CSNE Report 4/6/06 Mary Ellen Lepionka
Well, that was fun! I arrived at Foxwoods Casino and Resort in Connecticut (operated by
the Mashantucket Pequots Tribal Nation) and set up our exhibit on April 2. We had one
bookrack with 20 books ; three bookstands for books of larger trim size ; the show
catalogs I had made up along with the flyers (participants will receive a copy);
miscellaneous postcards, business cards, catalogs, and order forms that participants
sent ; PMA promotional materials, including a display copy of the PW issue featuring
PMA ; and a big bowl of extra candy brought over from the PLA show in Boston. Photos
are forthcoming. If you want your book and materials returned too you, please send an
envelope with postage. Otherwise I will keep or donate them (but promise you will never
see them on Amazon or eBay).
The show opened on April 3 (no, I was not one of those crazy people who played the
slots all night in the casino). I was very grateful throughout the day for the help and
companionship of Kerri Wetherbee of Focus Publishing, Doug Johnson of Live Model
Books, and Ron Silvio of SourceAid. We had time to conduct our own impromptu
networking sessions, as the show was not well attended overall, a disappointment that
we shared with the other vendors there. Just over 200 college store people came to
CSNE, about half from New England and the other half mainly from New York,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I ’d estimate that fewer than half of those came down our
aisle in the exhibit hall.
Additionally, there were few book publishers as well as book buyers. The campus store
people had come for girl cut hoodies, baby togs with college insignia, all leather mascot
accessories, graduation teddy bears, things to keep you warm at football games,
gourmet chocolates, posters of 60s rock stars (they got that right), lip balm in retro tins,
and human brain wind up toys. Customization was key. And innovation. My favorite
innovation (aside from the walking brain) was a special chair for common rooms in which
you plug in and play your electronic games (looks a little like the chair in Total Recall).
The few book publishers there featured well known series in career prep and
professional certification, dictionaries and the like, and medical reference books.
Pearson, Thomson, Merriam Webster and Elsevier Health Science were there.
Interestingly, the only other publishers with a diverse offering of academic and trade
books were Houghton Mifflin and Holyoke News Company (which publishes reprints of
classics, including class sets). Specialty higher ed distributors included Matthews Book
Company (distributing APA books, Jossey Bass, Guilford, Sinauer, Springer, and 300
other Scientific/Technical/Medical publishers) and Rittenhouse (online and catalog sales
of STM books).
All the big new and used textbook wholesalers and jobbers were there, including
BudgetText, Follett Higher Ed, Nebraska Book Company, and South Eastern Book
Company. Also there were PubNet, Logi Text, and other organizations/software vendors
for electronic college store management and order fulfillment. The big college store
buying organizations were there too: ICBA (Independent College Bookstore Association,
which does buying and store management just for proprietary bookstores run by
colleges and universities), Connect2One (serving independent bookstores), and
NACSCORP (serving college stores run also by chains), and I learned that it is possible
to become a vendor of record with all of them (see info sheet).
What few book buyers were there we did manage to interest in our PMA Academic
offerings. People at our booth ranged from small private college preparatory schools to
the California state college system. They looked at all the books and listened to us
effuse about what small publishers can offer them. Most of those who took our show
catalog seemed to have specific intentions. Study aids and reference works clearly were
most desired. My sense is that we need a larger selection of books, especially books
with more direct application to academic life. Wherever we exhibit next, I hope to have at
least twice as many offerings, all honed to the market.
The books that seemed to spark the greatest interest (in addition to my Writing and
Developing Your College Textbook , Doug ’s Art Models , and Ron ’s Cite It Right —we
were there to pitch them after all), included Lance Ong ’s F to Phi Beta Kappa (success
guide), Paragraph Publishers ’ Grammar Traps , Fran Hamilton ’s Hands On English ,
Cypress House ’s Spanish! Live It and Learn It (guide to language immersion schools),
New Harbinger ’s The Courage to Trust (guide to relationship building), and Aspen
Mountain Publishing ’s Leaving Campus and Going to Work . I am emailing participants
separately to pass back any specific feedback that I heard about specific titles.
I think we made a dent. I had signed up to talk at the “New Product Breakfast,” in which
participants had 60 seconds on a stage with a microphone to pitch a new product they
were exhibiting. I ’m no salesperson, but apparently somebody selling independent small
publishers of academic books was fairly novel, so there was a curiosity factor that drove
some people at least to our booth. The CSNE show committee also came around to ask
us if we would please attend again and not give up, as they liked having us and would
like to attract more publishers. (We politely said we would consider it.)
