In the past decade, ABRAMS has aimed to retain its tradition of publishing high-quality art and illustrated books while diversifying and growing in ways that extend that tradition. "The beauty of our books and the artfulness in the way we edit them, design them, produce them and execute them remains the constant in the evolution of our company," president and CEO Michael Jacobs said. "Over the past few years, we have taken what we've always done--making beautiful books--and applied a lot more rigor to the process." The shift has not been an academic exercise. "We had to diversify in order to survive, and those changes have helped us grow," he added.
This year especially, the 60th anniversary of the company's founding by Harry N. Abrams, the effort appears to be working. At a time when most major publishers have cut staff, lists and investments, ABRAMS has had no layoffs, has launched another imprint and is having "an excellent year," Jacobs said. "We are cash generative, and we can fund most of what we want to do."
The good news is due in part to the muscular sales of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, whose next title appears in October. Revenue from the books has given the company an "opportunity to retool and weather this economy as we revisit where we want to put our energy and resources," Jacobs said. He called children's publishing "the biggest example" of ABRAMS's diversification. "At the same time, we're more conscious of a category focus in our adult programs--editorially and in sales and marketing--and are using this crisis as a time of assessment for both growth and change."
Aside from the arts books that the company has been known for throughout its 60-year history and the children's line launched a decade ago, ABRAMS is and has been a significant publisher in the categories of photography, architecture, music, fashion, design, sports, science and natural history as well as craft, food and wine and the domestic arts. "The things we're good at we're going to do even better," Jacobs commented. At the same time, the company overall is publishing fewer titles. Five years ago, when Jacobs began as CEO, ABRAMS published more than 350 titles a year; now it publishes fewer than 250 across all imprints.
As well as the flagship Abrams imprint, these include Abrams Books for Young Readers; Amulet Books, the middle-grade and YA imprint that the company launched five years ago; as well as Stewart, Tabori & Chang, which was purchased in 2000; STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books, now celebrating its fifth birthday; and Abrams Image, which focuses on popular culture and humor.
A new imprint, Abrams ComicArts, published its first titles this year and will endeavor to bring comics and graphic novels to their rightful place among its constellation of artfully published books. Jacobs estimated that the imprint will release 10-12 titles a year.
Refocusing
The economic crisis has touched all publishers. "It's an exciting and scary time, and we are experiencing a transformational shift in retail and in consumer spending," Jacobs said. This hit home for ABRAMS this year despite the success of some of its titles: "We published some great books this spring," Jacobs said. But results have been less than expected "because customers are very cautious and because store traffic has been severely affected. Consequently core sales have been challenging.
"Anyone making things sold through retail outlets has to wonder how big the pie is and whether it's mostly about taking market share from competitors." He predicted that growth will come from new product development, new markets and "digital on some level if we can figure out how to monetize it."
To maximize profitability, ABRAMS this year instituted stronger cost controls, including some salary freezes, suspending a summer intern program, cutting T&E expenses and paring trade show expenses, among other things. "We call it a creative diet," Jacobs said. Fortunately the company is the size Jacobs believes is optimal: about 100 people. "I feel the gestalt of the place is very positive and energetic."
Since he began at ABRAMS, Jacobs has focused on what he called "unsexy stuff," including inventory management, process change, production enhancements, financial planning and everything "between the top and bottom line."
Sales and Marketing
ABRAMS is broadening and deepening its sales and marketing efforts. "As we've trimmed the lists, we have to make more of our books and market them more aggressively," Jacobs commented. "It's O.K. to publish fewer books that sell more copies. Part of the fun is getting books into more people's hands. If we take a book on, we want to really publish it and exploit its potential."
This may in part reflect Jacobs's own background. Before joining ABRAMS in 2004, he had been at Scholastic "for the first five Harry Potter titles," and earlier worked at Simon & Schuster and Penguin. "I grew up on the sales and marketing side of the business," he said. "Once a salesperson, always a salesperson. I'm proud of how we make our books, but I feel best selling them.
"Marketing books is always challenging, but we have, in my opinion, a competitive advantage in that we're going for rather specific niche constituencies," Jacobs continued. "We try to create a tipping point among aficionados and influencers in the right fields and build from there. We feel we are a publisher for passionate people about their passions."
Digital Publishing
Although Jacobs admitted that ABRAMS has lagged somewhat in digital strategy, it is a high priority this year. ABRAMS has begun to convert some of its titles into e-books--particularly children's novels as well as some non-illustrated nonfiction--but no visual ones yet. "We don't want to drag our heels," Jacobs said. "But we're happy being a slow follower while figuring out strategy and the marketplace." Laughing, he added, "We may be the last people making physical books, but I can assure you they'll be beautiful."