Harvard’s Enthusiasts

By PT Editors
December 1, 2003
Comments Off on Harvard’s Enthusiasts

While many university presses have embarked on a soul-searching jag as they try to reconcile their lofty mandates with low-life financial reality, the folks at Harvard Business School Press appear anything but confused. “We are not a university press,” says David Goehring, newly appointed VP and Director of HBS Press. “You could say we’re a specialty trade publisher. We are mission-driven to improve the practice of management worldwide, and that distinguishes us as a business from our competitors.” The press is itself part of HBS Publishing, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Harvard University. Rather than being funded by the parent institution, the publishing unit kicks in an annual contribution to Harvard Business School, to fund research that in turn supports development of the school’s trademark case studies — a “virtuous cycle,” as they call it.

The press publishes about 45 titles per year — only one in five authors are affiliated with Harvard Business School, and all titles are vetted via a rigorous peer-review process — but books are only one piece of the cross-platform puzzle. “Part of our core strategy is to publish across as many platforms as possible,” explains Goehring, a trade veteran who joined the press in October after 15 years with Perseus Publishing and the former Addison Wesley Longman. “We look to build franchise content.” The duo of Robert Kaplan and David Norton, for example, have published several titles with the press, including The Balanced Scorecard and the forthcoming Strategy Maps, along with numerous HBS Case Studies, which are marketed to the academic and corporate worlds. Then there are conferences and workshops, on which Harvard partners with the authors, plus Harvard’s own branded audio conferences. Don’t forget a newsletter, the Balanced Scorecard Report; an interactive program is on tap. “Even though we’re much smaller than other book publishers,” adds David Wan, CEO of HBS Publishing, “very few publishing companies bring all of these formats together and aimed at one particular area of specialty. We’re in many ways the enthusiast publication for management ideas.”

Next up is an extention of the group’s “portfolio publishing strategy,” whereby content is repurposed from one format to another, as in the “hugely successful” Harvard Business Review paperback line (46 titles strong), which compiles articles from the magazine, grouped around various themes. A similar paperback line, Harvard Business Essentials, is launching now, with two more series to come in the spring. Moreover, strategic partnerships with business players such as The Conference Board and the Society for Human Resource Management will lead to other book series, with still more partnerships on tap.

Editorial offices are based in Boston, augmented by a small New York editorial and advertising sales office. The press is distributed to the trade domestically by CDS, with international distribution in most territories by McGraw-Hill. The press has also launched a partnership with Random House Kodansha in Japan, which will publish about 15 HBSP titles in translation per year and is aimed to generate “more of a critical mass of our books using the HBS Press brand,” says Wan, himself having joined Harvard in 2002 after serving as President of Penguin Group and heading up Simon & Schuster’s K-12 program.

Part of the formula includes aggressive retail tactics. “We were one of the first companies to have a branded store at Amazon, because our brand does have weight with the consumer,” says Goehring. The HBSP website generates more than 10% of total revenues, replete with opt-in email newsletters based on a topic or product line. The company is now working with a number of retail customers to extend the brand at point-of-sale, the first fruits of which are a boutique dedicated to HBS Press at the Rockefeller Center Barnes & Noble. The company hopes to extend the program to other B&N outlets and different accounts as well.

Posted in Featured Articles • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Book View, December 2003

By PT Editors
December 1, 2003
Comments Off on Book View, December 2003

PEOPLE


November brought some big moves in the industry, with Bill Barry going to DK as President, after a hiatus of two years (he had been at Hungry Minds when it was sold to Wiley) and Jim Jordan, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Press moving to Columbia University Press as President and Director (as of January, 2004). There were some departures, too: Shelley Pierce left Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club where she has been Editor-in-Chief for the past year. And Jeanine Laddomada, Editor of the Venus Book Club, as well as DBC, has also left for B&N.

Other news of the month: Leigh Haber, who was most recently Executive Editor at Hyperion, is going to Rodale as Editor-at-Large, acquiring and editing “ten or so” nonfiction titles per year. In addition to her work at Rodale, she will continue representing and editing projects on an independent basis. She and Heather Jackson, who joined Rodale as Executive Editor in Women’s Health Books, will report to Tami Booth, VP, Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health Books. And Pete Fornatale is working on a freelance basis in acquisitions and editing, for the Men’s Health and Sports areas, reporting to Jeremy Katz. Miriam Backes has joined Rodale as Senior Editor, Cookbooks, working primarily on the direct mail side. She and Jackson report to Margot Schupf, Executive Editor, Lifestyle Books.

Olga Vezeris has become Executive Editor, HarperAudio. She was previously at Time Warner Publishing . . .  Leah Nathan Spero has gone to HarperBusiness as Senior Editor. She was a journalist at BusinessWeek covering Wall Street and a writer for Talk Magazine. Pamela Spengler-Jaffee has joined Morrow Avon as Assistant Director of Publicity, reporting to Debbie Stier. She was previously at the PR firm of Trahan, Burden & Charles, Inc. where she worked on the introduction of Red Dress Ink for Harlequin Enterprises.

Lisa Considine has gone to Holt as Senior Editor, reporting to Jennifer Barth. She was most recently at Wiley and before that, at S&S. . . Ann Forstenzer has gone to Learning Resources, an educational toy/game manufacturer and publisher of teacher-related materials located in Vernon Hills, IL. She is VP, Special Markets, working from home. She was most recently at Millbrook.

Wendy Nicholson, VP, Executive Director of Public Relations for S&S Adult Trade, announced her retirement after 30 years. As of January she may be reached at nicholsonw@nyc.rr.com.

And Simon Tasker is leaving Scholastic trade to go to S&S, reporting to B.J. Gabriel in Sales, taking Mara Anastas’ place as National Accounts Director, Children’s. . . John Ziccardi has been named President of Sales for Kidsbooks, a promotional children’s book publisher. He spent most of his career at Bantam.

Peterson’s, the test-prep and reference publishing division of Thomson, has hired Del Franz as Editor-in-Chief. Franz previously served as Executive Editor at Kaplan. He replaces Laurie Barnett, SparkNotes’ Editorial Director. . . Karen Holt, most recently at Publishers Weekly’s PW Newsline, and previously Editor of Book Publishing Report, has joined the editorial staff at ForeWord as ForeSight Features Editor
. . . Martha Reddington, former Director of Special Sales at HarperCollins and S&S, announces the formation of Reddington Resources, where she will be a certified consultant for ACT!™, the world’s number one contact database management program. The Penguin Publishing Group is her first confirmed client. Go to www.reddingtonresources.com.

Rebecca Strong has formed the Rebecca Strong International Literary Agency. She was most recently at Crown, in subrights and editorial. She may be reached via email at rstrongtho@aol.com or (718) 499-6697.

More restructuring at Fodor’s, with President and Publisher Alison Gross and Associate Publisher Ensley Eikenburg being the first casualties. David Naggar, the Random Information Group President, will name a new team shortly.

Where are they now? Thomas Middelhoff, now a Managing Director at Investcorp, and who was elected to the NYT Board of Directors in September, attended his first meeting in New York in November. And Dick Snyder, most recently head of the ill-fated Golden (the assets of which were sold 2 ½ years ago) turned up on the front page of the NYT recently in an article about Edgar Bronfman, whom Snyder is advising on his purchase of Warner Music.

DULY NOTED


On the 20th anniversary of The Thurber House, and after a three-year hiatus, the Thurber Prize will be given to the author and publisher of the outstanding book of humor writing published in the United States in the last year. Go to www.thurberhouse.org for submission guidelines. (Thurber House is now run by NY publishing veteran Susanne Jaffe.)

• The BBC reports that the British Library has reached an agreement with Amazon.co.uk by which the BL’s catalogue, which has records of approximately 2.5m books, has been integrated on the Amazon website. The service is geared towards people in the antiquarian and second-hand book trade to assist those customers who have requests for older book titles.

• This week Bookreporter.com launched FaithfulReader.com, “the 7th website in The Book Report Network.” The website is edited for Christian readers, and offers reviews, author interviews, a monthly poll, question and even Word of Mouth. The Book Report Network claims “more than 515,000 unique visitors” read the websites in the Network during 1,218,246 visitor sessions each month.

• Tina Jordan, Special Events & Public Relations Director for BookExpo America, has invited anyone interested in submitting conference or author panel suggestions for the BEA Latin American and Latino Author Forum, as well as the Latin American & Latino Buzz Workshop featuring editors from US and Latin American based publishing houses, to contact her by Dec. 19. She may be reached at tjordan@reedexpo.com.

• And speaking of things multicultural, Adweek is offering a Multicultural Marketing in America directory, claiming it’s the first directory to cover advertising, media, and marketing. It lists US multicultural agencies, PR firms, brand marketers, and the media (radio, TV, cable, magazines and newspapers) targeting Hispanic/Latino, African-American, and Asian-American consumers. The directory will detail “over 2,200 companies and more than 13,000 key personnel leading the drive to reach these expanding markets and provide trends, analysis and projections.”

DECEMBER EVENTS


City Lights celebrates its 50th anniversary on December 3 at 8 pm at the NYC Poetry Project at 131 East 10th Street. General Admission is $8 and CL’s Elaine Katzenburger and Ira Silverberg are hosts. Contact stacy@citylights.com for more details.

• Oscar Dystel, the former President and CEO of Bantam Books (and whose employees now run many of the publishers in New York), will be interviewed by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on December 9, 6-7:30 pm, at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St., New York City. Tickets are $10 for non-members; $5 for members. For more info go to smallpress.org or call (212) 764-7021.

PARTIES


Beacon Press celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 13 (though the actual anniversary is in early 2004). It claims to be the country’s oldest nonprofit press, with a list of authors that includes Pablo Neruda, James Baldwin, and Edwidge Dandicat. Authors, staff members, and friends of the press attended a party in Boston to commemorate the independent press’ sesquicentennial.