I did make a couple of contacts that could benefit us all. The VP of Sales and Marketing
of NACSCORP, Jonathan Bibo, said he was interested in helping small publishers of
academic books become vendors of record with NACSCORP and wanted to talk further
about how that might be done. His point was that although a publisher just needs
distribution to participate (e.g., Ingram, NBN, Consortium), he and his assistant Joan
Keehan are always looking for special products, wherever they come from, and will
consider products of publishers who do not yet have representation. He also suggested
that if they can ’t take you on, they will tell you why. Let ’s discuss our experiences with
NACSCORP and academic wholesalers on the Academic listserv.
I plan to propose to Jan Nathan that PMA invite Jonathan Bibo to PMA U 2007 to be on
a panel on the subject of NACSCORP and other market outlets for academic and
educational publishers. Also on that panel I also hope to invite someone from the J.A.
Majors company. I talked with Ed Koslosky, the Eastern Regional Sales Manager, who
told me that Baker & Taylor had bought them recently to run a new division for
academic oriented trade books. He assured me that J.A. Majors, which traditionally
focused on health and science books and electronics from big publishers, is now
interested in seeing academic, trade, professional, technical, and reference books from
publishers, including small presses. J.A. Majors “Health Science, Professional, and
Trade Books ” will be shipped from B & T ’s warehouses. To round out the panel I will
propose we invite someone from Connect2One and/or ICBA to talk about how small
publishers can become vendors of record.
For More Information
College Stores of New England
60 Hornbeam Hill Rd., Chelmsford, MA 01824
www.csne.net 978 250 1117 office@csne.net
Connect2One
5412 Courseview Dr., Ste. 150, Mason, OH 45040
www.connect2one.com 800 563 9034 info@connect2one.com
Holyoke News Company, Inc.
720 Main Street, Holyoke, MA 01040
www.holyoke news.com 413 534 4537
Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA)
287 Fourth St. #4, Ashland, OR 97520
www.ICBAinc.com 800 888 9222 office@ICBAinc.com
J. A. Majors Co.
www.majors.com 800 633 1851
NACSCORP
528 East Lorain St., Oberlin, OH 44074 1298
www.nacscorp.com 440 775 7777
PubEasy (part of Bowker, offshoot of PubNet, providing customer service to publishers,
distributors, and wholesalers for bookstore ordering)
630 Central Ave., New Providence, NJ 07974
www.pubeasy.org 908 219 0133 info@pubeasy.com
the Mashantucket Pequots Tribal Nation) and set up our exhibit on April 2. We had one
bookrack with 20 books ; three bookstands for books of larger trim size ; the show
catalogs I had made up along with the flyers (participants will receive a copy);
miscellaneous postcards, business cards, catalogs, and order forms that participants
sent ; PMA promotional materials, including a display copy of the PW issue featuring
PMA ; and a big bowl of extra candy brought over from the PLA show in Boston. Photos
are forthcoming. If you want your book and materials returned too you, please send an
envelope with postage. Otherwise I will keep or donate them (but promise you will never
see them on Amazon or eBay).
The show opened on April 3 (no, I was not one of those crazy people who played the
slots all night in the casino). I was very grateful throughout the day for the help and
companionship of Kerri Wetherbee of Focus Publishing, Doug Johnson of Live Model
Books, and Ron Silvio of SourceAid. We had time to conduct our own impromptu
networking sessions, as the show was not well attended overall, a disappointment that
we shared with the other vendors there. Just over 200 college store people came to
CSNE, about half from New England and the other half mainly from New York,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I ’d estimate that fewer than half of those came down our
aisle in the exhibit hall.
Additionally, there were few book publishers as well as book buyers. The campus store
people had come for girl cut hoodies, baby togs with college insignia, all leather mascot
accessories, graduation teddy bears, things to keep you warm at football games,
gourmet chocolates, posters of 60s rock stars (they got that right), lip balm in retro tins,
and human brain wind up toys. Customization was key. And innovation. My favorite
innovation (aside from the walking brain) was a special chair for common rooms in which
you plug in and play your electronic games (looks a little like the chair in Total Recall).
The few book publishers there featured well known series in career prep and
professional certification, dictionaries and the like, and medical reference books.
Pearson, Thomson, Merriam Webster and Elsevier Health Science were there.
Interestingly, the only other publishers with a diverse offering of academic and trade
books were Houghton Mifflin and Holyoke News Company (which publishes reprints of
classics, including class sets). Specialty higher ed distributors included Matthews Book
Company (distributing APA books, Jossey Bass, Guilford, Sinauer, Springer, and 300
other Scientific/Technical/Medical publishers) and Rittenhouse (online and catalog sales
of STM books).
