The Perseus Books Group

Many independent U.S. book publishers breathed a sigh of relief after a Delaware bankruptcy court ruled in favor of the Perseus Books Group taking control of the distribution contracts for more than 120 clients of the now-defunct Publishers Group West (PGW). The New York-based Perseus Books offered to pay 70 cents for every dollar of pre-bankruptcy claims owed to publishers who were distributed under PGW, a Berkeley, Calif.-based division of Advanced Marketing Services (AMS). The bid to help bail out AMS from a pile of debt claims was approved by Judge Christopher Sontchi Feb. 19. Perseus President David Steinberger says the company began

Many independent U.S. book publishers breathed a sigh of relief earlier this month after a Delaware bankruptcy court ruled in favor of Perseus Books Group taking control of the distribution contracts for more than 120 clients of the now-defunct Publishers Group West (PGW). The New York-based Perseus Books Group offered to pay 70 cents for every dollar of pre-bankruptcy claims owed to publishers who were distributed under PGW, a Berkely, Cal.-based division of Advanced Marketing Services (AMS). The bid was approved by Judge Christopher Sontchi on Feb. 19. Perseus President and CEO David Steinberger says the company began shipping books for the former PGW clients on

The good news is that book marketing professionals have more channels through which to promote their titles than ever. But with so many choices and decisions to be made, crafting an effective, far-reaching multichannel marketing campaign is more confusing than ever. Book Business spoke with several book marketing gurus to get their takes on what makes a multichannel marketing campaign work. 1. Take advantage of all available marketing channels. Noreen Henson, marketing manager for Demos Medical Publishing, says her biggest difficulty today is “the electronic revolution in information delivery”—and her constant challenge is to ensure Demos’ campaigns take advantage of this evolution. Among

Somewhere between the ages of five and 11, kids stop reading. Well, maybe not all of them, but a recent study spearheaded by Scholastic Inc. shows that readership drops off as children age. The results show that 40 percent of kids between the ages of five and eight read for fun every day. Only 29 percent of nine- to 11-year-olds read as frequently, and that number declines sharply through age 17. Running Press Book Publishers thinks it knows why—and how to reverse this troublesome trend. Running Press, a Philadelphia-based imprint of The Perseus Books Group, will release a new young adult (YA) title, “Cathy’s

A news story about a partnership with a book publisher and a cosmetics company set off a blizzard of discussion last week around the industry about what the proper role between product placement deals in publishing and the readership it intends to target should be. In an article published in The New York Times on June 12, reporter Motoko Rich set off the debate about a new promotional relationship between Running Press, an imprint of Perseus Book Group, and Cover Girl, a division of Proctor and Gamble. The deal will see Cover Girl products being mentioned in the pages of the upcoming young adult novel,

On the heels of a fabulous BookTech East 2001, take pause to reflect on the new opportunities afforded by budding technologies It seems somewhat redundant to say these are exciting times for the book publishing industry, when clearly this is not a new phenomenon. Technologies supporting the digital publishing process are virtually spewing from R&D labs like molten lava. There's a lot of hot stuff out there from which to pick and choose. And to raise the industry's temperature even higher, the business is abuzz with tales of publishers taking bold leaps of faith with new media business models. New stuff Just a few

What it takes to build and manage a book publisher's Web site by Tatyana Sinioukov As a publishing medium, the Internet is "maturing," and many book publishers have gained significant experience in site management. We asked publishers and Web service providers what it takes to build--and maintain--a user-friendly Web site, what workflow models work best for book publishers, and what their hot buttons are when it comes to implementing the various workflow techniques. Site management requires implementing smart workflow techniques, managing updating processes and files across networks and platforms, as well as handling time-sensitive content, automating site production, making the site searchable, promoting it,