MAZEL TOV


Congratulations to HarperCollins/ ReganBooks’ Carie Freimuth and Perseus’s John Hughes on their forthcoming marriage.

People
November brought some big moves in the industry, with Bill Barry going to DK as President, after a hiatus of two years (he had been at Hungry Minds when it was sold to Wiley) and Jim Jordan, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Press moving to Columbia University Press as President and Director (as of January, 2004). There were some departures, too: Shelley Pierce left Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club where she has been Editor-in-Chief for the past year. And Jeanine Laddomada, Editor of the Venus Book Club, as well as DBC, has also left for B&N.

Other news of the month: Leigh Haber, who was most recently Executive Editor at Hyperion, is going to Rodale as Editor-at-Large, acquiring and editing “ten or so” nonfiction titles per year. In addition to her work at Rodale, she will continue representing and editing projects on an independent basis. She and Heather Jackson, who joined Rodale as Executive Editor in Women’s Health Books, will report to Tami Booth, VP, Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health Books. And Pete Fornatale is working on a freelance basis in acquisitions and editing, for the Men’s Health and Sports areas, reporting to Jeremy Katz. Miriam Backes has joined Rodale as Senior Editor, Cookbooks, working primarily on the direct mail side. She and Jackson report to Margot Schupf, Executive Editor, Lifestyle Books.

Olga Vezeris has become Executive Editor, HarperAudio. She was previously at Time Warner Publishing. . . Leah Nathan Spero has gone to HarperBusiness as Senior Editor. She was a journalist at Business Week covering Wall Street and a writer for Talk Magazine. Pamela Spengler-Jaffee has joined Morrow Avon as Assistant Director of Publicity, reporting to Debbie Stier. She was previously at the PR firm of Trahan, Burden & Charles, Inc. where she worked on the introduction of Red Dress Ink for Harlequin Enterprises.

Lisa Considine has gone to Holt as Senior Editor, reporting to Jennifer Barth. She was most recently at Wiley and before that, at S&S. . . Ann Forstenzer has gone to Learning Resources, an educational toy/game manufacturer and publisher of teacher-related materials located in Vernon Hills, IL. She is VP, Special Markets, working from home. She was most recently at Millbrook.

Wendy Nicholson, VP, Executive Director of Public Relations for S&S Adult Trade, announced her retirement after 30 years. As of January she may be reached at nicholsonw@nyc.rr.com.

And Simon Tasker is leaving Scholastic trade to go to S&S, reporting to B.J. Gabriel in Sales, taking Mara Anastas’ place as National Accounts Director, Children’s. . . John Ziccardi has been named President of Sales for Kidsbooks, a promotional children’s book publisher. He spent most of his career at Bantam.

Peterson’s, the test-prep and reference publishing division of Thomson, has hired Del Franz as Editor-in-Chief. Franz previously served as Executive Editor at Kaplan. He replaces Laurie Barnett, SparkNotes’ Editorial Director. . . Karen Holt, most recently at Publishers Weekly’s PW Newsline, and previously Editor of Book Publishing Report, has joined the editorial staff at ForeWord as ForeSight Features Editor
. . . Martha Reddington, former Director of Special Sales at HarperCollins and S&S, announces the formation of Reddington Resources, where she will be a certified consultant for ACT!™, the world’s number one contact database management program. The Penguin Publishing Group is her first confirmed client. Go to www.reddingtonresources.com.

Rebecca Strong has formed the Rebecca Strong International Literary Agency. She was most recently at Crown, in subrights and editorial. She may be reached via email at rstrongtho@aol.com or (718) 499-6697.

More restructuring at Fodor’s, with President and Publisher Alison Gross and Associate Publisher Ensley Eikenburg being the first casualties. David Naggar, the Random Information Group President, will name a new team shortly.

Where are they now? Thomas Middelhoff, now a Managing Director at Investcorp, and who was elected to the NYT Board of Directors in September, attended his first meeting in New York in November. And Dick Snyder, most recently head of the ill-fated Golden (the assets of which were sold 2 ½ years ago) turned up on the front page of the NYT recently in an article about Edgar Bronfman, whom Snyder is advising on his purchase of Warner Music.

Duly Noted
On the 20th anniversary of The Thurber House, and after a three-year hiatus, the Thurber Prize will be given to the author and publisher of the outstanding book of humor writing published in the United States in the last year. Go to www.thurberhouse.org for submission guidelines. (Thurber House is now run by NY publishing veteran Susanne Jaffe.)

• The BBC reports that the British Library has reached an agreement with Amazon.co.uk by which the BL’s catalogue, which has records of approximately 2.5m books, has been integrated on the Amazon website. The service is geared towards people in the antiquarian and second-hand book trade to assist those customers who have requests for older book titles.

• This week Bookreporter.com launched FaithfulReader.com, “the 7th website in The Book Report Network.” The website is edited for Christian readers, and offers reviews, author interviews, a monthly poll, question and even Word of Mouth. The Book Report Network claims “more than 515,000 unique visitors” read the websites in the Network during 1,218,246 visitor sessions each month.

• Tina Jordan, Special Events & Public Relations Director for BookExpo America, has invited anyone interested in submitting conference or author panel suggestions for the BEA Latin American and Latino Author Forum, as well as the Latin American & Latino Buzz Workshop featuring editors from US and Latin American based publishing houses, to contact her by Dec. 19. She may be reached at tjordan@reedexpo.com.

• And speaking of things multicultural, Adweek is offering a Multicultural Marketing in America directory, claiming it’s the first directory to cover advertising, media, and marketing. It lists US multicultural agencies, PR firms, brand marketers, and the media (radio, TV, cable, magazines and newspapers) targeting Hispanic/Latino, African-American, and Asian-American consumers. The directory will detail “over 2,200 companies and more than 13,000 key personnel leading the drive to reach these expanding markets and provide trends, analysis and projections.”

December Events
City Lights celebrates its 50th anniversary on December 3 at 8 pm at the NYC Poetry Project at 131 East 10th Street. General Admission is $8 and CL’s Elaine Katzenburger and Ira Silverberg are hosts. Contact stacy@citylights.com for more details.

• Oscar Dystel, the former President and CEO of Bantam Books (and whose employees now run many of the publishers in New York), will be interviewed by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on December 9, 6-7:30 pm, at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St., New York City. Tickets are $10 for non-members; $5 for members. For more info go to smallpress.org or call (212) 764-7021.

Parties
Beacon Press celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 13 (though the actual anniversary is in early 2004). It claims to be the country’s oldest nonprofit press, with a list of authors that includes Pablo Neruda, James Baldwin, and Edwidge Dandicat. Authors, staff members, and friends of the press attended a party in Boston to commemorate the independent press’ sesquicentennial.

Mazel Tov
Congratulations to HarperCollins/ ReganBooks’ Carie Freimuth and Perseus’s John Hughes on their forthcoming marriage

People
November brought some big moves in the industry, with Bill Barry going to DK as President, after a hiatus of two years (he had been at Hungry Minds when it was sold to Wiley) and Jim Jordan, Director of the Johns Hopkins University Press moving to Columbia University Press as President and Director (as of January, 2004). There were some departures, too: Shelley Pierce left Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club where she has been Editor-in-Chief for the past year. And Jeanine Laddomada, Editor of the Venus Book Club, as well as DBC, has also left for B&N.

Other news of the month: Leigh Haber, who was most recently Executive Editor at Hyperion, is going to Rodale as Editor-at-Large, acquiring and editing “ten or so” nonfiction titles per year. In addition to her work at Rodale, she will continue representing and editing projects on an independent basis. She and Heather Jackson, who joined Rodale as Executive Editor in Women’s Health Books, will report to Tami Booth, VP, Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health Books. And Pete Fornatale is working on a freelance basis in acquisitions and editing, for the Men’s Health and Sports areas, reporting to Jeremy Katz. Miriam Backes has joined Rodale as Senior Editor, Cookbooks, working primarily on the direct mail side. She and Jackson report to Margot Schupf, Executive Editor, Lifestyle Books.

Olga Vezeris has become Executive Editor, HarperAudio. She was previously at Time Warner Publishing. . . Leah Nathan Spero has gone to HarperBusiness as Senior Editor. She was a journalist at Business Week covering Wall Street and a writer for Talk Magazine. Pamela Spengler-Jaffee has joined Morrow Avon as Assistant Director of Publicity, reporting to Debbie Stier. She was previously at the PR firm of Trahan, Burden & Charles, Inc. where she worked on the introduction of Red Dress Ink for Harlequin Enterprises.

Lisa Considine has gone to Holt as Senior Editor, reporting to Jennifer Barth. She was most recently at Wiley and before that, at S&S. . . Ann Forstenzer has gone to Learning Resources, an educational toy/game manufacturer and publisher of teacher-related materials located in Vernon Hills, IL. She is VP, Special Markets, working from home. She was most recently at Millbrook.

Wendy Nicholson, VP, Executive Director of Public Relations for S&S Adult Trade, announced her retirement after 30 years. As of January she may be reached at nicholsonw@nyc.rr.com.

And Simon Tasker is leaving Scholastic trade to go to S&S, reporting to B.J. Gabriel in Sales, taking Mara Anastas’ place as National Accounts Director, Children’s. . . John Ziccardi has been named President of Sales for Kidsbooks, a promotional children’s book publisher. He spent most of his career at Bantam.

Peterson’s, the test-prep and reference publishing division of Thomson, has hired Del Franz as Editor-in-Chief. Franz previously served as Executive Editor at Kaplan. He replaces Laurie Barnett, SparkNotes’ Editorial Director. . . Karen Holt, most recently at Publishers Weekly’s PW Newsline, and previously Editor of Book Publishing Report, has joined the editorial staff at ForeWord as ForeSight Features Editor
. . . Martha Reddington, former Director of Special Sales at HarperCollins and S&S, announces the formation of Reddington Resources, where she will be a certified consultant for ACT!™, the world’s number one contact database management program. The Penguin Publishing Group is her first confirmed client. Go to www.reddingtonresources.com.