All the big new and used textbook wholesalers and jobbers were there, including
BudgetText, Follett Higher Ed, Nebraska Book Company, and South Eastern Book
Company. Also there were PubNet, Logi Text, and other organizations/software vendors
for electronic college store management and order fulfillment. The big college store
buying organizations were there too: ICBA (Independent College Bookstore Association,
which does buying and store management just for proprietary bookstores run by
colleges and universities), Connect2One (serving independent bookstores), and
NACSCORP (serving college stores run also by chains), and I learned that it is possible
to become a vendor of record with all of them (see info sheet).
What few book buyers were there we did manage to interest in our PMA Academic
offerings. People at our booth ranged from small private college preparatory schools to
the California state college system. They looked at all the books and listened to us
effuse about what small publishers can offer them. Most of those who took our show
catalog seemed to have specific intentions. Study aids and reference works clearly were
most desired. My sense is that we need a larger selection of books, especially books
with more direct application to academic life. Wherever we exhibit next, I hope to have at
least twice as many offerings, all honed to the market.
The books that seemed to spark the greatest interest (in addition to my Writing and
Developing Your College Textbook , Doug ’s Art Models , and Ron ’s Cite It Right —we
were there to pitch them after all), included Lance Ong ’s F to Phi Beta Kappa (success
guide), Paragraph Publishers ’ Grammar Traps , Fran Hamilton ’s Hands On English ,
Cypress House ’s Spanish! Live It and Learn It (guide to language immersion schools),
New Harbinger ’s The Courage to Trust (guide to relationship building), and Aspen
Mountain Publishing ’s Leaving Campus and Going to Work . I am emailing participants
separately to pass back any specific feedback that I heard about specific titles.
I think we made a dent. I had signed up to talk at the “New Product Breakfast,” in which
participants had 60 seconds on a stage with a microphone to pitch a new product they
were exhibiting. I ’m no salesperson, but apparently somebody selling independent small
publishers of academic books was fairly novel, so there was a curiosity factor that drove
some people at least to our booth. The CSNE show committee also came around to ask
us if we would please attend again and not give up, as they liked having us and would
like to attract more publishers. (We politely said we would consider it.)
I did make a couple of contacts that could benefit us all. The VP of Sales and Marketing
of NACSCORP, Jonathan Bibo, said he was interested in helping small publishers of
academic books become vendors of record with NACSCORP and wanted to talk further
about how that might be done. His point was that although a publisher just needs
distribution to participate (e.g., Ingram, NBN, Consortium), he and his assistant Joan
Keehan are always looking for special products, wherever they come from, and will
consider products of publishers who do not yet have representation. He also suggested
that if they can ’t take you on, they will tell you why. Let ’s discuss our experiences with
NACSCORP and academic wholesalers on the Academic listserv.
I plan to propose to Jan Nathan that PMA invite Jonathan Bibo to PMA U 2007 to be on
a panel on the subject of NACSCORP and other market outlets for academic and
educational publishers. Also on that panel I also hope to invite someone from the J.A.
Majors company. I talked with Ed Koslosky, the Eastern Regional Sales Manager, who
told me that Baker & Taylor had bought them recently to run a new division for
academic oriented trade books. He assured me that J.A. Majors, which traditionally
focused on health and science books and electronics from big publishers, is now
interested in seeing academic, trade, professional, technical, and reference books from
publishers, including small presses. J.A. Majors “Health Science, Professional, and
Trade Books ” will be shipped from B & T ’s warehouses. To round out the panel I will
propose we invite someone from Connect2One and/or ICBA to talk about how small
publishers can become vendors of record.
For More Information
College Stores of New England
60 Hornbeam Hill Rd., Chelmsford, MA 01824
www.csne.net 978 250 1117 office@csne.net
Connect2One
5412 Courseview Dr., Ste. 150, Mason, OH 45040
www.connect2one.com 800 563 9034 info@connect2one.com
Holyoke News Company, Inc.
720 Main Street, Holyoke, MA 01040
www.holyoke news.com 413 534 4537
Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA)
287 Fourth St. #4, Ashland, OR 97520
www.ICBAinc.com 800 888 9222 office@ICBAinc.com
J. A. Majors Co.
www.majors.com 800 633 1851
NACSCORP
528 East Lorain St., Oberlin, OH 44074 1298
www.nacscorp.com 440 775 7777
PubEasy (part of Bowker, offshoot of PubNet, providing customer service to publishers,
distributors, and wholesalers for bookstore ordering)
630 Central Ave., New Providence, NJ 07974
www.pubeasy.org 908 219 0133 info@pubeasy.com
posted by Kathleen Valentine at 12:27 PM
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