Jack and I spoke on Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota to the Midwest Booksellers Association and next week we are in Detroit giving a similar talk to the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. The final trip for the fall is in a few weeks when we fly out to LA and talk to the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association.

The topic is how bookstores can sell more business books. This publishing sub-category has a number of unique aspects when compared to other parts of book publishing. We want to point those out clearly and give booksellers some ideas on how to make that uniqueness work for them.

If you are going to be at any of these upcoming events, we hope you'll come sit in on our session. If you can't see us live, we have an article on tap for next week, based on the speech we are giving, that we will post here.

Tomorrow, Jack and I are speaking in St. Paul, Minnesota to the Midwest Booksellers Association and next week we are in Detroit giving a similar talk to the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. The final trip for the fall is in a few weeks when we fly out to LA and talk to the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association.

The topic is how bookstores can sell more business books. The category has a number of unique aspects when compared to other parts of book publishing. We want to point those out clearly and give booksellers some ideas on how to make that uniqueness work for them.

If you are going to be at any of these events, we hope you'll come sit in on our session. If you can't see us live, we have an article on tap for next week, based on the speech we are giving, that we will post here.

If you think your job is to keep the printers busy, then you see the world differently. You focus on per issue sales, you worry about people sharing a paper (!), you don't count online readers as valuable (even though they're more valuable). You focus on one edition, not a thousand different versions. You focus on having one front page, not dozens based on who is reading.

Reading into the post, he asks why are publishers and newspapers caught up on using paper when there are plenty of other methods (e-books) that are more environmental and consumer-friendly. Of course, transferring to a new distribution system is never as simple as it looks. I ran into a reply to Seth's post from Jesse over at Chelsea Green, a publisher known for their green practices; the reply included four valid reasons for why publishers haven't fully embraced the digital revolution.

1. No protection. The publishing industry is not blind. We've watched the music and movie industries grapple with piracy. A 3MB book file is much easier to distribute than a 2GB movie file--which is getting easier. Do we throw ourselves into the piracy frenzy? (The answer is yes, of course. But not just yet, as there is no widely accepted avenue for purchasing ebooks. A consumer's only option right now for building a digital collection would be--for all intents and purposes--piracy.)
2. No format. The ebook format wars are still in the 'limited skirmish' phase. Open war has not yet begun, let alone been settled. My money is on DRM-free PDFs due to the existing PDF ecosystem and consumers' distaste for never REALLY owning the items they buy. But where's the protection in that? Do we bet our jobs on the honesty of readers? I argue yes, absolutely. But you can see why this thought gives publishers reason for pause.

....

Continued over at Chelsea Green's blog.

We've brought up the debate several times on this blog. We're still holding out bets for when the digital revolution will happen. Personally, none of the e-book readers are user-friendly enough to fill the job yet. I'm still holding out for Apple to invest in an ebook reader. Then perhaps, this conversation will take another turn.

PR Fairy Tales: Pitches Disguised as Children's Books

Entrepreneurs have a habit of describing their companies in David-and-Goliath terms. Now, some are taking cues from Eloise and James and the Giant Peach. A mini trend in the world of public relations has companies replacing their run-of-the-mill press releases with promotional materials that look and feel like children's books.

We occasionally see corporations buying large quantities of children's books for their employees, and recently Roy wrote about the Conservation International and Random House re-release of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax for Earth Day.

In which children's books do you find inspiration? Would you consider pitching your employees or clients with this format?

"When it unveiled the Windows Home Server, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) released Mommy, Why Is There a Server in the House?"

From the introduction posted yesterday:

Crucially, we will need to work out how we can add value as publishers within a circular, networked environment.

One of the key perception shifts that publishers need to make, then, is about the book as 'product'. Whilst the book continues to be viewed as a definable object within covers, as a singular 'unit', publishers will continue to limit their role in its production and distribution, and this is a sure fire way for publishers to write themselves out of the future of content creation and dissemination.

This is a conversation we have quite often here. While we were handing out books at an author event recently, a gentleman walking by turned to us and said, "no one reads books anymore"--and, keep in mind, this man was there to see the author of the book speak. It's that sentiment that causes so much panic in our industry about the possible demise of the printed book, and I think that that panic sometimes clouds our vision of the future and what great possibilities it holds. So far, Sara Lloyd's essay has provided a very thoughtful and sober view of the situation. I'm looking forward to the next four posts.

