They come in a staggering variety of subjects, sizes, shapes, and colors. Today's market for illustrated gift books—aka coffee-table titles—is influenced by pop culture (Lady Gaga, anyone?), current trends (art, architecture, fashion, cooking, etc.), and, perhaps most strongly, the economic downturn. As the traditional gift season approaches, PW spoke with four players in this category to find out the latest in the publishing, marketing, and selling of today's illustrated gift books.

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Barnes & Noble: Marketing V-P Patricia Bostleman

The wide variety in the illustrated gift book category provides a distinct sales advantage, says Patricia Bostleman, v-p of marketing for Barnes & Noble. "We don't just have one customer in our stores, we have a cross-section," she says. "So we have an opportunity to merchandise gift books throughout a store." During the holiday season, B&N stores set up gift book displays in different sections, targeting music lovers or history buffs; online, gift guides and recommendations guide customers searching for ideas.

A gift book's relatively high price is tempered by its purpose, says Bostleman: "These books are considered gifts, whether they're to be given to someone else or given to ourselves—that's a factor we enjoy as well." Customers remain willing to pay a premium for beautiful, comprehensive books with high production value, she says, citing by way of example 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, which Andrews McMeel will publish in two weeks and which retails for $100. "It's a very serious price," she says. "However, if you are a Doonesbury fan, you want this book—it's beautiful and complete." Gift-seekers, she says, also invest more in limited editions, such as Patti Smith's Just Kids (Ecco, Nov.), which includes a never-before-published broadsheet poem, and first editions like George W. Bush's highly anticipated Decision Points.

Although the cost of illustrated gift books typically starts around $30 and stretches past the $100 mark, Bostleman reports that some publishers have revised their pricing based on the economic downturn: "We're seeing a lot more in the $30–$40 range that would have previously been priced at $50–$60. In many cases, they're lower prices than we saw several years ago."

The economy also influences what content appeals to gift seekers: "People feel better about spending money when [the purchase is] practical," says Bostleman. For this reason, she says, cookbooks are particularly popular this year. Although there are many gift-book mainstays, like music books and history books, "we see the trends vary as popular culture changes." Superhero and comics collections, for example, tie into the popularity of the graphic novel; the recently published The Making of Avatar (Abrams) charts the creation of this film phenomenon. Perhaps the direct opposite of austere, Lady Gaga will adorn coffee tables this season with Sterling's Gaga by Johnny Morgan, out in November. "If anyone is going to be the subject of an art book," says Bostleman, "she should."

Taschen: Director of Digital Publications Julius Wiedemann and Art Director Josh Baker

The iPad will never replace the coffee-table book, according to Taschen's director of digital publications, Julius Wiedemann, and art director, Josh Baker, who tell PW that the rise of e-books will only broaden the market for high-end, illustrated gift books. The key, says Wiedemann, who is also design executive editor, is "to distinguish what is an object, what is a gift, and what is an information delivery device." Taschen is currently building its digital program; Wiedemann and Baker project they'll begin releasing digital content by early 201]. Whether the content is in print or digital form, what matters, says Wiedemann, is that it's informed, well-curated, and relevant.

"As an editor, I have to define how a reader will enjoy the content—it's not flexible; it's printed that way," he explains. "When we go to digital, it changes completely—I'm allowed to give users the possibility of organizing the content themselves." For example, he says, readers of an architectural e-book can focus first on houses that have wooden floors, and then search by architect, chronologically, or alphabetically.

Baker likens the experience of acquiring and using e-books to that of curating a digital music library: "It's a very individual, personal, private interaction with the content," he says. And while certain elements of a printed work will not translate exactly onscreen, "the image is the image—it doesn't hurt to look at it in a different way."

There are also ways of sharing content digitally, he adds, "although there's still a personal statement that you'll make with an illustrated book that you want to own and display. You want to start a conversation."

Today, Taschen's books are available from a range of nontraditional outlets: in Barney's New York catalogue, at stores like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, as well as in hotel lobbies, galleries, and cafes.

"These days, we are all competing for people's time, whether you're a publishing house, a car brand, or McDonald's," says Wiedemann. "We used to have a very fragmented competition, but today the lines are blurry. You do the best for the [customer] by creating relevance in their daily life—giving them knowledge, experience, fulfillment."

In the edited selection of a nontraditional market, consumers may be more likely to find a title that they or a loved one will find meaningful. After all, if you love the ambience and decor at the boutique hotel you visited on vacation, why wouldn't you like its taste in books? "Like you have in your home books to be out, to inspire you and other people, retail stores and movie theaters use a book to help make a statement about their brand," says Baker. "It's a great sign that books are still such an important part of people's lives."

Abbeville Press: Publisher Robert Abrams

While the illustrated gift book category evolves, with fluctuations in demand and technological advancements, the key objective is constant, says Abbeville publisher Robert Abrams: "We're creating great books that will be around for decades. It's an extensive undertaking, usually taking years to get things going and done, and the result, hopefully, is worth having and referring to for years."

Abbeville begins this process anew with each title; as a result, its catalogue is eclectic, appealing to a wide range of interests. Among the season's new titles are The Horse: From Cave Paintings to Modern Art by 13 pre-eminent art history scholars (Nov.); Tulipae Hortorum: Photographs by Jonathan Singer (Oct.), a limited edition portfolio by the photographer of Abbeville's Botanica Magnifica; and Sara Ball's Flip-o-saurus (Aug.), a mix-and-match work that's about to go live with an online version (an app is in the works).

"We've been trying as best we can to create definitive books; the objects—the texts and illustrations—are a real contribution to our culture," says Abrams. "The intention is to do the best, and that's not just going to be of interest in the next 10 seconds or 24-hour news cycle."

The titles mentioned above, he says, could have been found on the Abbe-ville list 10–15 years ago; what's changed is the volume of information competing for the public's attention. "Today's consumer is more picky and stressed than ever—getting the message across and differentiating titles is one of the main challenges," says the publisher. "Ultimately it's up to the public and different markets to perceive value and to choose between our Renoir book and 15 other books on Renoir."

To capture the consumer's attention, publishers must find innovative ways to tap into the market's upsides, says Abrams: "There's great opportunity to make quality content available to a much broader audience, and one way of doing that is going to be electronically."

Abbeville recently began its experiment to translate an illustrated title into electronic form with the second edition of its bestselling New Father series. "We found it wasn't as seamless as a normal trade book might be, because it is illustrated and because we do focus on presentation and design," says Abrams. The first pass revealed several errors, necessitating tweaks to software and process. The final product is now available, as is the third edition of The Expectant Father. Abbeville plans to release 10 more backlist e-books in spring 2011.

Abrams views the benefits of electronic content as twofold: "The first thing is price; a lot of the cost of an illustrated book is in the paper, ink, and binding," he says. "Secondly, it's the access to the illustrations—it's a lot of fun to be able to play around with fine art, to zoom in, enlarge, do your own cropping." The digital medium also offers advantages when it comes to searching, he says: "Thumbnails are meaningless in your normal trade book but fabulous in a digital format—you can browse or select chapters very easily, quickly, and meaningfully."

And for customers who might be searching for their next holiday gift, e-books provide an introduction to an imprint without the substantial investment of a high-end illustrated book. "People can have it in electronic form and then decide if they want to have a physical copy," says Abrams. "I think the medium offers a strong possibility for people to be exposed to the kind of quality that we try to publish."