In Tuesday’s Book Industry Study Group annual meeting—the first run by new executive director Len Vlahos—members were brought up-to-date on various projects and initiatives and confirmed the appointment of Hachette Book Group’s COO Ken Michaels as co-chair of the organization, joining Dominique Raccah who has one year left on her term. Random House’s Madeline McIntosh also provided some more details of World Book Night, the industry wide program that has as its goal giving away 1 million books.
The first American World Book Night will be held April 23; WBN was held last year in the U.K where McIntosh said the giveaway program resulted in a 60% increase in sales of books that were part of the program. Earlier this year, Carl Lennertz was named executive director of the U.S. operation and WBN already has the support of the major trade houses, Barnes & Noble and Ingram. The plan, as outlined by McIntosh, is to find 40,000 book-loving volunteers to help distribute 1 million books in one day from various locations across the country.
A list of 100 books for inclusion in WBN will be compiled soon and a committee will pick the final 25 to be given away some time in November, McIntosh estimated. She acknowledged that it is an “audacious” goal to give away 1million books, but it is an idea “that feels exactly right.” In addition to generating sales, McIntosh hopes that media coverage leading up to the event will create new energy about books and dispel the notion that books are old fashioned, and are, rather “fundamental and part of our core culture.”
More information about WBN is available from Lennertz (who was at a regional trade show Tuesday) at carlapril23@live.com.
The balance of the meeting focused of the status of several projects that have been in the works for a while; and a paper on developing ways to identify digital content and for creating a “controlled vocabulary” to facilitate domestic and foreign rights transactions are both close to completion.
