Do you think it is important for the corporate suits at publishing houses to walk the bourse and gau

Longacre

Perhaps I am wrong on this point, but I view the numismatic publishing world to be first and foremost a general publishing business, and secondly as a subset of the publishing market, namely numismatic publishing. I look at numismatic publishers as any other publisher in that the corporate conglomerate needs to identify a subject matter of a book, and then "hit the spreadsheets" to see how much it costs to publish that book, how much it can charge, and whether the return on investment meets the internal hurdle rates that the guy in the corner office sets.

Because the corporation does not write the book (the author/numismatic expert does), do you think it is even necessary for a corporate suit at the publisher to get his or her hands dirty and actually walk a bourse and gauge collector sentiment? Or does the corporate publisher mainly rely on the author's views of which numismatic topic is relevant at any given time, and then again, simply looks at the financial return on that proposed book? Or is it almost a requirement for a publisher of such specialized books to have their own specialized knowledge to make a business determination to publish a book or not, regardless of what a numismatic author might think?

Coinosaurus

I think it is really good for general PR if the numismatic public understands that the corporate publishers (let's just call them publisher "W" for the sake of brevity) are personally involved in the hobby and keeping their feet on the ground, or show floor, to speak.

And some knowledge of the market really is required, otherwise you are going to have authors pitching wacky ideas, with no capability to discriminate which ones have good potential.

My guess is that the numismatic book market is kind of "nichey" compared to the general book market and as a result may have some quirky rules which apply differently. The distribution channels are a lot more targeted, and the number of "thought leaders" in the industry is much, much smaller than for mass appeal books.

BobGreene

When you finally publish your book, Longacre, you should definitely give weight to those publishers with a track record of publishing within the industry about which you are writing. Krause and Whitman are two that immediately come to mind.

BECOKA

It is necessary to do research in order to figure out the best way of getting their product out to the most people. They are not helping themselves or the writer by blindly publishing a book and not promoting it.

Walking the bourses and learning the trade to me is doing proper research.

RWB

Coin collecting is still a very small hobby, and it is important for publishers (and writers) to attend a few shows and see what is of interest to collectors. The large publishers, obviously, must also meet the needs of collectors and casual hobbyists who do not attend coin shows. If they failed, the shelf space in the big box stores would quickly go to more religious, mystical and self-help tomes.

The hobby also has its “stars” and some of these are associated with publishers and writers.

ProofRainbowRoosevelt

This applies to all aspects of business, of course it is important.