Rebecca Strong has formed the Rebecca Strong International Literary Agency. She was most recently at Crown, in subrights and editorial. She may be reached via email at rstrongtho@aol.com or (718) 499-6697.

More restructuring at Fodor’s, with President and Publisher Alison Gross and Associate Publisher Ensley Eikenburg being the first casualties. David Naggar, the Random Information Group President, will name a new team shortly.

Where are they now? Thomas Middelhoff, now a Managing Director at Investcorp, and who was elected to the NYT Board of Directors in September, attended his first meeting in New York in November. And Dick Snyder, most recently head of the ill-fated Golden (the assets of which were sold 2 ½ years ago) turned up on the front page of the NYT recently in an article about Edgar Bronfman, whom Snyder is advising on his purchase of Warner Music.

Duly Noted
On the 20th anniversary of The Thurber House, and after a three-year hiatus, the Thurber Prize will be given to the author and publisher of the outstanding book of humor writing published in the United States in the last year. Go to www.thurberhouse.org for submission guidelines. (Thurber House is now run by NY publishing veteran Susanne Jaffe.)

• The BBC reports that the British Library has reached an agreement with Amazon.co.uk by which the BL’s catalogue, which has records of approximately 2.5m books, has been integrated on the Amazon website. The service is geared towards people in the antiquarian and second-hand book trade to assist those customers who have requests for older book titles.

• This week Bookreporter.com launched FaithfulReader.com, “the 7th website in The Book Report Network.” The website is edited for Christian readers, and offers reviews, author interviews, a monthly poll, question and even Word of Mouth. The Book Report Network claims “more than 515,000 unique visitors” read the websites in the Network during 1,218,246 visitor sessions each month.

• Tina Jordan, Special Events & Public Relations Director for BookExpo America, has invited anyone interested in submitting conference or author panel suggestions for the BEA Latin American and Latino Author Forum, as well as the Latin American & Latino Buzz Workshop featuring editors from US and Latin American based publishing houses, to contact her by Dec. 19. She may be reached at tjordan@reedexpo.com.

• And speaking of things multicultural, Adweek is offering a Multicultural Marketing in America directory, claiming it’s the first directory to cover advertising, media, and marketing. It lists US multicultural agencies, PR firms, brand marketers, and the media (radio, TV, cable, magazines and newspapers) targeting Hispanic/Latino, African-American, and Asian-American consumers. The directory will detail “over 2,200 companies and more than 13,000 key personnel leading the drive to reach these expanding markets and provide trends, analysis and projections.”

December Events
City Lights celebrates its 50th anniversary on December 3 at 8 pm at the NYC Poetry Project at 131 East 10th Street. General Admission is $8 and CL’s Elaine Katzenburger and Ira Silverberg are hosts. Contact stacy@citylights.com for more details.

• Oscar Dystel, the former President and CEO of Bantam Books (and whose employees now run many of the publishers in New York), will be interviewed by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt on December 9, 6-7:30 pm, at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St., New York City. Tickets are $10 for non-members; $5 for members. For more info go to smallpress.org or call (212) 764-7021.

Parties
Beacon Press celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 13 (though the actual anniversary is in early 2004). It claims to be the country’s oldest nonprofit press, with a list of authors that includes Pablo Neruda, James Baldwin, and Edwidge Dandicat. Authors, staff members, and friends of the press attended a party in Boston to commemorate the independent press’ sesquicentennial.

Mazel Tov
Congratulations to HarperCollins/ ReganBooks’ Carie Freimuth and Perseus’s John Hughes on their forthcoming marriage.

.

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Ads Please, Hold the Spam

By PT Editors
December 1, 2003
Comments Off on Ads Please, Hold the Spam

With a lively turnout of more than 5,000 attendees and 130 exhibitors, Ad:Tech New York was officially, in the words of conference chair Susan Bratton, “the most exciting Ad:Tech show in three years,” affirming its reputation as the go-to trade show for Internet marketing. As for the vibe on the floor, the 40 panels and keynotes at the Hilton New York early last month ran the gamut, with most folks looking to improve their e-mail campaigns as customer-retention devices, optimize search engine results, and expand affiliate marketing (more on that below). In one highly touted moment, Patrick Keane, Google’s head of sales strategy, introduced the not-so-new concept of a “self-funded search campaign,” which demonstrated that for most search campaigns the immediate sales results far outstrip the costs, making them “self-funded,” or what is usually called “profitable” without even requiring metrics like lifetime value. Sadly, the much-anticipated “Blogging for Business” panel ended as the show’s nadir. What an intriguing idea — weblogs aiding marketing, community development, and “thought leadership,” and perhaps even making money — but the session was crimped by technical snafus and personal site promotion.

Spam was, of course, everywhere — but as the battlefield web marketers have to fight through to get results. Probably the most radical experiment in that department came from veteran web guru Jim Sterne, on hand to flog his new book, Advanced E-mail Marketing. Tackling reader inertia head-on, Sterne recently dumped all 5,000 recipients of his free e-mail newsletter and asked them to resubscribe to continue receiving it. Only 2% did. “What you have to realize,” as David Lewis of Digital Impact pointed out, “is that permission is not persistent. You must get ‘memorable permission.’” By this he meant an ongoing relationship with a consumer. But that’s getting trickier, as many Internet service providers now make no distinction between unsolicited marketing messages and legitimate mail that has actually been requested. If a marketing message from a company gets branded as spam, e-mails paid for by subscription from the same company won’t get through the blockade. (Some web publishers now send from two IP addresses: one for premium service and one for promotions.) The ultimate challenge to marketers is to get into the recipient’s e-mail contact list, outsmarting the likes of AOL, which now disables images and links of any e-mail from a sender not snugly in the recipient’s address book. Brush up on e-mail marketing strategies, plus get a free 11-page white paper, at www.gaspedal.net.

Other sessions revealed the booming business of affiliate marketing, which can rack up 30% of sales, according to James Crouthamel, CEO of Performics, one of the few affiliate marketing specialists. Affiliate sites typically win a bounty for delivering traffic to a marketer’s site. The burden of cutting small checks and 1099 forms to these companies, however, leads many web publishers to hire third parties to manage their affiliate programs. Check out www.affiliatemanager.net for up-to-date info on affiliate marketing tactics by an active affiliate marketer.

And for real nuts-and-bolts material, several panels discussed “natural search engine marketing,” which boils down to optimizing your web site for two critical audiences: first, the automated search engine spiders threading back keyword data that delivers your traffic when someone queries “chick lit” on Google, and second, the human eyeballs that should ideally follow. Ed Shull, CEO of Clicksquad, offered numerous tips: “Optimize your site for Google,” he said, “and it will work for the other search engines.” Shull also noted that Google can’t read Javascript, Flash, or images, so make sure your keywords are embedded elsewhere (like in the image “alt tags”). In looking at online traffic metrics, Jim Sterne reminded everyone that those search-engine spiders are doing some damage of their own: you’ve got to remove traffic generated by spiders before analyzing your site usage data. As one media company participant confirmed, his staff found that 60% of their pageview traffic was being served to robots. For more information on search engine strategies, click on www.did-it.com/news.php#articles for pithy articles on the topic by Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit.com.

We thank business writer Rich Kelley (richkelley@nyc.rr.com) for contributing this report.

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Wiley’s Brands Buffer the Slump

By PT Editors
November 8, 2003
Comments Off on Wiley’s Brands Buffer the Slump

John Wiley & Sons publishes the #1 seller in travel guides (Frommer’s), one of the leading franchises in consumer technology (Dummies), and what it calls the bestselling cookbook brand in the world (yep, Betty Crocker). Bolstered by the acquisition of Hungry Minds two years ago — which dropped all three of those blockbuster brands into Wiley’s pot, in addition to CliffsNotes, Webster’s New World dictionaries, and the Weight Watchers line, among others — the company once known as a bastion of scientific and technical tomes has made its professional and trade division “by far, the fastest growing part of our business,” executives say, surpassing the company’s STM and higher ed divisions to generate half of Wiley’s total US revenues last year — which helped push global revenues for the company up 16% to $854 million. Driving that growth has been the company’s strategy to boost “branded-program alliances and partnership relationships” (see article) that are ever more critical to grabbing market share in the face of what Wiley executives are calling a “protracted slump in key markets” — including soft consumer spending on cookbooks and travel guides, tight library budgets, and a dip in textbook spending, not to mention the ever-deflating technology sphere.

“Where other things go up and down, Dummies have remained consistently strong,” says VP, Trade Sales Dean Karrel. “To put it quite simply, these books sell.” That’s brand value in a nutshell, and while Wiley executives take pains to point out that they have been in the trade business for decades, there’s no arguing that the bulging portfolio of trade-oriented brands acquired in the past several years has catapulted them into new territory. Citing Book Scan figures, Wiley says it is the number one US publisher in both the travel and technology segments, number two in cooking and business, and third in consumer reference and education. “In the nonfiction area, we are one of the top seven suppliers of books to all of the major retail booksellers,” Karrel says. “We’re at a level certainly not of Random, S&S, and Harper, but an inch below being one of the major trade players.”

Branding for Dummies

Partial credit goes to a “culture of collaboration” that builds brands across divisional, geographic, and corporate boundaries. (In the olden days, one might have just called it “synergy.”) Katherine Schowalter, SVP, Professional and Consumer Publishing, says that at the division level, for instance, Wiley can tap its editorial teams in the business and education areas to work with Dummies editors on new titles such as Rookie Teaching for Dummies, which has gone on to sell “very well.” This may seem a modest synergistic move, but applied across Wiley’s many subject areas, it’s an example of “leveraging infrastructure” to extend the franchise in a way that was not available to Hungry Minds. Meanwhile, on a global scale, Wiley-owned subsidiaries around the world are developing their own indigenous Dummies titles. Wiley’s UK subsidiary is publishing a volume on British history that will be rolled out on this side of the Atlantic as well; Rugby for Dummies, developed in Australia, will be tweaked for the UK and North America. Meanwhile, other European partners are whipping up Dummies volumes, including EFI in France and VMI in Germany. The worldwide effort is coordinated “with an oversight team to adhere to brand standards.”

