Issues in Scholarly Communication is a newsletter produced by Paula Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, for the Illinois community. Entries from 2001-2005 newsletter are available.
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Penguin’s new “Hot Shots” sampling program—aimed at stimulating backlist sales—will distinguish itself from similar competitive efforts by pricing, packaging and length, the company has announced. And the inspiration for the new offering? Apple’s ubiquitous iPod. Hot Shots will debut in stores September 27, featuring six titles from Nora Roberts (as well as mystery pseudonym J.D. Robb); Jane Castle; Christine Feehan; Sherrilyn Kenyon; and Maggie Shayne. Each title will be a very manageable 92 to 128 pages of material (all of which will have been previously available, but only in anthologies) and will carry an easy-to-swallow $2.99 list price. “We haven’t seen one with [Penguin’s] price point in about four years.” Ken Kaye, VP and director of distribution sales at New York–based Penguin Group, acknowledges competitive sampling efforts, but says “this is a little bit different,” because of the size of the novels and price: It’s less of a commitment because the shopper pays less, and then reads what is essentially a short story, versus a full-length novel. On the other hand, Kaye reports that Penguin is hoping customers will make multiple purchases, i.e., try more than one Hot Shots author. And, of course, the company hopes such purchases will lead to shoppers buying the rest of the sampled authors’ mass-market catalogue, at $6.99 to $7.99 a pop. …Although the Hot Shots titles have a lower price, Kaye says Penguin is not “skimping on the packaging.” The titles have “a good cover, with some foil on it.” He adds that Penguin hopes to offset the costs incurred by such production values by having a stronger sell-through than normal: That means taking a reserve for lower returns, which helps overall profit margin. The promotion came about when the Penguin’s field marketing staff “were talking about [Apple’s] iPod and iTunes and how successful it is in selling singles instead of the CD and then having people go back and buy the albums,” Kaye reports. So, Kaye says, the Hot Shots effort is aimed at stimulating stagnant mass-market paperback sales. The anthologies in which the newly repackaged stories were originally included might have sold only 150,000 copies. Hot Shots hopes to well-exceed those figures—and then reap further rewards through incremental catalogue sales. The Book Standard 8/8/05 http://tinyurl.com/a2lop
Posted by P. Kaufman at August 9, 2005 8:10 AM
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