Looking
Out For the Little Guy
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MAY 2005)
NYU's
Center for Publishing hosted its third Management
Forum for Small and Independent Publishers April
15-16, and got an impressive turnout from around the
country. Director Robert Baensch hosted the event.
Friday
morning was devoted to the Big Picture, and Bruce
Harris, who headed sales at Random before
going to Workman and now, consulting, gave an
overview of where the industry is going. Think religion!
Print on Demand! Self publishing! Non-bookstore! And
finally, Harris extoled the advantages of outsourcing
as many publishing functions as is practical, and used
his experience from Joy At Work to illustrate.
Jeff Abraham followed with BISG stats,
a Bookscan rep presented its new website, and
B&T's Jean Srnecz did her usual combo
of lively and practical advice for using a wholesaler
effectively.
Despite
the inviting sunny skies on Saturday, attendees managed
to fight the temptation to spend the day in Bryant Park
clutching their Jamba Juices, and were rewarded with
a series of practical talks that has become the Forum's
trademark. J. McCrary of the Perseus Books
Group opined about the potential of profitable non-retail
special sales and those magic little words: nonreturnable
sales. Ann Heron of the California-based Nolo
Press, followed with her take on choosing the proper
technology for one's business. With a graphic that read,
"Intel Inside. Idiot Outside," she warned against upgrading
systems without aforethought, but also celebrated the
entrepreneurial spirit that allowed a company like Nolo
to adapt to changing technologies by migrating much
of its material online. Judy Hottensen of Grove
Atlantic spoke about the role of publicity in generating
revenue growth, complete with graphs highlighting spikes
in sales for books appearing on NPR, The Today
Show, Don Imus and others. Dan Reynolds
of Storey Publishing then took the podium to
talk about getting books ranging from Storey's Guide
to Raising Pigs to At Knit's End: Meditations
for Women Who Knit Too Much, into the non-book retail
market. He pointed at the growing importance of blogs
like yarnharlot.com in increasing awareness of
niche titles.
The
Summer Publishing Institute runs from June 5 - July
15.
©2005
Publishing Trends
