Interactive Sales Catalogue for Book Publishers

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New releases are the lifeblood of the publishing industry.Book publishers generate most of their annual revenues from new releases, but sell only a tiny percentage direct to consumers.Books are mainly sold via booksellers, from indie bookshops to national chains like Waterstones to international giants such as Amazon. To ensure their books are stocked and prominently displayed, publishers actively promote and sell their new releases into these channels and ensure booksellers display, promote and sell publishers' output online and offline.The motivation for the project "Interactive Sales Catalogue for Book Publishers" is to improve how new releases are promoted and sold to the trade ("B2B sales") which has been severely disrupted by the pandemic.The traditional approach is based on printed sales catalogues sent in large numbers to bookshop staff and frequently followed by physical review copies of new book releases. Publisher's sales representatives follow-up by meeting booksellers face-to-face across the country. The pandemic has severely disrupted this practice and briefings are increasingly moving online.In addition, it has long been recognised that publishers sending printed sales catalogues and review copies unsolicited and in large numbers to booksellers is an environmentally wasteful activity. Unsolicited review copies often remain unopened. The few that are read by busy retail staff are read "professionally", meaning only the first and last fifty pages are browsed. This is an immense waste of paper, packaging, and unnecessary deliveries. The pandemic and the associated move to online meetings offer an opportunity to rethink this practice.This project will provide UK publishers with an innovative tool using the fixed-layout ePUB format and the Jellybooks Cloud Reader to provide an online magazine-like experience for promoting new releases to booksellers in the UK. Retailers will be able to access the digital review copies of their choice directly from within interactive sales catalogue. This is a web-based reading solution that requires no app to be installed and no file to be downloaded.This novel service is based on a prototype built by Jellybooks for a large academic publisher prior to the outbreak of the pandemic and allows for a socially distanced, online approach for promoting and selling new releases to booksellers as a substitute for the seasonal spring and autumn sales catalogue that publishers print and distribute in large numbers to booksellers.The proposed service is unique in providing very detailed engagement and reading analytics, giving publishers' sales representatives detailed insight into what books are getting attention so they can focus their online sales meetings on the books that are getting booksellers excited.The Jellybooks Cloud Reader provides access to review copies of many kinds including narrative books (re-flowable ePUB), illustrated books (fixed-layout ePUB) and audiobooks (MP3-LPF). The Jellybooks Cloud Reader is a turn-key solution based on the open-source Readium Web architecture and is able to support visually impaired readers and readers with other accessibility requirements.The project is being undertaken by Jellybooks, a world-class publishing technology specialist headquartered in Brixton, London.