With its electronic know-how gained from the STM world —Wiley’s InterScience portal had over 3 million article downloads in July — the company has also been extending brands online. Dummies.com hit one million page views for the first time in May, and in the last year Wiley formed a strategic alliance with MindLeaders to extend Dummies into an online product for the corporate market. For its part, Frommers.com has been given a profitability boost with features such as travel booking from the site. Says Schowalter: “It’s actually a money-maker for us.” (The Internet is helping elsewhere; with chain sales sluggish, growth is coming mainly from online accounts such as Amazon, Wiley President and CEO William J. Pesce told analysts in September.) Wiley also signed a licensing agreement with Gemini Industries USA to take Dummies into computer, home electronics, telephone, and gaming consumer technology products.

Dummies sales are now up to more than 120 million copies, and to keep interest piqued back on the brick-and-mortar side, a “Dummies month” each spring offers enticements to consumers (last year’s was a free computer mouse; next year’s is a $5 rebate) and more liberal terms to retailers. Tending to the small end of the spectrum, 11 full-time Wiley sales reps call on indie booksellers in the US, backed up by three commission rep groups. And while the company manages different sales forces for different retail channels, reps sell all three divisions into accounts, so that appropriate trade titles are pitched to the higher ed market, for example, and vice versa. (About 10% of professional/trade products are sold through higher ed channels.)

A different sort of cross-divisional collaboration — bundling — has helped beef up the CliffsNotes brand. CliffsQuickReview Calculus from the professional/trade division has been bundled with a higher ed calculus title (the Cliffs guide was adapted to correlate with the larger text), a move the company is hailing as a “new product model” that has gained it market share and is being considered for other subject areas. Speaking of Cliffs, following the line’s ejection from Barnes & Noble stores in lieu of the retailer’s own SparkNotes series, Karrel says: “We have been more aggressive in distribution to independent bookstores and other larger retail stores. The good news is, we’ve almost seen an increase in sales of our CliffsNotes in the past 12 months. We’ve also devoted a lot more marketing and sales resources to the line.” Indeed, as SparkNotes Associate Publisher Robert Riger comments: “With our web users growing at an exponential rate, and our retail sales through Barnes & Noble up dramatically over last year, we are encouraged by CliffsNotes continued success. It’s a testament to the incredible demand for study notes.”

Can there be anything left to publish after Online Dating for Dummies? Karrel notes that standbys such as Betty Crocker do well when consumers’ wallets get thin. Hence the company is releasing facsimiles of relics such as the 1963 edition of Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book (aided by consumer feedback from partner General Mills, which has “invested heavily” in the brand). But the other side of the globe, it seems, is where the action is. Titles developed in Asia — including Privatising China by J.P. Morgan COO Carl Walter — reflect the company’s faith in the growing market there, as well as its penchant for hooking up with blue-chip brand names. As Wiley says in its annual report: “Our future in China is promising.”

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International Fiction Bestsellers

By PT Editors
November 1, 2003
Comments Off on International Fiction Bestsellers

She’s Got Game
Gablé’s Bold Move in Germany, Forest Fling in Holland, And Spain’s Answer to Umberto Eco

Move over, Monopoly. Board game junkies worldwide are in for a surprise this month as author and former university lecturer in Medieval Studies Rebecca Gablé’s quirky novel The Settlers of Catan hits stores and the German bestseller list. The book — based on one of the most popular board games in Germany, which is also distributed to a fanatical following in the US — details the exploits of a group of medieval settlers in the northern village of Elasund who are forced to do battle with a horde of marauders hell-bent on rape, pillage, and plunder. In the year 850, the survivors, including brothers Candamir and Osmund, head for the high seas in search of a new home, collecting a shipwrecked Christian missionary along the way, and settling on the uninhabited island of Catan, located near Scotland and known only from legend up to that point. Conflict sparks as the brothers fight one another for power. We’re not revealing too much to say that one brother embraces Christianity and eventually leaves Catan (sequel, anyone?).

We’re told the board game’s creator approached Gablé to write the novel, and though the game is not entirely specific about time and place, both author and creator agreed on a Viking-like setting in mythical locales. Bob Carty, Director of Sales for Mayfair Games, which holds worldwide English language rights for the game, reports that over 8 million copies of The Settlers of Catan and its family of products have been sold worldwide (spinoffs include The Settlers of the Stone Age, The Seafarers of Catan, and The Kids of Catan, which is scheduled for US release this month). US sales of the game have increased every year since its release in 1995 and are up 60% over last year (Carty expects the same trend to continue for at least the next decade). The game has also hit stores in Russia and Japan, and rumor has it that an edition featuring US historical scenarios is in the works. This is Gablé’s third historical novel set in the high middle ages, and all have been bestsellers. Gablé’s debut, Fortuna’s Smile, has just reached the half-million mark as a paperback. Agent Michael Meller will be selling US rights to the book in December.

Speaking of games, the 49th installment of Children’s Book Week opened last month in Holland in a style reminiscent of the Grimm Brothers, as some 90% of Dutch primary schools, bookshops, and libraries pushed books set in forests, as well as nonfiction titles dealing with trees and other such silvan settings. Author Francine Oomen and illustrator Michael Dudok de Wit kicked off the week, which is sponsored by the Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book (CPNB), with an appearance at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Holland’s biggest national park, where they unveiled a series of tree huts which they designed with the help of architect Diederik Dam and interior designer Piet Hein Eek. Oomen’s book How to Survive a Broken Heart, chosen as this year’s gift book (it’s given as a gift by bookshops to anyone who bought a minimum of €9.99 worth of children’s books), had a print run of 368,000 copies. Dudok de Wit, who won the Golden Apple award at the 19th Biennial of Illustrations in Bratislava earlier this year, created the picture book Four Small Beavers in the Night especially for the Book Week celebration. With a first print run of 115,000, and a special sale price of €2.25, the book continues to fly off shelves. Stay tuned for news on next year’s Children’s Book Week, as plans are in the works for an even more extravagant 50th anniversary celebration. Contact Agnes Vogt at the CPNB for more on the Book Week selections.

In Spain, computer hacker and technology entrepreneur Arnau Queralt races against time to find a cure for a mysterious illness that has left his brother in a coma in Matilde Asensi’s latest novel to hit the Spanish bestseller list, The Lost Origin. Accompanied by his cronies Marc and Lola, Arnau sojourns through time, uncovering answers to some of mankind’s greatest mysteries, including Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the true role of the Spanish in the conquest of America, as he travels to the heart of a lost Inca civilization in the ruins of Twianacu in the Amazon jungle. Asensi is said to have revolutionized the adventure novel just as “Umberto Eco shook the foundations of the historical novel with The Name of the Rose.” All rights are available from Cristina Mora at Planeta.

In a more sober historical mode, immigrants “live free and die like waves” in Senegalese-born author Fatou Diome’s meditation on exile and the immigrant experience in The Belly of the Atlantic, which catapults to the top of the French list this month. Salie has emigrated to France, and her brother dreams of reuniting with her there, envisioning a promised land where Senegalese footballers achieve fame and refugees ward off their tragic destinies. Salie struggles to reveal to him the dark side of immigration, including the expectations of those left behind and the contrasting destinies of people seized by the tide of sadness that overwhelms the exiled. It’s almost too much to bear, yet Diome explores the irresistible call of “the elsewhere” and the strength of those fated to live as outsiders both at home and abroad. “Immigration is the object of a thousand clichés,” one critic writes. “In one novel, Fatou Diome sweeps them all away.” The book is currently under auction in Holland. US rights are available from Lucinda Karter at the French Publishers Agency.

As an addendum to last month’s coverage of the Czech and Slovak markets, Jaroslav Cisar’s newest findings reveal a dynamic growth in the quantity of titles translated from Slovak to Czech in the past year, which have increased fourfold from 32 to 116 titles. Cisar infers that this is a result of diminishing hard feelings between the two countries. There’s hope yet.

Finally, an extended note on the headline-grabbing German nonfiction bestseller list: As reported elsewhere, the venerable Piper Verlag is tuning into a tide of anti-American sentiment in Germany, with five current bestsellers in Der Spiegel that are critical of Bush and his cronies, including three by Michael Moore: Stupid White Men, which was published there six months ago and has already sold about 1.2 million copies; Downsize This, which has sold about 300,000 copies; and Dude, Where’s My Country?, set for release this month with a 200,000 first printing. Rounding off the list are several other fiery tracts, including what critics are calling French author Emmanuel Todd’s “provocative…analysis from a European point of view,” USA World Power: An Obituary (100,000 sold and counting), and perhaps most controversial of all, the conspiracy theory–ridden book written by Germany’s former Federal Minister for Research, 66-year-old Andreas von Bülow, entitled The CIA and the 11th of September: International Terror and the Role of the Secret Services. Von Bülow’s book, which has sold 80,000 copies since its release in July, includes his assertions that there were no plane remains found at the Pentagon (ditto on the field in Pennsylvania), and that al Qaeda was in no way responsible for the attacks. As polls show, more than 50% of Germans believe that the CIA and Bush knew in advance about 9/11, but grimly stayed the course in order to create a spectacular, Pearl Harbor–like justification to invade Iraq. Since another 19% of Germans are convinced that Bush and the CIA actually planned the attack, it is no surprise that a title even as controversial as von Bülow’s would find an eager audience in Germany.

So would it sell in the US?

