Random House Is Ready To Say Goodbye To Everybody Else, But Is Everybody Else Ready To Say Goodbye To Random House?
Updated
The Quill and Quire is reporting that Random House of Canada has excused itself from this year’s Book Expo Canada. Brave? No. Overdue? Yes. A provocation? Absolutely. I will forgo rehashing here the crisis of purpose BEC has had and simply ask — what now? Should HarperCollins Canada and Penguin follow suit? Can they? The fate of BEC itself is irrelevant. The interesting part will be watching the brinkmanship hereafter.
The truth is Random House has been taking the other Canadian publishers to school for years. Yes they are the biggest show going in the Canadian market but their true ace-in-the-hole is their mastery of relationship marketing. They have quietly built an outreach network that is unmatched by any other publisher. They have databased store manager’s names and email addresses. They know booksellers by face and by name. They know their reading preferences. They host a list preview for chain booksellers. They can put the right advance copy in the hands of the right frontline employee. They host booksellers at their offices for cheap but effective author chit chats. They have several staff who are dedicated to cultivating and enhancing this program (and no these aren’t sales people). And the funny thing is, few people on the outside know this is going on. Not only is their CRM-capability unmatched, it is often beyond the comprehension of their Canadian peers. Random House can easily walk away from the charade of BEC and not be hurt in the least.
What about everybody else? At least Random House had the good manners to announce they were pulling the plug before, presumably, everybody else committed. So now, if you are a Canadian publishing executive, you are faced with a choice. Do you save the $20K? Do you use the money for your own outreach? Do you maintain solidarity with the other publishers and buy everyone some time? Or do you panic? BEC is a sinkhole and everyone knows it, but that doesn’t mean publishers are ready to make this choice. If you stop investing in your business you might as well shut it. If you try to rush a program like Random House’s you will trip over yourself. And if you bail on the facetime and flag waving at BEC then you’ve got nothing. It would be foolish of the other publishers to turn their back on BEC09 — unless they have a decent plan. Decent plans don’t typically come from defensive moves.
I truly hope Random’s decision sparks some soul searching in the industry. I would be thrilled if publishers got innovative with more customer and more bookseller outreach. I couldn’t care less about BEC. What would be amazing is if the whole epiosode encouraged more backbone in Canadian publishing. I have been waiting for a major house to announce return allowances (like the percentages used in the music industry). That will never happen as long as publishers have their pack mentality. If more publishers — and the biggest ones especially — were confident enough to do their own thing, the industry could escape the fate of Book Expo Canada — a stagnate and worthless spectacle.
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Update: The True Small Caps blog notes that The Quill and Quire’s December issue has a story about publisher outreach to Indigo booksellers. I didn’t realize that HB-Fenn was hosting a list preview for front line staff the same way Random House does. The story also says Indigo’s annual meeting of store managers is being used by publishers to connect with booksellers. Sadly the article is not online 
.
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