Imprints Give Way To SPUs at Nelson

Specialty Publishing Units may not sound very exciting, but the top executives at Thomas Nelson are convinced they provide a much more efficient way to organize a publishing house than using the traditional imprints. By organizing publishing functions around BISAC categories, Nelson will better align itself with both the way buyers at bookstores acquire books and the way consumers buy books, said Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt and chief publishing officer Tami Heim. The One Company Initiative has been in development for about a year, and started not too long after Heim arrived at Nelson after resigning as president of Borders. Heim said research shows that 75% of customers go to a bookstore without a specific book in mind, and they shop for books using three main criteria: hot and/or new books; topic; and author. The reorganization "will better align our business with market realities," Heim said.

Hyatt noted that the move will do away with the problem of different imprints publishing titles in the same categories, such as in health. Asked if it would be easier just to move titles around imprints, Heim said that it would be expensive and time consuming to make the changes internally and then notify all of Nelson's accounts, as well as agents. And Hyatt reiterated his belief that while publishers care about imprints, retail buyers and consumers don't.

The move to SPUs will result in the elimination of all 21 imprints. Beginning April 1, all books will be published or reprinted with only the Thomas Nelson name and logo on the jacket. Imprints that will be abolished include Rutledge Hill Press, J. Countryman, WestBow Press and the recently launched Naked Ink. The latter imprint was formed to publish edgier titles than the usual Nelson books, but Hyatt said the company will continue to publish such titles under the Nelson brand "as long as they are congruent with our mission and values."

While many industry members agreed in principle with Nelson's actions, all had some caveats and no publisher said his company was prepared to make such a move. Industry consultant Jim Seybert said he agreed that consumers "show a low propensity to buy books based on the imprint," and added that the reorganization should lead to more efficient publishing. He worried, however, that the uniqueness of certain product lines could be lost in the effort to homogenize the organization. The publisher of another religion house said that while he also didn't think imprints mean much to consumers, he believes they help differentiate titles for agents, accounts and authors.

Dwight Baker, president of Baker Publishing Group, said he sees the logic in the Nelson shift, but added that his company "is not moving one inch in that direction." Baker believes that by carefully maintaining BPG's six imprints, the company is helping its titles find the right "community of readers." Another head of house said while the 21 imprints Nelson has may be too much for one company, he was not in favor of eliminating all imprints. "From our standpoint, we have imprints that have very different missions," this publisher said. "We think the imprint serves a purpose for keeping us focused on a particular type of publishing agenda."