“To be honest, interest is not that big at the moment,” reports Piper Rights Manager Nicole Leppin. So far the book has been submitted in the US and is also being considered by publishers in the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain, some of whom only received copies of the book at Frankfurt. (Out of sheer curiosity, we’ve consulted a few US publishers who would have no problem publishing this subject matter in principle, but who are not interested in this book in particular.) Responding to the quiet response from US publishers, Leppin simply noted that the book reflects one point of view, “and not everybody wants to share this point of view. Next year, maybe there will be another kind of approach.” Moreover, the release in Germany was tied to the second anniversary of 9/11, and Leppin remarked that it would be difficult for foreign publishers to attract the same media mayhem if the book were published at any other time of the year.

Recently, many of von Bülow’s hypotheses were debunked on German television, but he’s simply swatted aside the criticism. Leppin adds that there has been a huge response from the public and the press — both positive and negative — and the difference between the sharply critical reception of the book and the huge public thirst for it is striking. “Sales haven’t suffered, even with all of the criticism he’s received on German television,” Leppin says. The blistering attacks, she adds, may have even helped to stoke sales further.

Contact Nicole Leppin at Nicole.Leppin@piper.de.

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The Franchise Fix

By PT Editors
November 1, 2003
Comments Off on The Franchise Fix

Lucrative, Licensed Book Lines Are Looking Better All the Time

As book publishers search in an ever-widening gyre for “consumer equity,” “points of differentiation,” and authors pre-packaged with their own “platforms,” it may be no shock that the concept of franchise publishing — partnering to publish licensed, branded, or co-branded titles, or even signing up mega-authors who are multimedia franchises in their own right — is being revisited with a vengeance. Branded books, not so long ago dismissed by some in the book business as downmarket fodder for the mass merch accounts, are getting increasingly talked about as strategic, long-term, profitable enterprises that can capitalize on some of the hottest trends of the day (South Beach Diet, anyone?) and forge close relationships with consumers while cracking open new nontraditional retail channels — big-box outlets, Disney stores, Petco shops, even Hustler emporia — that may be more profitable. And as publishers aggressively seek out licensed or branded content, they’re being ardently courted by licensors in turn. “Consumer brands are realizing how important it is to have a cornerstone for their brand in print,” says Susan Maruyama of Round Mountain Media, which works with brands to strategically develop publishing programs. “In today’s multimedia society, a lot of what we see comes and goes pretty quickly. Without a book in print, there’s no place for that customer or loyal audience to go to revisit that brand experience.”

At the same time, however, brand-building publishers “are just coming to the party,” says Chris Lederer, co-founder of Helios Consulting Group, which has worked on growth strategies for publishing companies and other firms. “Trade publishers in particular haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about brand combinations as a way to build their business,” he says. “It’s an incredibly fertile area that publishers need to think about in a strategic way, and not just as a one-off revenue play.”

NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEREDITH

At some of the major players in the branded book biz, fresh strategic turf is squarely in the sights. “We’re looking to expand our licensing effort into any arena that makes sense,” says Todd Davis, Executive Director for New Business Development at Meredith Books. “As long as a property has equity with the consumer, then you can have a strong publishing program. You need that hook with the consumer, because that’s what the retailer is looking for.” Meredith, which has long worked with partners such as Ortho, Scotts, and Home Depot, is now pushing its hardworking house-and-home brands in a splashier direction by partnering with The Learning Channel’s Trading Spaces show to publish Trading Spaces: Behind the Scenes (over 750,000 copies shipped), plus two decorating titles (both with more than 300,000 copies in print). Then there’s Paige By Paige, a year in the life of Trading Spaces diva Paige Davis which has shipped at least 250,000 copies and hit #3 on the NYT bestseller list for paperbacks. All development work on the titles is done in-house, in close cooperation with the licensor. The line has been sold in nontraditional outlets such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Linens ’n Things, while also giving the publisher reach into markets it had never tapped before, such as college book stores. In a similar vein, Meredith is publishing new titles with home-and-garden channel HGTV, and just rolled out the Food Network Kitchens Cookbook. “The Food Network has been on the air for 10 years and reaches 78 million households,” Davis says. “We did focus groups and research to make sure we understood their brand before we even started the book.” On the other hand, Monster Garage (over 300,000 units shipped), based on the Discovery Channel show, is breaking out of the service journalism mold and “giving us an opportunity to go after automotive channels that we’ve never gotten to before.”

“It’s not your mother’s Better Homes and Gardens,” adds Linda Cunningham, Meredith Books Editor-in-Chief, who points out that Meredith’s history as a magazine publisher has given the house an edge when pitching ideas for licensed projects. “The whole company is oriented toward clients or advertisers,” she says. That gives Meredith the chops to work with demanding licensors, and also a natural grasp of how to extend brands such as Trading Spaces (originally a one-book deal) into a full-on publishing business. “What we acquired with Monster Garage and Trading Spaces was the logo. There was no proposal, no visual idea of what these would look like,” she says. “We created these from scratch.” The labor-intensive process pays off not only as an ongoing line for Meredith, but for its licensor as well. “I certainly feel we’ve helped bring credibility to Trading Spaces as a viable license,” says Cunningham, noting that other deals for the show have followed. “The book does anchor the brand.”

Other publishers in the licensing world say they’ve seen a paradigm shift as well. “Licensing has become the siren call,” says Sarah Malarkey, Executive Editor at Chronicle Books, who has been stewarding the category for six years. “When I started, I had to hunt down properties. Now I get proposals every week.” The proportion of licensed titles has remained steady at about 5% of Chronicle’s list, sustained by ongoing programs with companies such as DC Comics and Pixar, the latter spawning coffee-table titles such as The Art of Finding Nemo. Nonetheless, those five or seven titles per year “will often be our lead titles. It’s a select group, but it has a lot of muscle for its size.” It’s a truism in the licensing world that a brand must fit well with a publisher’s list, and Chronicle’s disciplined approach is a good example. “I think about less where it comes from — it could be a TV show, it could be an old toy,” Malarkey says. “I’m not concerned about the medium. But I am concerned about the intuitive fit with our list.” That fit may be getting a stretch with this season’s Playboy: 50 Years, The Photographs, a $50 tome taking the publisher into decidedly new retail territory. “Usually there’s one account that cracks open with any kind of license,” says Malarkey. “We’ve never sold a book to a Hustler Store before.” Next year will see a follow-up of Playboy cartoons.

WHEN BRANDING BACKFIRES

But branding can ambush a title in the wrong circumstances. “For cookbooks, corporate brands aren’t necessarily an advantage,” says Bill LeBlond, Chronicle’s Editorial Director, Cookbooks, who has published two titles with the Weber line of grills and other branded books with Saveur. “The bookstores in general don’t want to be seen as promoting products. Yet some brands transcend that, and Weber is certainly one of them.” Chronicle is also working with TV chefs Martin Yan and Michael Chiarello, whose platforms “can make all the difference in the world.” Still, says LeBlond: “Platforms and brands will not save you if you’re publishing a bad book. Brands can give you exposure, but that’s all they can do.” Other publishers have had to grapple even more delicately with how to finesse a franchise-in-the-making so that it retains its integrity, as in the case of The South Beach Diet, whose author, Dr. Arthur Agatston, has publicly shied away from becoming the next Atkins, despite having 5 million books in print, with two more titles on the way and a website with a reported 100,000 subscribers. (Publisher Rodale said it would be premature to comment on South Beach branding strategies.)

And some caution that while branded titles may unlock the door to distribution nirvana, big-time licensing can be a financial disaster. “Licensing is very important for the sell-in in the mass merchant world,” says one licensing executive, noting that a hot Nickelodeon product, for example, is a must-have for any major retailer. The downside is that those hot licenses (especially in the children’s arena) can cost a bundle, eating into profit margins as retail price points hit the well-defined mass merch ceiling. “At the end of the day a license gives you clout to bring the rest of the books from your list to the customer, and to create an image for your publishing program,” this executive says. “But it all comes at a price. And that’s a price most publishers cannot afford anymore.” Perhaps as a result of some notorious licensing mishaps, it should be noted, licensors are no longer in a position to dictate their terms.

Spending heavily for licenses can be a fool’s game in other respects. “You only have your licensed good or your branded asset until someone else buys it,” says Jeff Stone, founder of Chic Simple and partner in new branding firm mdash. Stone has done consulting work for Unilever, Wells Fargo, and Ford, the latter project involving a 14-month-long analysis of Ford’s trademark “blue oval” in terms of brand value. “If the company isn’t sure what the brand means, then it is very hard for consumers to get a clear message.” Stone argues for much deeper thinking about the value of publishers’ own houses as brands, rather than those of their authors or partners. Wiley’s work building the Dummies brand (see article) is a good case of a clear value chain, he says. “From a consumer’s point of view, the Wiley name speaks to technical expertise. If you happen to notice ‘John Wiley’ on the title page, you think, I can trust this.” And that trust is ever important in an age of mosquito-like product lifespans and dizzying choices confronting customers in Barnes & Noble (where, to make matters worse, they’re getting pitched B&N’s own branded products). “Every time a publisher can help a consumer with their branding program, everybody wins: the consumer wins, the publisher wins, and the author wins.”

As book publishers search in an ever-widening gyre for “consumer equity,” “points of differentiation,” and authors pre-packaged with their own “platforms,” it may be no shock that the concept of franchise publishing — partnering to publish licensed, branded, or co-branded titles, or even signing up mega-authors who are multimedia franchises in their own right — is being revisited with a vengeance. Branded books, not so long ago dismissed by some in the book business as downmarket fodder for the mass merch accounts, are getting increasingly talked about as strategic, long-term, profitable enterprises that can capitalize on some of the hottest trends of the day (South Beach Diet, anyone?) and forge close relationships with consumers while cracking open new nontraditional retail channels — big-box outlets, Disney stores, Petco shops, even Hustler emporia — that may be more profitable. And as publishers aggressively seek out licensed or branded content, they’re being ardently courted by licensors in turn. “Consumer brands are realizing how important it is to have a cornerstone for their brand in print,” says Susan Maruyama of Round Mountain Media, which works with brands to strategically develop publishing programs. “In today’s multimedia society, a lot of what we see comes and goes pretty quickly. Without a book in print, there’s no place for that customer or loyal audience to go to revisit that brand experience.”

