nuance
notes
a world of words
Episode Two
In conversation with Julia Wieler Jill Prewett interviews Orell Füssli’s English Bookshop Marketing Manager Can you start by describing your job? I’m Marketing Manager. I’m responsible for the four print catalogues we produce each year, for contact with publishers in Britain and America and for the window displays. [For non-Zürich readers: The bookshop windows stretch around one of the busiest corners of Zürich – always attention-grabbing and intriguing.] The whole management team decide on what themes or books we like and brief the decorators. We sometimes sell window space to publishers we meet at the London or Frankfurt Book Fairs, but we keep the big windows because we like to be free to do what we like in there. I do our online marketing; the newsletter to 7,000 readers and updating our Facebook page with news, competitions where you can win signed books and gadgets. How do you decide which books to buy? The book fair, and our distributor here is OLF, based in Fribourg, which is where we order most of our stock. Their sales rep visits and presents all the forthcoming titles. UK publishing reps also visit and we meet those from the US at the fairs. We’re eager to discover debut authors, which is why we have a special window spot – our Pick of the Month – we sell those at a discount because people are taking a risk. We’ve discovered a lot of brilliant books this way. >
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The publishing world is undergoing some major changes at the moment. Which elements makes you optimistic, and which make you depressed? Hmm, the optimistic part is hard. I read so much that depresses me. Amazon is a big threat to bookshops and also to publishers. If authors decide to publish with Amazon, these books will never be available through regular bookshops. That’s sad. Not everyone orders online and people will miss out on great books. What’s exciting is the concept of e-books. Although they’re a rival to the regular book, I love the idea of carrying 3000 books in your pocket. Technology is now advancing and we could sell these e-books at the shop, advising readers who come in with their device, who can buy it there and then. That way, you still need staff who’ve read the book and have opinions. We have to evolve with the times rather than being scared of new developments. Do you ever stock self-published books? We do. We get approached by a lot of authors, but there’s rarely a book that excites me. The covers, very often, are just not appealing, no sparkle, no reason to buy it. It’s always difficult for me to say no because I know there’s a lot of work involved, even if it’s not good. And after all, it’s a question of taste. It’s not my
Zürich, December 2011 /1