Looking to find a place in the crowded world of travel books, Time Out Guides, a book line run by the magazine company, has borrowed many concepts from its parent business.
Time Out Guides uses traditional means of book promotion—the books are distributed by Penguin U.K. and Penguin U.S. The division, which is part of the London-based Time Out Group, makes appearances at BookExpo and prints seasonal catalogues aimed at booksellers. But it also follows the magazine world in many ways, relying on a strong magazine brand, courting advertising and sponsors (Perrier and MasterCard have both recently been featured on the covers of its books) and building large, homegrown teams of freelancers in the cities it covers, instead of using one or two expatriates, as is traditionally done.
"It's a bit unusual," conceded Time Out Guides director Peter Fiennes. "But we keep the thickest walls imaginable between advertising and editorial." And like a magazine editor or publisher, he said, the relationship between the two is complementary, not contradictory. "We use the money to make the editorial better," he said.
Before deciding whether to publish a new guide, Time Out also engages in detailed budget projections that factor in ad and sales revenue, much as a magazine might before deciding whether to do a special issue. Fiennes said the advertising brings in 5% to a "considerably higher" share of total revenue. The books, unlike other travel guides, target locals as well as travelers. Time Out publishes about 50 titles per year and hopes to add five to 10 new titles annually.
Still, like all travel publishers, Time Out has had to worry about growing a list without overreaching on destinations. To address this, it has made some unusual additions to its line. Among its newer lines are Eating & Drinking guides to various cities (à la the magazine), a Film Guide and even a tango with fiction, with titles such as London Short Stories and New York Short Stories. Said one Time Out official: "If you keep doing new guides, you start getting into some smaller cities, and you can't just put out a guide to [places like] Dayton."