At the same time, however, brand-building publishers “are just coming to the party,” says Chris Lederer, co-founder of Helios Consulting Group, which has worked on growth strategies for publishing companies and other firms. “Trade publishers in particular haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about brand combinations as a way to build their business,” he says. “It’s an incredibly fertile area that publishers need to think about in a strategic way, and not just as a one-off revenue play.”

Not Your Mother’s Meredith

At some of the major players in the branded book biz, fresh strategic turf is squarely in the sights. “We’re looking to expand our licensing effort into any arena that makes sense,” says Todd Davis, Executive Director for New Business Development at Meredith Books. “As long as a property has equity with the consumer, then you can have a strong publishing program. You need that hook with the consumer, because that’s what the retailer is looking for.” Meredith, which has long worked with partners such as Ortho, Scotts, and Home Depot, is now pushing its hardworking house-and-home brands in a splashier direction by partnering with The Learning Channel’s Trading Spaces show to publish Trading Spaces: Behind the Scenes (over 750,000 copies shipped), plus two decorating titles (both with more than 300,000 copies in print). Then there’s Paige By Paige, a year in the life of Trading Spaces diva Paige Davis which has shipped at least 250,000 copies and hit #3 on the NYT bestseller list for paperbacks. All development work on the titles is done in-house, in close cooperation with the licensor. The line has been sold in nontraditional outlets such as Bed, Bath & Beyond and Linens ’n Things, while also giving the publisher reach into markets it had never tapped before, such as college book stores. In a similar vein, Meredith is publishing new titles with home-and-garden channel HGTV, and just rolled out the Food Network Kitchens Cookbook. “The Food Network has been on the air for 10 years and reaches 78 million households,” Davis says. “We did focus groups and research to make sure we understood their brand before we even started the book.” On the other hand, Monster Garage (over 300,000 units shipped), based on the Discovery Channel show, is breaking out of the service journalism mold and “giving us an opportunity to go after automotive channels that we’ve never gotten to before.”

“It’s not your mother’s Better Homes and Gardens,” adds Linda Cunningham, Meredith Books Editor-in-Chief, who points out that Meredith’s history as a magazine publisher has given the house an edge when pitching ideas for licensed projects. “The whole company is oriented toward clients or advertisers,” she says. That gives Meredith the chops to work with demanding licensors, and also a natural grasp of how to extend brands such as Trading Spaces (originally a one-book deal) into a full-on publishing business. “What we acquired with Monster Garage and Trading Spaces was the logo. There was no proposal, no visual idea of what these would look like,” she says. “We created these from scratch.” The labor-intensive process pays off not only as an ongoing line for Meredith, but for its licensor as well. “I certainly feel we’ve helped bring credibility to Trading Spaces as a viable license,” says Cunningham, noting that other deals for the show have followed. “The book does anchor the brand.”

Other publishers in the licensing world say they’ve seen a paradigm shift as well. “Licensing has become the siren call,” says Sarah Malarkey, Executive Editor at Chronicle Books, who has been stewarding the category for six years. “When I started, I had to hunt down properties. Now I get proposals every week.” The proportion of licensed titles has remained steady at about 5% of Chronicle’s list, sustained by ongoing programs with companies such as DC Comics and Pixar, the latter spawning coffee-table titles such as The Art of Finding Nemo. Nonetheless, those five or seven titles per year “will often be our lead titles. It’s a select group, but it has a lot of muscle for its size.” It’s a truism in the licensing world that a brand must fit well with a publisher’s list, and Chronicle’s disciplined approach is a good example. “I think about less where it comes from — it could be a TV show, it could be an old toy,” Malarkey says. “I’m not concerned about the medium. But I am concerned about the intuitive fit with our list.” That fit may be getting a stretch with this season’s Playboy: 50 Years, The Photographs, a $50 tome taking the publisher into decidedly new retail territory. “Usually there’s one account that cracks open with any kind of license,” says Malarkey. “We’ve never sold a book to a Hustler Store before.” Next year will see a follow-up of Playboy cartoons.

When Branding Backfires

But branding can ambush a title in the wrong circumstances. “For cookbooks, corporate brands aren’t necessarily an advantage,” says Bill LeBlond, Chronicle’s Editorial Director, Cookbooks, who has published two titles with the Weber line of grills and other branded books with Saveur. “The bookstores in general don’t want to be seen as promoting products. Yet some brands transcend that, and Weber is certainly one of them.” Chronicle is also working with TV chefs Martin Yan and Michael Chiarello, whose platforms “can make all the difference in the world.” Still, says LeBlond: “Platforms and brands will not save you if you’re publishing a bad book. Brands can give you exposure, but that’s all they can do.” Other publishers have had to grapple even more delicately with how to finesse a franchise-in-the-making so that it retains its integrity, as in the case of The South Beach Diet, whose author, Dr. Arthur Agatston, has publicly shied away from becoming the next Atkins, despite having 5 million books in print, with two more titles on the way and a website with a reported 100,000 subscribers. (Publisher Rodale said it would be premature to comment on South Beach branding strategies.)

And some caution that while branded titles may unlock the door to distribution nirvana, big-time licensing can be a financial disaster. “Licensing is very important for the sell-in in the mass merchant world,” says one licensing executive, noting that a hot Nickelodeon product, for example, is a must-have for any major retailer. The downside is that those hot licenses (especially in the children’s arena) can cost a bundle, eating into profit margins as retail price points hit the well-defined mass merch ceiling. “At the end of the day a license gives you clout to bring the rest of the books from your list to the customer, and to create an image for your publishing program,” this executive says. “But it all comes at a price. And that’s a price most publishers cannot afford anymore.” Perhaps as a result of some notorious licensing mishaps, it should be noted, licensors are no longer in a position to dictate their terms.

Spending heavily for licenses can be a fool’s game in other respects. “You only have your licensed good or your branded asset until someone else buys it,” says Jeff Stone, founder of Chic Simple and partner in new branding firm mdash. Stone has done consulting work for Unilever, Wells Fargo, and Ford, the latter project involving a 14-month-long analysis of Ford’s trademark “blue oval” in terms of brand value. “If the company isn’t sure what the brand means, then it is very hard for consumers to get a clear message.” Stone argues for much deeper thinking about the value of publishers’ own houses as brands, rather than those of their authors or partners. Wiley’s work building the Dummies brand (see article) is a good case of a clear value chain, he says. “From a consumer’s point of view, the Wiley name speaks to technical expertise. If you happen to notice ‘John Wiley’ on the title page, you think, I can trust this.” And that trust is ever important in an age of mosquito-like product lifespans and dizzying choices confronting customers in Barnes & Noble (where, to make matters worse, they’re getting pitched B&N’s own branded products). “Every time a publisher can help a consumer with their branding program, everybody wins: the consumer wins, the publisher wins, and the author wins.”

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Browsing the Big Boxes

By PT Editors
November 1, 2003
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With trusty correspondents fanned out over the big-box landscape this October, word comes back that while bestsellers and brand names are alive and well, who controls those brands varies depending on the venue. At Sam’s Club, for instance, the publisher of record for Williams-Sonoma is Simon & Schuster (The Williams-Sonoma Collection), while at Costco, it’s Oxmoor House. The classics — and bibles — are now represented by a broad range of houses, both in-store and online. Where Parragon and DK once dominated the Target shelves — and DK and Silver Dolphin (the AMS imprint) dominated the Costco tables — now it’s a free-for-all as everyone grabs for a piece of the action.

On the juvenile front, children’s titles dominate at Target and Costco, and an informal poll of publishers shows that some, like Scholastic and S&S, have been increasingly focused on getting their licensed product sold in. Scholastic’s Michael Jacobs says that two years ago the publisher focused specifically on the market, and has “scored big” with Clifford, thanks to the TV exposure, while the license for Shrek 2 is also expected to do well. Meanwhile, S&S’s Simon Spotlight’s sales have increased in the past year as Dora, Bob the Builder, SpongeBob SquarePants, and even Blue’s Clues show strength at all big-box outlets. Children’s boxed sets and treasuries are favorites in the price clubs, and they obscure the need to offer big discounts. HarperCollins has been publishing significantly more for the marketplace as well, according to Andrea Pappenheimer, who heads children’s sales. While there have always been golden oldies on the tables — Goodnight Moon and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (both board book only) — Harper has been making a concerted effort to get into the price clubs, and the coup was getting them to buy the latest Lemony Snicket title on its own. The licensed arena has also been heating up with My Little Pony, Berenstain Bears, and movie tie-ins such as The Incredible Hulk and Spiderman. Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries have been a big success in both cloth and paperback. The first title sold well because of the movie tie-in, but the series has had sustained sales thereafter and is now up to five titles.

Across the board, trade paperback classics from East of Eden to To Kill a Mockingbird are featured prominently. In other categories, Wal-Mart of course sells massive quantities of romance and religion (the retailer’s online religious book offerings are prodigious, especially in the bible segment). George Bick, SVP Sales in charge of the mass market across all HarperCollins lines, confirms that Wal-Mart is going gangbusters in the inspirational field: a recent promotion with the retailer just dropped the price on The Purpose Driven Life, fueling an exponential increase in sales. Zondervan has helped it along by urging its customers to take advantage of the special discount. Bick also reports a big leap in mass market romance — the publisher added its own mass-market house sales force two years ago, having formerly distributed via Hearst — which sells across all lines into the mass merch accounts, to a much improved bottom line. Avon’s trade paper chick lit line has been a hit (market share at Target and Walmart has been bumped up by several points this year), and next year will see efforts to target Albertsons, Kroger, and the like with a number of chick lit titles; they’ll drop the price to $10.95 from $13.95 on a trial basis.

