Ink Slingers
Up the Ante
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (FEBRUARY 2005)
Shortly
before the news broke that Sara Nelson
would be taking the helm at Publishers Weekly,
Jerome Kramer, Editor-In-Chief and
Managing Director of VNU’s US
Literary Group, says he got a call from her explaining
that, due to a conflict of interest, she wouldn’t
be able to write that regular column they had planned
for VNU’s soon-to-launch The Book Standard.
Talk about conflict of interest, these two will soon
be direct competitors, vying for the limited time and
resources of publishing’s elite.
Planned for
a Jan. 27 launch, The Book Standard’s
website and e-newsletters will benefit from its close
relations with Nielsen BookScan, Kirkus
Reviews, Hollywood Reporter, and Billboard
magazine. Kramer envisions a website that will include
news and reviews, as well as lots of numbers and charts
— but, contrary to many’s expectations,
he plans these numbers to complement analysis. In short:
He claims not to be intimidated by Publishers Weekly,
despite his fondness for its new chief. “We are
going to strive to be an engaging, bright, literary
and fun source of information, and we’re going
to try to limit the amount of snark in our coverage
— because that’s something I think gets
in too easily in this industry,” he said. He is
basing The Book Standard on the coverage he
thinks has been absent in most of the industry periodicals,
and plans to liven up—and speed up—the discussion
of trends. “Nobody’s ever done charts; they’ve
done lists, but not charts. The Nielsen piece is ours
and ours alone. And I don’t think you can cover
a business without good metrics and data,” Kramer
said. The company has been sending out its Chart Alerts
for about two months, and Kramer said the response has
been good so far. (To sign up, go to www.bookstandard.com.)
In other VNU
news, Kirkus Discoveries should launch any
day now, Kramer said. This free monthly HTML newsletter
accepts submissions from self, e-published, and POD
authors, and then reviews them, applying the same criteria
it would a book from any of the large publishing houses
(“the reviewer shouldn’t know” who
published it, Kramer said). Authors pay $350 per review,
and this comes with the caveat that the review could
be negative.
Kirkus is also
negotiating with a publishing partner to start a sort
of “American Idol” for literary types, Kirkus
Literary Awards, a yearly contest for unpublished and
un-agented titles. The winner’s book will be published.
Publishers
Weekly
So, is Nelson
ready to go up against that kind of competition? “PW
has both the reviews that Kirkus has, and the rights
reporting potential of PublishersLunch,”
she says. “ We also have a staff of reporters
and writers and editors. PublishersLunch does some excellent
reporting, but I don’t think the online medium
allows for the kind of pieces you can do in a magazine.
And as far as I can tell, the emphasis at thebookstandard.com
is on numbers, not news.” She has mentioned elsewhere
that she plans to redesign the magazine, and then shuffle
and add to the web products.
Like Kramer,
Nelson thinks of books as a form of entertainment, and
one that should appeal to general readers. “PW
now serves booksellers, publishers ... and related media
(i.e., film and TV folks), among other groups. No groups
will be de-emphasized, but if we do what we’re
doing well, we’ll be able to add or expand some
groups,” Nelson said, pointing to the smaller,
but not insignificant number of “civilians,”
or book lovers who want in on the biz.
In a Mediabistro.com
interview, Nelson admitted that leading an established
staff and publication will have its challenges. “It’s
a question of sort of releasing yourself from some of
the things that have existed,” she said.
Publishers
Marketplace
As the independent
in this mix — and the one with the largest circulation
— Michael Cader has the privilege
to “believe in constant expansion, experimentation,
and improvement, rather than the more traditional redesigns
and relaunches.” That said, here are some of his
plans for this year: his first day-long conference in
the spring; PublishersMarketplace’s first print
edition, a series of financial books based on its LunchDeal
database; and a recurring series “looking more
deeply at some ‘big questions’ regarding
the future of the business” as well as “unexploited
opportunities.” And, fans, stay on the lookout:
He off-handedly mentioned a possible spin-off site or
two.
©2005
Publishing Trends
