SPECIFIC MARKETING SERVICES continued . . .

Bookscan

All IPG publishers have access to Bookscan, the website that tracks book sales by monitoring the cash registers of the major chain and independent bookstores. This is a fabulous tool for monitoring actual sales of one's books and for determining the success of competing titles.

ECW Press goes to Chicago twice a year, prior to the spring and fall catalog submission dates.The meeting includes a general discussion of the industry, analysis of how ECW is doing and how IPG is doing, and how well we are working together. Then we get into a discussion of the upcoming list (remember that our January visit is for fall titles, and our August visit is for spring titles) so we're working about 8-10 months in advance of the pub date. Mark Suchomel gathers a group of sales and marketing people, and then the fun begins. We hand Mark our covers, and he holds them up one at a time for comments (except not from ECW). What's this book about? Paper or cloth? Price? Size? Run? Who's the audience? Where would it go in a bookstore? Are there special sales opportunities? And so on. Finally, after the discussion peters out, we are allowed to confirm or deny, and all the while we are taking lots of notes.

In our case, the meeting takes about 3 hours, and then we fly back to Toronto. We hand our notes around to the editors and designers in order to improve our catalogue submission. What do we do with the comments? In some cases, we kill the book, or delay it for a season. In others, we change the title or subtitle or cover image or format or price. In virtually all cases, we make some modifications to our plans for the titles. In addition to our bi-yearly meetings, we regularly try out ideas with IPG staffers. Sometimes it's just a wild scheme, sometimes it's more fully formed. From there, it gets tossed around within IPG, and often gets tried out on booksellers to gauge their initial reaction. Lots of potential book ideas have died at this stage. We don't view IPG as a third-party sales and distribution company; we see them as a direct extension of our publishing operation. Jack David ECW Press Toronto, Ontario