Needless to say, everyone sells the top bestsellers. Prices at the two price clubs — Sam’s and Costco — are mostly in lockstep: Blow Fly is $14.76 at Sam’s and $14.79 at Costco. The trade paperback of Seabiscuit is $9.29 at Costco and $9.22 at Sam’s. Wal-Mart is, relatively speaking, no bargain: Barbara Bush’s Reflections is $17.64, while Costco sells it for $15.49. On some titles, such as Grisham’s $19.95 Bleachers, Sam’s and Target are at $12.57. Now that B&N sells SparkNotes, Target and Wal-Mart seem intent on preaching the CliffsNotes way (see Wiley article). And everyone still wants Oprah books.

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Book View, November 2003

By PT Editors
November 1, 2003
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PEOPLE


CDS’ Stanley Cohen has taken a leave of absence and Steve Black has stepped in as Acting Sales Director. David Wilk, VP of Client Services and Business Development, has taken over some responsibilities and a new Client Services Manager, Kerry Liebling, has been hired.

Erin McHugh has been named Director of Creative Services, Trade at Scholastic. She was most recently at Franklin Spier. Meanwhile, Michelle Lewy, formerly VP Sales & Marketing at Scholastic, has left the company and may be reached at MLewy99842@aol.com.

Larry Hughes has moved to HarperBusiness as Publicity Director. He was previously at Penguin. Meanwhile, Dave Conti, Executive Editor of HarperBusiness for the last seven years, will be leaving HarperCollins on November 14. He can be reached at DavidJConti@aol.com or at (973) 650-2076. Lisa Berkowitz, also of HarperBusiness, has left the company and has formed Berkowitz & Assoc., specializing in strategic business communications. She may be reached at LisaBerkowitz@aol.com, or (212) 922-2811.

Alan Smagler has left S&S Children’s, where he held the title of SVP Assoc. Publisher. He may be reached at (917) 912-8050 or ajsmag@aol.com.

Heather Jackson from St. Martin’s has gone to Rodale as Cookbook Editor, reporting to Tami Booth. Louise Braverman has joined Rodale as Assistant Director of Publicity for trade books. Most recently, she held the same title at Atria Books. Nana Greller was recently named Associate Director of Publicity at Atria. She was most recently at Bantam.

Former publisher of Perseus Publishing David Goehring has been named VP and Director of Harvard Business School Press, effective Oct. 27. He will report to David Wan. He succeeds Carol Franco, who has become Editor-at-Large for HBS Publishing.

As previously noted in PT, the NY office of Peters, Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) has added another agent, as Mark Reiter joins the agency. He was previously at IMG.

Laurie Barnett, SparkNotes’ Editorial Director, announces Amy Hegarty has joined the editorial team as test-prep Editor. Most recently she edited multiple volumes in the Road Guide USA series for Fodor’s. Andrew Littell has also joined as Editor. He was previously at McGraw-Hill. The newly launched imprint, FlashKids, announces that Kerrie Baldwin has joined as an Editor. She comes from Scholastic, where she worked as a Production Editor.

Marian Brown has joined Bloomsbury as Director of Publicity. She has worked on a freelance basis for several publishers.

Paul Dinas has joined Penguin’s Alpha Books imprint as a Senior Editor. Dinas was most recently Executive Editor at
Reader’s Digest. He will be based in Alpha’s New York office. (PW)

PROMOTIONS


HarperCollins’ Ardy Khazaei and David Steinberger announce Leslie Hulse’s promotion to Senior Director, Internet Development, from Director, Online Business Development. Sean Abbott has been promoted to Editorial Director, International, for PerfectBound ebooks and to Senior Editor of HC General Books.

Chris Lynch has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Publisher of S&S Audio. Lynch replaces Gilles Dana, who is leaving the company.

Emily Forland has been appointed agent at the Wendy Weil Agency in addition to her duties handling sub rights.

DULY NOTED


DM News reports that Amazon is giving marketers their first crack at Amazon customers on Nov. 17 when it begins a package insert program. The program will start with 500,000 pieces. DM News estimates this will bring in $1.95 million in the next year. In 2004 2.5 million monthly packages will be available, for an annual total of 30 million. Amazon does not rent its postal or email lists.

• Word from Frankfurt officials: No more late hours Friday night. Now we can all rest easy.

November Events
AAP presents “Publishing Latino Voices” on November 7. AAP President & CEO Pat Schroeder will welcome participants and speakers, who include Rene Alegria, Editorial Director of Rayo, Rueben Martinez, Founder and Owner of Libreria Books & Art in LA, and numerous panelists. Contact Kathryn Blough at (212) 255-0200, ext. 263, or kblough@publishers.org.

• 192 Books announces that beginning in November actors, artists, and illustrators will read children’s books on Saturday mornings at 11 am. Actress Blair Brown will inaugurate the children’s reading series on November 1st and read selections from books by Roald Dahl and Eric Carle; artist William Wegman will come with his dogs on November 15 and present some of his titles, including the recently published Chip Wants a Dog.

• Small Press Center presents “Better than Bookstores: Sales and Distribution,” on Thursday, November 21 from 6 to 8 pm. Panelists include Nancy Kranich, Past President, ALA; Martin Schamus, SVP, Special Sales, Sterling; and Tom Woll, President, Cross River Publishing Consultants. For details go to www.smallpress.org.

• On November 18 The Mercantile Library hosts “Rare Books, Fine Wines” at the Century Club, and presents James Salter with the annual Clifton Fadiman medal. For more information about the evening, call (212) 755-6710.

• The National Book Awards are slated for November 19, at the Marriott Marquis. This will be Neil Baldwin’s last year as Director of the NBF. Walter Mosley is the MC. For information call Maryann Jacob at (212) 685-0261.

Mazel Tov
To FSG’s Elisabeth Sifton on the publication of her book The Serenity Prayer (Norton). A party held in her honor included Joe Lelyveld, the Schlesingers, new CJ school dean Nick Lemann, Osborn Elliott, Chip McGrath, and Victor Navasky.

“Books for a Better Life” will hold its eighth annual event on February 23, in New York. Meredith Vieira will once again emcee the evening at which Wayne Dyer will be inducted into the “Ardath Rodale Books for a Better Life Hall of Fame.” Money raised goes to the National MS Society’s NYC chapter.

Thirty-five finalists in seven categories have been selected from the 300+ books that were submitted. They are:

First Book: A Million Little Pieces, James Frey, Doubleday; Another Place at the Table, Kathy Harrison, Tarcher/Penguin; Escape from Slavery, Francis Bok, St. Martin’s; Laughing Allegra, Anne Ford, Newmarket; The Essential 55, Ron Clark, Hyperion. Inspirational Memoir: Ambulance Girl, Jane Stern, Crown; Honor Lost, Norma Khouri, Atria; Lost in America, Sherwin Nuland, Alfred A. Knopf; Rescuing Patty Hearst, Virginia Holman, S&S; The Stuff of Life, Karen Karbo, Bloomsbury. Motivational: Seeing Lessons, Tom Sullivan, John Wiley & Sons; There Are No Shortcuts, Rafe Esquith, Pantheon; The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp, S&S; The Essential 55, Ron Clark, Hyperion; The Joy Diet, Martha Beck, Crown. Psychology: The Anxiety Book, Jonathan Davidson with Henry Dreher, Riverhead; Dante’s Path, Booney Gulino Schaub & Richard Schaub, Gotham Books; Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek & Friends, Rodale; The Emotional Energy Factor, Mira Kirshenbaum, Bantam; The New Brain, Richard Restak, Rodale. Relationships: Find a Husband After 35, Rachel Greenwald, Ballantine; Not “Just Friends”, Shirley P. Glass with Jean Coppock Staeheli, Free Press; Saving Beauty from the Beast, Vicky Cropmton & Ellen Zelda Kessner, Little, Brown; The Bully, the Bullied & the Bystander, Barbara Coloroso, HarperCollins; You Have to Say I’m Pretty, You’re My Mother, Stephanie Pierson & Phyllis Cohen, S&S. Spiritual: Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels, Random House; Not Fade Away, Laurence Shames & Peter Barton, Rodale; Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach, Bantam; Seeking Enlightenment, Nevada Barr, G.P Putnam’s; The Art of Happiness at Work, Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler, Riverhead. Wellness: Honoring the Medicine, Kenneth Cohen, Ballantine; The Macrobiotic Plan to Total Health, Micho Kushi & Alex Jack, Ballantine; The No Grain Diet, Dr. Joseph Mercola with Alison Rose Levy, Dutton; The Truth About Chronic Pain, Arthur Rosenfeld, Basic Books; Ultraprevention, Mark Hyman & Mark Liponis, Scribner.

For more information go to msnyc.org.

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The Velvet (Reading) Revolution

By PT Editors
October 1, 2003
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As Publishing Trends rolls out its bestseller lists for the Czech and Slovak Republics, we herewith offer a brief survey of this modest but dynamic literary landscape, as sales rise in Wal-Mart-esque chains, and pivot sharply toward nonfiction.

Though Czech readers have long lapped up the likes of Stephen King, Danielle Steel, and Tom Clancy, a minor reading revolution is under way in the nation: the demand for fiction in the Czech Republic has drastically slackened of late, and most publishers there are now concentrating on nonfiction, according to a pre-Frankfurt market report on conditions in the Czech and Slovak book markets just released by Prague-based literary agent Kristin Olson. Some publishers have cut fiction to only 20% or less of their list, as demand ramps up for illustrated books on crafts, hobbies, and do-it-yourself home projects. The total market now breaks down to about 60% general nonfiction, 25% fiction, 11% textbooks, and 4% children’s titles. (Original Czech language publications amount to 70%, translations 30%.) Olson, who represents publishers from the US and UK, and sells translation rights for their books to Czech and Slovak publishers, adds that concentration in the retail market continues, as successful booksellers continue to expand into chains, while book superstores set up shop in Prague and Wal-Mart-esque commercial chains like Tesco start to sell more books as well.