And, speaking of the future of publishing, you can now browse inside HarperCollins books on your iPhone.

The tradeshow floor opens on Friday morning. And the races begin! Inviting in the herd of BEA goers waiting impatiently outside the door ready to snatch the best galleys (the publishing word for a bound manuscript) and loot.

This month's Fast Company depicted the history of BEA:

I write to provide a needed counterpoint to Elizabeth Spiers April 2008 Not So Fast column titled "Library of The Living Dead."

I will start where she ends, agreeing in fact with Spiers' ultimate conclusion: Business books are self-help, by their very definition. The implication that business books fall strictly into the "I'm OK, You're OK" segment of self-help is where Spiers and I diverge. A book publisher recently shared research with me that showed the number one reason people buy business books is to find a solution to a problem. Sitting at the educational crossroads between "I know nothing about this," and "Let's hire a consultant," business books contain a high value proposition for the twenty dollars and two hours spent. Not, as Spiers says, to abdicate responsibility for the choices they make. Instead, it takes a great deal of personal awareness to look for answers from those who offer experiential lessons in books.

The packaging of those lessons receives the majority of criticism in Ms. Spiers column and I am always dismayed by the problems pundits have with this aspect of the industry. Human civilization is built upon stories and when an author chooses a fable as the delivery device, the writer is making the lessons more accessible to a wider audience.

The "12-step-ification" is a crutch that bloggers, business magazines, and book publishers certainly use alike, in the same way celebrity authors are used to garner attention and sell product. This is simply product marketing through concreteness and social proof.

The bestseller list as a guide to the "best" in the category is just another form of social proof. My optimism for the category would bring me to highlight Gallup's research-based StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Jim Collins' insightful and wonderful written Good to Great as evidence that some books that make the bestseller list really deserve the title.

In the case of John Kotter, we have the benefit of choosing either his current top-selling fable, or his 1996 book "Leading Change," which has sold over a million copies. Both books tackle the same content, but offer options for the reader to choose his method of consumption.

Ms. Spiers overall indictment of the entire business book category is an easy mark and one that could be applied to any genre of media. Her elitism about what constitutes good reading compounds the problem further. While I can appreciate her hyperbole as a method to communicate some criticism about the genre, a more subtle treatment of the subject would, I believe, be more effective.

Beyond that, Fast Company is a magazine that has always supported business ideas. A simplistic column like Spiers' goes against the very DNA of your publication. The mantra "WORK IS PERSONAL" matches well with Thoreau's or Emerson's definition of self-help. The publication of this column leaves me wondering just how that mission has been served.

I have to say I'm slightly surprised to learn this; the only people I know of to have bought the Kindle are those of us at 800-CEO-READ (we have one). Jon posted his impressions of the device here: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/007546.html.

Have you purchased or tried the Kindle? What do you think?

Today there are two articles in major newspapers about the future of publishing:

New York Times: HarperCollins Will Post Free Books on the Web

Wall Street Journal: Publisher Tests Selling by the Chapter

We'll try to update more over the next few days. Unless we're busy playing with all of the new gadgets in digital publishing.

It is an interesting experiment for him and his publisher Harvard Business School Press to see if you can give it away and improve sales of a two and a half year old book. Love seeing this kind of experimentation.

Frans wrote a series of posts filling in for us in September 2004 introducing everyone to the book, what sucks about business books, and what he was reading:

9/13/04 -The Medici Effect
9/13/04 -As Summer Fades Away...
9/14/04 -Inside The Medici Effect
9/15/04 -The Style of Writing
9/15/04 -#1: Business Books are often too long
9/16/04 -#2: Example are too well-known
9/17/04 -Unfair Advantage and The Apprentice
9/17/04 -#3: They are often dry
9/17/04 - #4: The Main Point Keeps Getting Repeated
9/19/04 - Some New Books

Still, seven-figure advances like Kostova's aren't common, for celebrity or debut authors, fiction or nonfiction. That's why it is big news in the New York Times this week that Suzy Welch, the former HBR editor and the wife of Jack Welch, has agreed to sell the rights to her new book, "10-10-10," to Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for a seven-figure advance. The premise of the book is this:

"Based on an article Ms. Welch wrote for O, the Oprah Magazine, in 2006, the book offers strategies for making decisions in which people think about what the consequences of a decision will be in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years."

