
Needless to say, not everyone’s blithely selling cartons
of $50 books. Weldon Owen’s Terry Newell,
for instance, takes a wider view of the marketplace.
As a packager, Weldon Owen licenses all of its titles,
currently at three price points: $39.95, $24.95, and
$16.95. Newell says he’s enjoying success with the Williams
Sonoma Savoring series, which is up to 11 titles
at $39.95 list, almost five years into the program.
As with Workman’s Artisan imprint, the aim of the series
was to produce a $50 book priced at $40. However, when
titles have run their course as high-priced elegant
editions, the material may be repurposed and republished
under the recently launched Fog City Press. These
will then be sold in bulk, non-returnable quantities
to customers, probably at $24.95, by Chain Sales
Marketing. Chain Sales’ Harvey Markowitz
says that these reformatted volumes can be bind-ups
of sheets with a redesigned jacket, or he can also take
multi-volume titles and bind them as one value-priced
product.
Just
Add Value
Make
no mistake about it, value is the new mantra. “Price
points are coming down,” says Christopher Capen,
President and Publisher of Tehabi Books, which
develops titles for the likes of DK, Simon
& Schuster, and HarperCollins. “Over this past
year, desired price points have gone from the $40-$50
range down to $25-$35 for new titles.” Capen points
out that a similar drop occurred during the economic
doldrums of the early ’90s, when retailers rode the
roller-coaster from the $50, Day in the Life of America
series right down to the bargain basement. Now,
the key is pushing price-points down and “delivering
as much content as absolutely possible.” Fulfilling
that mandate, Tehabi has been ramping up the word counts
in its titles, publishing illustrated works with 50,000
to 80,000 words. “Now you have a product sitting next
to the $25 or $30 fiction, non-illustrated book, and
you’re right in the mix,” says Capen. “The consumer
is realizing they’re not paying $50 for a coffee-table
book. They’re getting something in an illustrated format
that is substantive and a good read. That’s where we’re
seeing significant growth.” Another change in the illustrated
marketplace, Capen points out, concerns the ever-escalating
pressure on inventory turns. Whereas publishers used
to buy a year’s worth of inventory, endemic belt-tightening
has spurred publishers to order up only six months worth
of a title. This drives up the cost per unit, which
in turn puts more pressure upon the economies of the
illustrated market. Ironically, Capen reports, some
of his titles have sold quite well in the first six
months, but because inventory was geared towards a year’s
worth of sales, “the financial people don’t look on
that as a success. They’re not getting inventory turn.”
Value is also the order of the day for Karen Kreiger,
VP Custom Publishing at color reference publisher Creative
Publishing. Creative’s bestselling book at the moment
is The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair, loaded
with over 2,000 photos and selling for $34.95. Bargain-bin
editions are pretty much verboten here, as the publisher
specializes in branded books for the likes of Black
& Decker and Singer, who are loath to
find their titles in the promotional ghetto. However,
content repurposing (they call it “creating”) has resulted
in such titles as a 48-page, softcover “brochure” for
Popular Mechanics, which was priced at $2.96
and sold at Wal-Mart (over 100,000 units went
out the door). And co-branded titles can often be sold
in multiple channels, such as Small Engine Care and
Repair for Briggs & Stratton, of which
the company sold 150,000 through its dealer network
(they’re going for $15.95), while Creative sold 60,000
copies through trade channels.
Nothing’s forever, of course. Maybe not even value.
Mel Shapiro of Book Sales, the US promotional
imprint of UK packager/publisher Quarto, confirms
that Borders has cut its promotional space, and
the chain seems to be shifting its discount gondolas
to the back of the store. Likewise, the ranks of $7
illustrated titles at B&N also seem to have thinned.
Which leads one to the obvious conclusion. Now that
the bargain market has been definitively glutted, those
smart, $50 titles must be looking mighty attractive
to Len and company, regardless of his right-sized-price
rhetoric. Better get there while you can.
©2002
Publishing Trends
