Publisher preview
A publisher's preview primarily informs booksellers , journalists and license partners about new publications from a publisher . The most elaborate, mostly DIN A4 stapled brochures are usually published twice a year - in December / January for the spring season and in May / June for those from autumn onwards.
The publishers present their new production with a short description of the content and all bibliographical information ( author and publisher , title, translator and original title, scope, design , retail price, ISBN ). Usually the cover picture of the future publication and a short biography of the author illustrate . The order of the contents within the preview signals the expectations of the publisher in terms of the audience's response. The editors set certain priorities in their program and highlight some (presumably strong-selling) titles in terms of design, e.g. B. with reading samples or press reviews, more clearly. This method is common and not always popular with writers. At the end of such a preview booklet, an excerpt from the backlist is often printed out and the publisher's contact details and contacts are given. The exact design of the individual publishers often fits into their publisher profile . For example, a company that specializes in scientific literature will prefer a simple presentation, whereas the music and film book publisher Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, for example, would prefer an extravagant decoration. Previews in the form of glossy magazines have long been clarifying the increasingly extreme marketing measures within the industry , especially when it comes to fiction . Publishers' previews are often the first contact with the specialist public and understandably do not want to get lost in the mass of offers.
The custom of the printed preview is currently under discussion among publishers : Both the frequency of publication and the expensive creation of the printed preview mean that this effort is regularly put to the test in view of stagnating book trade sales. Especially in smaller publishers , often without a co-commissioned publisher's representative, there is no regular preview. The function of the previews - to prepare the representatives and their trip and to get retailers in the mood for the upcoming program - is mostly undisputed and hard to imagine current retail marketing without it. For years, the previews have also been made available online, some in closed areas for trade on the publisher's homepages.
For some years now, bookshops in the USA, the world's largest book market, have been using internet-based systems to obtain information on new publications and thus to dispose of novelties. The publishers put all information about the new publications online on a daily basis - in addition to information on marketing measures, reviews and access to advertising material.
The German-speaking book industry now has several systems to choose from: since 2015, a German version of the US market leader edelweiss and the novi24.de platform have been available to the book trade . The title information system VLB-TIX has been online since December 2015 as a new development created on an industry-wide order and based on the directory of deliverable books and can be used by journalists, bloggers and readers in addition to bookstores.
literature
- Ursula Rautenberg (Hrsg.): Reclams Sachlexikon des Buches . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010520-X , p. 524.
- Erhard Schütz u. a. (Ed.): The book market book. The literary business in basic terms . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-499-55672-3 , pp. 308-310.