The Historian was a run-away best seller; it'll be exciting to see how Welch's "10-10-10" does.

A few approaches mentioned in the article:

• Specialized guides are available online - you can get an entire guide to pubs and inns in the UK, without the other information available in more comprehensive guides. And, you can get a version that connects to the GPS in your rental car.
• Dorling Kindersley (DK) has made all of the content in its Eyewitness Travel guides available online at traveldk.com
• Lonely Planet plans to have all of its guides online in two years, but currently offers individual chapters available for download at a few dollars each.
• Several publishers allow web site visitors to create and print out or order customized guides. Others are getting their stuff into the backs of airplane seats.

Todd and I were discussing the dilemmas of choosing the right book(s) for your travel needs. For instance, you could create a customized guide to New York City with the maps of certain neighborhoods, history on the art in the museum you're visiting that day, and a subway map with certain stops highlighted. But, Todd pointed out, what do you do when it's 4:00, you're in an unfamiliar neighborhood, famished, and you want to eat at a great New York restaurant? Or, as I pointed out, what happens when you're on the Brooklyn Bridge and you want to know how many years it took to build?

Many travel guides boil down the history and cultural information that comes in handy when you're out and come across something new, something you didn't plan for when putting together your guide. Or you only visit sites in the chapters you've printed, and miss out on something cool right around the corner. Some of the spontaneity is lost.

On the other hand, when you're lugging around an iPod, a digital camera, a cell phone, bottled water, and a couple of kids, do you really want to carry a book? And, chances are, you'll need a couple of books, just in case one works well for, say, transportation, and the other works well for selecting restaurants and accommodations. And then there are the books you pore over before the trip and leave at home when you go...

Several publishers are looking at these strategies as a game plan for if (or when) the print publishing industry collapses.

"'We want to be in a position where, if the business suddenly collapses in five years, we have a plan -- unlike the music industry,' said Martin Dunford, publishing director of Rough Guides, which is part of the Penguin division of the media company Pearson, based in London."

But that big IF isn't looming on the horizon at this time:

"So far, the digital media revolution has been much less turbulent for guidebook publishers than for record companies, which are fighting rampant online copying. Sales of travel guides, while flat in some traditionally stalwart markets like Britain, have been growing strongly in developing countries and in the United States -- despite a weak dollar, which has made overseas trips more expensive for Americans.

Travel publishers sold 14.8 million books in the United States last year, up 11 percent from two years ago, according to Nielsen BookScan. Still, guidebook companies may have missed an opportunity on the Internet..."

Check out the article. I know I'll be visiting DK Travel and Lonely Planet's web sites to see what I can do for a little trip I'm planning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/business/media/03guides.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

* Image from Bad Banana Blog.

Business book publishing is no different than what it purports to cover: it is all about either anticipating or (ideally) creating trends. As technology, market forces and consumer preferences change locally and globally, business must react and innovate to stay competitive. The management of people, of course, is key to keeping up, and that's where business management titles come in. Our preview of some selected fall titles demonstrates that there is no handy consensus as to what the near future requires in terms of managing a business.

While you might argue fairly that business book publishing is about more than trends, we certainly do keep our eyes peeled for books that address the issues facing businesses today.

The article featured eight publishers who talked about trends they noticed in publishing, and the books that promised to be big this fall. Just browsing the list, I see that at least McGraw-Hill, Crown, Kaplan, and Portfolio (with Seth Godin's book) were right on. I have a feeling AMACOM's book, One Foot Out the Door, could be a sleeper success this winter.

Have you read any of these titles? What do you think?

* Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner
* Microtrends by Mark Penn
* The No Asshole Rule by Robb Sutton
* The Black Swan by Nasim Nicholas Taleb
* Wikinomics by Don Tapscott

You'll notice two of the books, Wikinomics and The Black Swan, were also on the FT/Goldman Sachs Award shortlist, and The No Asshole Rule won The Quill Award in the business category. I think it's a great idea to put this list out, and the categories here should cater well to different kinds of travelers. They even offer two additional categories to extend the list for more voracious readers. One is called "Books We Love", and the other is "Newsworthy/Noteworthy". If you'd like to see the titles in the other categories, you can find it on their website. You should also begin seeing the list posted in their stores beginning December 1st.