The Flowering of the Book Tech Expo
Paul Hilts -- 3/30/98
Book Tech '98, the only national all-book production show, is a hit. The growth in every aspect of the show, run by Philadelphia-based North American Publishing Company (NAPCO) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City February 17-19, makes clear that a well-put-together show in the right venue can flourish.
The exhibition space approached 23,000 square feet, more than double last year's area, and the list of companies renting booths almost doubled, from 65 in '97 to 124 this year. There were so many new exhibitors, in fact, that burgeoning booths overflowed the scheduled expo hall, taking up the north end of the mezzanine by the elevators.
Attended by nearly 2600 publishing professionals, up by more than 20% over last year, the conference seminars covered everything from the basics of traditional mechanical production and understanding book-paper specifications to electronic distribution, but focused mainly on adapting publishing businesses to digital processes. Topics included computer-to-plate (CTP) and direct-to-press technologies; internal production networks and planning for ultrafast-turnaround books; understanding electronic file formats; using SGML for book production; high-speed file transmission via ISDN, Internet, ADSL and other technologies; digital proofing options, costs and quality; comparison of the benefits and drawbacks of offshore production versus domestic printing; techniques for Internet and multimedia publishing; short-run digital color printing; and such traditional publishing concerns as print buyer budget basics, and planning varnishes, foils, diecuts, and other special cover treatments.
The seminars were mostly nontechnical discussions about technology, and practical examples of daily use. For example, In one of the opening sessions, Gloria Fontana, director of sales and marketing at GTS Graphics of Commerce, Calif., in discussing updates to page-layout programs, said, "While Quark is the most widely used program, the new release, 4.0, is still unstable, producing 'electronic hairballs' unpredictably at inopportune times. Meanwhile, 'K2.' [Adobe's code name for its "Quark Killer" program] while promising, won't be ready until late this year."
As in '97, the seminars were well-attended, but there were so many important topics packed into two and a half days that it was virtually impossible to hear all the desired presentations. This year, though, the sessions were taped by Professional Programs Audio Cassettes of Santa Clarita, Calif., and should still be available. (For more information, call PPAC at 805-255 7774, or check NAPCO's Web site.)
EDI and Expertise
Some of the topics of most interest at the seminars were not directly about electronics. The keynote speaker at the opening luncheon on Tuesday was David Cully, president of distribution for Barnes &Noble, the person responsible for logistics and systems development, corporate inventory management, and business relations with publishing partners. In both his luncheon address and his Wednesday panel discussion, Cully spoke about inventory and returns issues, and his main point was that while computerized inventory management is the current rage in discussions, what is needed is merchandising expertise, not just more piles of information.
Speaking about the adoption of electronic data interchange (EDI), Cully reported that though he believes EDI will be important soon, it will take time to make the system work. "Publishers are saying they want more information," he said, "but the systems are only being installed now- they can't handle all the information available yet.
"We have EDI linkages with 40 or 50 publishers, and when we asked what information they wanted, they said that rather than just total sales across our company, they wanted to know how each title was doing in a specific geographic area. It made sense, of course-they wanted to know, for example, whether to continue an author tour in the Northwest based on sales in Seattle stores following appearances.
"When we gave them the data, they were very unhappy. We collect information on what titles have sold in the one-week, four-week, and life-to-date periods, and we passed on this information for each title in our 1000 stores. They were inundated. They weren't set up yet for either the volume of the information, or to do the analysis, or to apply the analysis and make the data useful."
Merchandising expertise is critical, Cully noted. "The 80/20 rule still holds [80% of revenue comes from 20% of the front list books], but you can't just buy fewer of the less-productive 80% -- you just kill sales that way."Concepts that Cully encourages include remaindering in place and inventory in place. With retailers, distributors and publishers sharing all information about where books are in the pipeline, eventually the publisher won't have to handle the books at all, and the retailer and distributor can exchange numbers rather than physical books.
Book Tech '99 is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 16-18, 1999 at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan. For more information call Bill Norton at (888)627-2630.
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