Book Business Conference‘Strikes Chord’ With Publishing Executives

Attracting the BookTech Conference’s traditional audience of book production, manufacturing and workflow professionals was a particularly popular session on Tuesday titled “Global Sourcing: Exploring Your Options.” Craig Bauer (Houghton Mifflin), Ken Coburn (Global Interprint), Andy Hughes (Knopf Publishing) and Dave Mead (Banta Book Group) spoke to a standing-room-only crowd about the benefits and risks of sourcing work overseas, what a publisher should expect and what could go wrong.

Perhaps the highlight of the conference’s marketing and distribution track came on Tuesday as well, when a panel of seven marketing mavens led a double-session on “Multi-channel Marketing for Book Sales.” Deb Allen (Black Dome Press), Sue Fleming (Simon & Schuster), Nicole Gallo (Rittenhouse Book Distributors), Jeff Gomez (Holtzbrinck), Peter Knapp (Wiley), Suzanne Murphy (Scholastic) and Sol Rosenberg (Dynamic Digital Content) spoke about the multi-pronged approaches to marketing their companies are employing. Among these channels were Web, e-mail and mobile marketing, in addition to partnerships and e-commerce.

On Wednesday, long-time industry scribe Eugene Schwartz, editor at large of ForeWord Magazine, moderated a double session and was joined by Bill Clockel (Integrated Book Technology), Bruce Miller (Pubnet and PubEasy), Phil Ollila (Ingram Book Group), Bob Ronk (Banta Book Group) and Marcella Smith (Barnes & Noble). The panelists discussed the challenges of and strategies for getting books into retail channels and into the hands of consumers.

Another highlight from Wednesday was “Book and Multimedia Packaging Up Close.” David Coho (Univenture) and Kevin Timpson (R.R. Donnelley) discussed everything from coordinating multiple vendors to managing production cycles to protecting and leveraging intellectual property. Attorney Charles Tolbert detailed many of the legal issues a publisher must consider regarding consumer products liability, including choking hazards, warning labels and proper product testing. He also strongly advocated a third-party tester.

“You really want to go with a product-safety testing agency,” he said. “[Have the agency] test your products. Make sure you have your attorney review the products to make sure there is no potential liability. Assess the risk .... Make sure that you safeguard against any injury or liability.”