Mike Shatzkin, one of the most knowledgeable, entertaining, supportive, and opinionated people in the book world, died yesterday, November 7, at age 77.
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| Mike Shatzkin | |
Shatzkin worked in the book business for more than 50 years, starting on the sales floor of the new paperback department of Brentano's 5th Avenue bookstore in the summer of 1962, at age 16. For a time he was director of marketing at his family's venture, the Two Continents Publishing Group, and worked with dozens of publishers whose books the company distributed. He quickly became a supply chain expert, digital change leader, and the author of nearly a dozen books. In 1979, he founded and was CEO of the Idea Logical Company (one of our favorite company names) and was a consultant to many companies in the book business, especially about the supply chain and distribution.
In the early 1990s, he began studying book publishing's digital future, working on a series of "Publishing in the 21st Century" conferences and White Papers that were sponsored by VISTA Computer Services.
In 2008, Shatzkin and Publishers Lunch founder Michael Cader created Publishers Launch Conferences, which ran many industry conferences about digital change, and created and hosted the first seven Digital Book World conferences. In 2014, Shatzkin and his Idea Logical colleague Jess Johns teamed up with Peter McCarthy to create the Logical Marketing Agency. The group later founded Optiq.ly, a digital service to optimize discovery and online purchase of books. In 2016, he sold his interest in Optiq.ly to Ingram.
His Shatzkin Files blog was always insightful, and in March 2019, Oxford University Press published The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know, which he co-wrote with the late Robert P. Riger.
Like so many people in the business, we will miss Mike, who was inspiring, challenging, and friendly, all at the same time.