Doing Digital Business Today

Chris Bauerle, Director of Sales & Marketing at Sourcebooks, will be at the Frankfurt Book Fair Publishers Launch Conference on October 10 to speak about how Sourcebooks built an efficient, cross-company digital workflow.

In advance of his session, Chris was asked this question on the Frankfurt Book Fair blog:

Can a publisher change its whole way of doing things, continue to deliver high-quality printed books, and gain the flexibility necessary to capitalize on digital opportunities without losing its soul, and a good portion of its staff?

And here’s what he had to say:

“At first glance, my answer here was YES!, but I think there is much more to the answer than that. I would first take the opportunity to poke a little at the basis of the question. I don’t think a publisher needs to “change its whole way of doing things” at all. The basis of our business is artistic and creative. Publishers are not in the business of just printing manuscripts but of crafting an author’s work into a living expression of an idea—this through development, editing, packaging, positioning, sales, and marketing. These fundamentals stay the same, and the digital transformation allows the opportunity for us to apply our craft in order to reach new readers through a seemingly endless stream of possibilities..."


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