Business books have been taking quite a bashing lately. Some industry insiders have disparaged Bantam's recent $7-million deal for a "biography of Warren Buffett's ideas" as unlikely to appeal to enough readers to earn out its advance. A recent essay by Barbara Ehrenreich in the New York Times lampooned the simplicities of a handful of popular titles. Meanwhile, major daily newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Dallas Morning News have curtailed their coverage of business titles. One could easily conclude, as many publishers have, that this is a dying category.
But if that's the case, why have revenues doubled to more than $5 million over the past two years at my 20-year-old company specializing in business books, 800-CEO-READ, an offshoot of the five-store Dickens Books Ltd. chain in Wisconsin? There has also been an exponential surge in traffic to our Web site, where we maintain a leading blog about business books that draws 5,000 to 7,000 readers a day.
The answer? The business book market isn't waning. It's simply changing as people seek business information in new ways and new places. Now that the Internet provides instant access to magazines, newspapers and blogs covering every niche in the market, business books are no longer the average reader's main source of practical advice about running a company. Twenty years ago, it was only senior managers at companies like GE who had immediate access to the most current business information, supplied by a team of reference librarians. Now Joe's Tool & Die in Smallville, U.S.A., has the same access to much of that content via the Internet. Publishing's usual nine-month gestation period can't compete.
To succeed in this new environment, business books have to offer greater depth than the articles that appear on the Internet. That's why solidly researched titles—like Larry Bossidy's Execution and Jim Collins's Good to Great—presenting a range of case studies that allow readers to apply their principles to businesses of every size have such an avid and enduring readership.
The new business market has also redefined what a business book can be. As people try to stay in step with a rapidly evolving business landscape, they are turning to titles that bring the big picture into focus, like Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics. Not only is the context broader but the writing is significantly better than in traditional business books: Friedman, Gladwell and Dubner are all journalists who write for leading publications.
Additionally, many of these books are launched cleverly, tapping into online communities as few others do. Seth Godin's books on marketing brilliantly practice what they preach. He allowed readers to download hundreds of thousands of free e-books of Unleashing the Ideavirus and sold more than 20,000 copies of the $40 hardcover in the first six weeks.
Finally, many of them are unusually appealing in their graphic design. The best of the current crop use bold colors and memorable graphics to deliver their messages with simplicity and style. The small trim size and witty photos in Sally Hogshead's Radical Careering and the gatefold pages and multicolored paper and ink in Kevin Carroll's Rules of the Red Rubber Ball make those books particularly appealing to an audience that views good design as a mark of distinction and success.
Business readers are making bestsellers out of smart, inspiring and well-made books by first-rate authors. Some—like the books by Friedman and Gladwell—show up on general bestseller lists, while others are making their mark on business-oriented lists. Wherever they appear, publishers of all kinds would do well to read and learn from them.
Jack Covert, president and founder of 800-CEO-READ, is a 20-plus—year veteran of the business book industry and can be reached at Jack@800ceoread.com.
