As publishers and wholesalers look for new ways to communicate the excitement behind their books to booksellers beyond Edelweiss descriptions or images on a printed catalogue page, some are reaching out to new technology. For the fall season SCB Distributors, which represents a number of illustrated book publishers, is testing an IOS-compatible app for iPhones and iPads.
“[The idea],” says SCB president Aaron Silverman, “just came to me when I saw so many sales reps using iPads at the sales meetings. Also, I really hate Power Point and the way it shows a linear slide show. The app is a much better way to present the catalog on a big screen with all the additional information and pages for each title.”
It has been working so well on big screens at sales conference and small ones in buyer’s offices that earlier this month SCB released an app for its Art Book Collection catalog, which features 230 titles from 30 independent presses. SCB is also working on an app for its spring list. The apps are available free in Apple’s iTunes Store.
