eCatalogs Are Coming: Learn More at BEA

Interactive, online catalogs are coming this fall, and booksellers and others will have an opportunity to see how they'll work during BookExpo America. Demonstrations of Edelweiss will be presented by Above the Treeline at Booth #4130 on the trade show floor, and on Friday and Saturday mornings from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. in Room 1E02 on the lower concourse (just down the hall from the ABA Lounge) at the Javits Convention Center.

Edelweiss is available at no charge to book buyers, regardless of their current Above the Treeline affiliation, as well as to other industry catalog users such as publicists, bloggers, and agents. It works across participating publishers so that booksellers need learn only one system.

Publishers currently working with Edelweiss for the fall season are Cambridge University Press, Chronicle Books, Columbia University Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Ingram Publisher Services, Penguin Group (USA), Random House, Thomas Nelson, and Workman. More publishers are expected to sign on soon.

Noting that interactive, online catalogs will help booksellers save time and improve the buying process, John Rubin, the founder and CEO of Above the Treeline, told BTW last week: "There is no doubt that publishers are moving to eCatalogs -- and we look at Edelweiss as a way to provide a better solution to publishers that keeps the interests of the bookseller front and center. If each publisher develops their own eCatalog, the overall usability and features for booksellers will be significantly less than in a cross-publisher platform like Edelweiss."

For more information about Edelweiss, read this interview with Rubin by Mark Nichols, ABA's senior director of publisher initiatives.