Print books are back in favour with sales forecast to rise by 25% over the next five years, according to a recent report by research firm Mintel.
While the reasons cited for this unexpected revival are anecdotal – from device-laden consumers seeking to get away from their screens to the Instagram “shelfie” craze for showing off bookshelves – you can definitely call it a comeback.
Even when e-books were in the ascendant back at the start of this decade, there was always likely to be a home of some sort for print in the museum world.
The high-quality beautifully designed illustrated books routinely produced by many cultural institutions do not translate on to digital devices, and demand suggests consumers prefer to actually own such books.
All museum and galleries have faced a similar experience with translating illustrated books into e-books, says John Stachiewicz, the commercial director at Tate. “Most of us had a reasonable programme of ebooks, but it simply hasn’t worked.”
Nicola Saunders, the head of publishing, rights and images at the National Portrait Gallery in London, adds the conversation about digital titles has “fallen away”.
She says: “People don’t want to pay for digital publishing, and the kind of books we do don’t produce well in digital form. It hasn’t really hurt us.”
Instead there is an overall sense that the sector is buoyant right now.
“Of course, we are always reliant on our visitor figures at the gallery and sales are relative to that,” Saunders says. “Books have to make money, this is not vanity publishing. Titles have to be accessible for different types of consumers.”
For the National Portrait Gallery, this has meant creating a range that spans small books for tourists that work as souvenirs for around £6.99 up to limited editions, such as its William Eggleston Portraits special edition catalogue, which costs £295, as well as titles attractive to its target audience such as the Vogue 100 book, which sells for £40.
“The whole sector has grown as our books are becoming more interesting to consumers and we become more ambitious,” Tate’s Stachiewicz says. “The big books are getting bigger as we begin to understand the value of them.”
For example, the catalogue accompanying Tate Britain’s David Hockney retrospective, which closed at the London museum at the end of May, was such as huge success that is hit The Sunday Times Bestsellers list.
Exhibition catalogues and spin-off books are now very much expected and will even be part of an exhibition’s press launch, Stachiewicz adds.
“Even the smaller shows will get something. It does depend on the number of expected visitors and if the show is touring. If so, we can work with overseas venues to share the costs.”
Getting a book right can bring significant financial reward to a museum. Perhaps one of the biggest successes of recent times is the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) Alexander McQueen book, which sold 80,000 copies during the Savage Beauty exhibition (March – August 2015) and is reported to have raked in £1.5m in profit for the London museum.
Successful books can also significantly enhance and extend a museum’s brand, both domestically and internationally, as well as showcase its expertise, says Tate’s Stachiewicz. Producing them, however, remains “very costly”.
“Books are often highly priced and that is self-limiting. It is not ideal but they cost a lot to produce when you take in the design, production and copyright fees,” he says. “We also tend to print in continental Europe as we are always right up against deadlines so we can’t afford the shipping times from Asia, where it is generally cheaper to print.”
This is the reason for the increasing number of collaborations between museums and publishing houses. The Design Museum partners with Phaidon for a number of book titles, which offers benefits for both partners.
It is a trend Stachiewicz believes will become increasingly common. The British Museum has a four-year deal with publisher Thames & Hudson to create co-branded titles relating to its exhibitions and collection, plus a deal with publisher Nosy Crow to produce children’s books, which began this year.
London’s V&A also has a deal with Thames & Hudson, signed in 2015, to product titles related to the museum’s art and design collection, and a partnership with Penguin Random House Children, which also draws off its archive. V&A Publishing continues to focus on exhibition-related publications and specialist academic titles.
Tate works “selectively” with external publishers, Stachiewicz adds. “We do this on books we may not be able to publish otherwise and where we are looking to access broader markets.
National Portrait Gallery, which publishes in-house but has a distribution deal with Thames & Hudson, also takes this selective approach, working with partners where it makes sense, according to Saunders.
“It is something we have done in the past where and we are looking to do some co-publishing in the future. Mainly where we don’t have the in-house expertise.”
The future is likely to see a lot of more these kinds of partnerships, believes Stachiewicz: “More organisations will work with publishers as well as licensing out content in different, more interesting ways to reach wider audiences.”
Meanwhile, Saunders sounds a note of caution, pointing out that some of the bigger trade publishers have been “edging into our area” without partnering an institution. “They have seen the opportunities in illustrated books.”
Museums and galleries however will always have the benefit of being able to market to visitors in the moment, as part of the visitor experience. Books should be available in several sites, advises Design Museum’s Hossain.
“Offer look inside and online with free post and packaging,” she adds. “Do a book, talk, launch and signing event. Run competitions.”
It is also crucial to be price conscious, says Saunders. “We monitor our sales here with visitors carefully. In the gallery we can control pricing and there is flexibility, but out in the trade there is a recommended retail price.
“Amazon is also there and a lot of people will buy our books there. We do have to accept it but online sellers do discount heavily and that can be hard. We have to work to make all of our channels work.”
With the revival of print, cultural institutions have never been in a better position to meet consumer demand but with more routes to market than ever, museums and galleries cannot afford to rest on their laurels.
“We still need to understand more about our audiences in order to make our publications more enticing, more appealing and something that people want to take away,” says Stachiewicz.