On the bright side, though swaths of the Czech Republic were engulfed by some of the worst floods to hit Europe in over 200 years last summer, book production for 2002 remained impressively resilient. The industry kicked out 10,412 titles, according to Jaroslav Cisar, Secretary of the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers, which is nearly identical to previous years in which the Czech book sector recorded its highest ever number of published titles. Unfortunately, by most accounts print runs are continuing to drop (averaging 2,500 copies for both fiction and nonfiction; up to 6,000 for solid bestsellers), leading publishers to put out more titles in smaller print runs in an attempt to maintain the same financial turnover. Reorders are rare, and a new title can be fated for remainderdom within weeks or months of publication.

Perhaps the most notable change in the past year has taken place in the Czech children’s book market. While last year there were only two children’s publishers focusing on nonfiction titles, and two tackling fiction, Harry Potter novels have helped open up the market a bit, with publishers starting to take an interest in contemporary series fiction, fantasy for children, and contemporary novels. With the average retail price of a children’s book hovering around $2.50, there is little hope that a market will emerge for children’s picture books, as production costs are simply too burdensome. Publishers rely heavily on original Czech or Slovak writers and illustrators because it is often too expensive to license translations. In another growing segment, expect to see more successes along the lines of Bridget Jones’ Diary, as Czech publishers continue to build marketing strategies for film tie-ins, with posters promoting both the book and the film.

English accounts for the largest share of any translated language in the Czech Republic (over 50%), with German and French next in line. While translations from Polish are on the rise, interest is waning for Slovak books. By all accounts, Czech and Slovak are closely related, and are understandable to speakers of either language. As Lucie Straková of Andrew Nurnberg Associates in Prague reports, the “Czech market is of course much bigger and stronger so that’s where we make most of our deals.” Other factors are diminishing the prospects for Slovak publishing as well. As day-to-day communication between the two countries gets less frequent, Czechs are becoming less comfortable reading in Slovak. And because Czech editions are widely distributed and sold in Slovakia, a Slovak edition has little chance of succeeding if a Czech edition has been published first. (Incidentally, most contracts negotiated before the split of Czechoslovakia have expired by now, but even before the split, separate contracts were concluded for each language.) Unemployment in the Slovak Republic is up to 18.5%, making conditions there worse than ever. However, Vienna-based agent Ilene Kreshka of Transnet Contracts Ltd. reports that she notices a perhaps hopeful shift toward “higher quality commercial fiction and literary fiction.”

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Book View, October 2003

By PT Editors
October 1, 2003
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PEOPLE


Bonnie Ammer has been named to the newly created position of EVP, Publisher at Large, Random House Worldwide, reporting directly to Peter Olson. Her current job as Publisher, Fodor’s Travel Publications, and President, Random House Information Group, will be assumed by David Naggar, who will continue as President, Random House Audio and Diversified Publishing Group. Last week Scott Matthews was named Publisher of Random House Audio and Large Print. He will retain his title of President of Random’s Books on Tape.

Ruth Pomerance, formerly of USAFilms, has become EVP Production and Development for IDT Telecomm-unications, developing animated feature films and direct-to-dvd projects. She will also be starting a special division to publish books that are based on original material in development. She may be reached at Ruth.Pomerance@ corp.idt.net or (973) 438-3094. . . Avalon has hired a new Marketing Director, Sandee Roston, who was most recently at Bloomsbury. She will be based in New York.

In other Random news, Steven Pace, previously Divisional Director, Trade East at Random House, has been named to the new position of VP Director of Retail Sales at Baker & Taylor, in its North Carolina headquarters. Rachel Klayman has gone to Crown as Senior Editor. She was most recently at Free Press. And Jon Ackerman, formerly at Random, has gone to Klutz, managing national accounts.

No news on some of the searches taking place in university presses: Seven months after Bill Strachan left Columbia U. Press (he is now at Hyperion) the search for a new Director is “moving forward but not yet complete,” according to a source involved in the process. And at Harvard Business School Press the search for a successor to Director Carol Franco also continues. Franco will move to the position of Editor-at-Large for the entire HBS Publishing division as soon as a new person is named.

In agency news: October 1st marks the day that a new literary agency, Lippincott McQuilkin & Co, launched. Started by Will Lippincott (who’s keeping his job at Booz Allen part-time) and Rob McQuilkin, the agency is located at 80 Fifth Ave., Suite 1101, NY, NY 10011. Phone number is (212) 337-2045. . . Bob Diforio, Marilyn Allen and Coleen O’Shea are regrouping, with Allen and O’Shea forming the Allen O’Shea Literary Agency. The D4EO Literary Agency will continue under Bob Diforio. . . George Lucas, who recently joined Carlisle & Company, just sold his first book on behalf of Peter Robinson at Curtis Brown, London. Entitled The Rise and Fall of Carthage (by Richard Miles) it went to Wendy Wolff at Viking, for $400k+. Meanwhile, Carlisle & Company has moved its offices to 6 West 18th Street, Twelfth Floor, New York, NY 10011. Agents Christy Fletcher and Emma Parry, who left Carlisle to establish their own agency, Fletcher & Parry, have offices across town, at 121 East 17th Street. . . Wendy Sherman, of the eponymous agency, has a new associate in former Holt colleague Tracy Brown. He will develop and represent his own list of clients under the auspices of the agency. He was most recently Senior Editor at Ballantine. . . And PJ Mark has left IMG to join Collins McCormick as an agent. Word is that Mark Reiter is also leaving IMG, to go to PFD (Peters Fraser & Dunlop), but no announcement has yet been made. In other agency news: Jenny Bent, formerly with Harvey Klinger, Inc., has joined Trident Media Group. . . Tad Floridis has joined Donadio & Olson as an agent. Floridis was VP of Development at Longview Productions and Executive VP at Rightscenter.com. And Anna Stein, formerly of the Wylie Agency, has joined Donadio & Olson, as an Associate.

In Boston: Elizabeth Carduff, formerly Associate Publisher of Perseus, has been named Editorial Manager of Cook’s Illustrated. . . Gary Gentel has been named Corporate VP, Director of Houghton Mifflin’s Sales, Trade & Reference Division. He had been VP of Trade Sales for Scholastic. In other HM-related news, Eric Chinski, most recently Executive Editor at Houghton, has joined Farrar, Straus, also in an Exec. Ed. role.

As reported elsewhere, Mel Parker has left Bookspan, where he was SVP Editorial Director, to pursue publishing opportunities. He may be reached at melpark211@aol.com. Brigitte Weeks has been named SVP and Editor-in-Chief.

In children’s, Elizabeth Law moves to S&S as VP, Associate Publisher of the Books For Young Readers imprint. She had been Associate Publisher at Viking Children’s Books. There are promotions at Knopf & Crown Books For Young Readers imprints, including Nancy Hinkel, who moves from Senior Editor to Publishing Director, Nancy Siscoe, who has been promoted from Executive Editor to Associate Publishing Director, and Michelle Frey, who has been promoted to Senior Editor from Editor. Alix Reid has been promoted to VP Editorial Director and Director of Foreign Acquisitions, of HarperCollins Children’s. And at Penguin’s Philomel Books, Michael Green has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Editorial Director as Pat Gauch steps down from the role of Publisher to become Editor-at-Large. Finally, Gray Peterson has been named VP Sales, Mass Market for Scholastic. He was VP of Sales at AMS’s Dalmatian Press.

OCTOBER EVENTS


The 2003 National Book Festival takes place on Oct. 4, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. between 7th and 14th Streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine). The third annual Festival is organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush and is expected to attract “more than 60,000” people.

George Plimpton, whose obituary found its way into the unlikeliest publications last week, was looking forward to the Paris Review’s 50th anniversary celebrations, centered around a gala fundraising event at Cipriani in New York on October 14th. The event — hosted by Garrison Keillor — will proceed as planned, and now will be held in Plimpton’s honor. Tickets to the benefit are still available, and, according to the PR’s editors, “supporters of the Review and admirers of George Plimpton are encouraged to attend.” All proceeds will benefit The Paris Review Foundation. Contact the Paris Review editorial office for more information: (212) 861-0016.

New York is Cookbook Country takes place from Wednesday, October 15 through Saturday, October 18. The kickoff is a Food Writers Panel at Borders Park Avenue, with Jeffrey Steingarten, Ruth Reichl, and others on Oct. 15. On Oct. 16 a chef’s panel, moderated by Judith Jones, takes place at the NY Public Library. Oct. 17 and 18 are the Guest Chef Dinners around the city, along with cookbook signings. Go to www. nyisbookcountry.org for details.

The Small Press Center presents “An Interview with Jane Friedman” on October 23 from 6 to 7:30 at 20 W. 44. The NYT’s Christopher Lehmann-Haupt will interview the HarperCollins CEO. For details go to www.smallpress.org. Small Press Center and The General Society of Mechanics (where the Small Press Center is located) host a lecture series entitled “Wit’s End on West 44th Street,” beginning October 15. Each lecture costs $15, and the series of 5 costs $60. For details go to www.generalsociety.org.

On October 29-30 WRG, in association with the International Intellectual Property Group, presents “Creating New Markets for Entertainment Copyrights: Generating Revenue with New Forms of Digital Distribution in the Face of Piracy.” It takes place at the Flatotel on West 52nd St. Numerous speakers from music, movies, television, and publishing are represented on panels during the two-day conference. Go to www.worldrg.com/fw306/request.asp for details.

IN MEMORIAM

A memorial service for Peter Schwed, the longtime S&S executive who died earlier in the summer, will be held October 17 at 4 pm at the Century Club.

Donations in memory of Pat Sado, longtime book buyer at Coliseum who died September 19, to the Nathalie Sado Educational Fund, c/o Barbara Passy, East Hampton Business Service, 20 Park Place, East Hampton, N.Y. 11937.

Donations in memory of Miriam Bass, who spent more than 30 years in bookselling — the last ten at NBN — may be made to the National Kidney Foundation at 30 East 33rd St., Suite 1100, New York, New York 10016.

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