Competition from free online sources is an issue in almost every category of nonfiction, but nowhere more so than in reference. Why buy the dictionary when you can get the definition for free? Says Allison Jones, associate director Web and reference publishing at Palgrave Macmillan, “It's been a no-brainer for over a decade now that reference works well online: no sprained wrists lifting heavyweight volumes, easy searching, no eyestrain reading pages of closely argued prose on screen, the ability to update as necessary. The benefits are many and obvious.
Throw in new players like Wikipedia, creating high-quality reference material for free, and prospects for the traditional publisher of reference books begin to look bleak. And yet and yet, somehow reference books refuse to roll over and die.” As an example, Jones cites the recently revamped The Statesman's Yearbook, now a whopping 143 years old. The title has been morphed into what she terms “a hybrid product,” consisting of a traditional print version for the bookshelf and online access to text that is updated regularly and includes external links and archive material. “Suddenly the possibilities for research jump through the roof, yet the core function of an annual print publication continues undisturbed,” notes Jones.
“Reference publishers have to seduce consumers back to books,” says DK publisher Miriam Farbey. “Books as physical objects have to be instantly and incredibly arresting.” And the information in them must be rock solid, say Farbey and other publishers. Farbey adds, “A million entries on Google—who can tell what to read first or what's true?”
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, seems to be the attitude at National Geographic Books, where publisher Kevin Mulroy sees “an appetite for content-rich, accessible and competitively priced family references.” The National Geographic Visual History of the World uses a format that Mulroy says makes its interior “look more like something you'd see on a Web site than in a traditional reference book.”
Houghton Mifflin has made its landmark American Heritage dictionaries available in electronic format for decades. “We have a long-standing strategy of taking advantage of both the print and electronic markets, as each version offers distinct advantages and disadvantages,” says Marge Berube, publisher of dictionaries. This spring the house will publish an updated edition of The American Heritage College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, with a free downloadable version with audio. Says Berube, “Thus the consumer can read it as a book, download it and read it on a screen, or hear it spoken.”
In a sign that print publishers aren't conceding the category to the Web, Princeton University Press is preparing to launch a reference program at the end of this year. (The press has published reference titles, but not under a single umbrella.) Anne Savarese, senior editor for reference, was brought on board to create the program and hopes to be publishing eight to 10 reference titles annually once the program is up and running. “We're looking at disciplines we're already strong in, where people will take the books seriously because of who we are and what we've published in the past,” says Savarese. These include mathematics and economics, as well as revised versions of longtime standards like The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, which dates back to 1965.
So Where's the Category Headed?
As publishers compete with the Web, the once clearly drawn line between illustrated reference books and gift/coffee table books is also blurring, says Jonathan Metcalf, category publisher for reference at DK. As a result, he says, “The look and feel need to be as special as the content.” Metcalf points to the forthcoming The Sports Book, with a jacket constructed of Astroturf, and a new photographic portrait of China robed in red silk.
National Geographic, too, is positioning its Essential series of small hardcover books—$14.95 each with about 1,000 illustrations—as gift books. The initial title in the series, Essential Visual History of the World, debuted with a 50,000-copy first printing in the spring and has already returned to press for an additional 30,000 copies. In a similar vein, Houghton Mifflin offers its 100 Words series (the most recent is 100 Words to Make You Sound Smart), which are also small, reasonably priced books that counterbalance major but inevitably expensive dictionaries.
At Barron's, editorial director Mark Miele says that the house is looking at the intersection of reference and self-help. The newest trend in reference publishing, he says, “is giving people books on self-improvement and hobbies, including topics such as gardening, travel and nature. Reference books for enjoyment purposes and how one can improve their life is where reference is heading.”
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