“That is the challenge – to create something that is visually appealing, academically compelling but also interesting and accessible to the wider audience.”
While the reasons cited for this unexpected revival are anecdotal – from device-laden consumers seeking to get away from their screens to the Instagram “shelfie” craze for showing off bookshelves – you can definitely call it a comeback.
Even when e-books were in the ascendant back at the start of this decade, there was always likely to be a home of some sort for print in the museum world.
The high-quality beautifully designed illustrated books routinely produced by many cultural institutions do not translate on to digital devices, and demand suggests consumers prefer to actually own such books.
All museum and galleries have faced a similar experience with translating illustrated books into e-books, says John Stachiewicz, the commercial director at Tate. “Most of us had a reasonable programme of ebooks, but it simply hasn’t worked.”
Nicola Saunders, the head of publishing, rights and images at the National Portrait Gallery in London, adds the conversation about digital titles has “fallen away”.
She says: “People don’t want to pay for digital publishing, and the kind of books we do don’t produce well in digital form. It hasn’t really hurt us.”
Instead there is an overall sense that the sector is buoyant right now.
“Of course, we are always reliant on our visitor figures at the gallery and sales are relative to that,” Saunders says. “Books have to make money, this is not vanity publishing. Titles have to be accessible for different types of consumers.”
For the National Portrait Gallery, this has meant creating a range that spans small books for tourists that work as souvenirs for around £6.99 up to limited editions, such as its William Eggleston Portraits special edition catalogue, which costs £295, as well as titles attractive to its target audience such as the Vogue 100 book, which sells for £40.
“The whole sector has grown as our books are becoming more interesting to consumers and we become more ambitious,” Tate’s Stachiewicz says. “The big books are getting bigger as we begin to understand the value of them.”
For example, the catalogue accompanying Tate Britain’s David Hockney retrospective, which closed at the London museum at the end of May, was such as huge success that is hit The Sunday Times Bestsellers list.
Exhibition catalogues and spin-off books are now very much expected and will even be part of an exhibition’s press launch, Stachiewicz adds.
“Even the smaller shows will get something. It does depend on the number of expected visitors and if the show is touring. If so, we can work with overseas venues to share the costs.”
Getting a book right can bring significant financial reward to a museum. Perhaps one of the biggest successes of recent times is the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) Alexander McQueen book, which sold 80,000 copies during the Savage Beauty exhibition (March – August 2015) and is reported to have raked in £1.5m in profit for the London museum.
Successful books can also significantly enhance and extend a museum’s brand, both domestically and internationally, as well as showcase its expertise, says Tate’s Stachiewicz. Producing them, however, remains “very costly”.
“Books are often highly priced and that is self-limiting. It is not ideal but they cost a lot to produce when you take in the design, production and copyright fees,” he says. “We also tend to print in continental Europe as we are always right up against deadlines so we can’t afford the shipping times from Asia, where it is generally cheaper to print.”
This is the reason for the increasing number of collaborations between museums and publishing houses. The Design Museum partners with Phaidon for a number of book titles, which offers benefits for both partners.
It is a trend Stachiewicz believes will become increasingly common. The British Museum has a four-year deal with publisher Thames & Hudson to create co-branded titles relating to its exhibitions and collection, plus a deal with publisher Nosy Crow to produce children’s books, which began this year.
London’s V&A also has a deal with Thames & Hudson, signed in 2015, to product titles related to the museum’s art and design collection, and a partnership with Penguin Random House Children, which also draws off its archive. V&A Publishing continues to focus on exhibition-related publications and specialist academic titles.
Tate works “selectively” with external publishers, Stachiewicz adds. “We do this on books we may not be able to publish otherwise and where we are looking to access broader markets.
National Portrait Gallery, which publishes in-house but has a distribution deal with Thames & Hudson, also takes this selective approach, working with partners where it makes sense, according to Saunders.
“It is something we have done in the past where and we are looking to do some co-publishing in the future. Mainly where we don’t have the in-house expertise.”
The future is likely to see a lot of more these kinds of partnerships, believes Stachiewicz: “More organisations will work with publishers as well as licensing out content in different, more interesting ways to reach wider audiences.”
Meanwhile, Saunders sounds a note of caution, pointing out that some of the bigger trade publishers have been “edging into our area” without partnering an institution. “They have seen the opportunities in illustrated books.”
Museums and galleries however will always have the benefit of being able to market to visitors in the moment, as part of the visitor experience. Books should be available in several sites, advises Design Museum’s Hossain.
“Offer look inside and online with free post and packaging,” she adds. “Do a book, talk, launch and signing event. Run competitions.”
It is also crucial to be price conscious, says Saunders. “We monitor our sales here with visitors carefully. In the gallery we can control pricing and there is flexibility, but out in the trade there is a recommended retail price.
“Amazon is also there and a lot of people will buy our books there. We do have to accept it but online sellers do discount heavily and that can be hard. We have to work to make all of our channels work.”
With the revival of print, cultural institutions have never been in a better position to meet consumer demand but with more routes to market than ever, museums and galleries cannot afford to rest on their laurels.
“We still need to understand more about our audiences in order to make our publications more enticing, more appealing and something that people want to take away,” says Stachiewicz.
“That is the challenge – to create something that is visually appealing, academically compelling but also interesting and accessible to the wider audience.”