A publishing house turns out to be a natural place for an e-reader. So natural, that Random House and other houses are distributing hundreds of them to their staffs.
One person explained to Publishers Weekly: “Editorial is asking for digital submissions; once the manuscripts are accepted, we move into the sales and marketing area, where they get the manuscripts in process. For this spring's list, we put everything on the Readers.”
The article goes on to say: Matt Baldacci, v-p and director of marketing and publishing operations at St. Martin's, is equally excited: “There can be a major saving in time—we don't have to photocopy manuscripts. We can get one to a sales rep in San Francisco, for instance, in a couple of minutes.” Baldacci also noted that editors can quickly switch among hundreds of books: “If you see something and say, 'hey, that's not for me,' you can immediately go on to something else.” St. Martin's is still testing the product in-house, but hopes to distribute hundreds soon."
And a person at Random tells PW: “Our goal, which we hope to reach quickly, is to eliminate altogether manuscript dispersal to our sales group.””
Read more here.
