We provide the publisher a tailored approach to each and every market: Chitra Bopardikar

Chitra Bopardikar in New Delhi. Photos: The Punch

Feb 27, 2017

Chitra Bopardikar is the new V-P and General Manager of Baker & Taylor’s International Retail Sales, and Global Publishers Services (GPS), a new business unit of Baker & Taylor. GPS provides select client publishers with international sales & marketing, strategy development, world class logistics, alongside the other print and distribution services available through Baker & Taylor.

Bopardikar, with over 20 years of global sales experience, was earlier vice-president of sales & new business development for Perseus where she built and oversaw international sales and new business development for one of the US publishing industry’s largest group of independent publishers. Bopardikar is a graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business and has held international sales positions at McGraw-Hill, Penguin, Macmillan and Houghton Mifflin.

GPS aims to deliver books quickly throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. B&T acquires inventory from its distribution clients and relies on local offset printing and on Print On Demand (POD) to help fill any immediate demand. In April 2016, B&T entered into an international partnership with the UK’s POD-Worldwide.

Bopardikar was in New Delhi in January as part of her global tour for GPS.

Excerpts from an interview:

THE PUNCH: Could you talk about your global operations’ strategies? You act as a bridge between the publishers and the marketplace. How do you zero in on different titles and reach out to the right set of publishers?

CHITRA BOPARDIKAR: Baker & Taylor is a very large organization which has different divisions. Global Publishers Services (GPS) is part of the retail division. We also have a library division. And now, through our new owner, the Follett Corp, we have access to supply titles into US and international schools. With GPS, the whole idea is to become a bridge between publishers and the international marketplace. Our acquisitions strategy is selective; we are not trying to be all things to all types of publishers. Rather, we are choosing partners for whom the international marketplace is a recognized growth area and they are able to commit to working with us in India and other parts of the world. That’s an important criterion: They must recognize the importance of the marketplace and what it takes to participate. Then, we can open up potential opportunities and work with them on market by market basis. India is different from Singapore, which is different from Germany, and it’s different from Canada. Every market outside the United States is unique: the distribution ecosystem and the pricing approach are unique in every different market with some commonalities. What we provide the publisher client is a tailored approach to each and every market and close relationships with customers. Sharad Mohan, our regional manager for the subcontinent, represents GPS and Retail sales in New Delhi. One of my goals for this visit to India is to identify a suitable distribution partner who can help us deepen our activities in this market and provide local stockholding. We hope to announce this partnership soon.

Our other team members are situated throughout the world. Each of them is an expert in their own marketplace. There are certain categories that we know will work well and certain others that we want to experiment with. Once we have identified a potential publisher, we assess their capabilities to become a good partner. It has to be reciprocal. It’s not enough to have good books. Many publishers have good books that are saleable and could find an audience, but they don’t have the right strategy to make their books competitive. There are a lot of variables that we work on with publishers — pricing, local availability, the marketing and publicity for each key book, along with building the author’s platform. The client should be willing to invest the time and energy to understand the market and work with us to make the product competitively available.

THE PUNCH: What kind of publishers will you primarily focus on?

CHITRA BOPARDIKAR: We are concentrating on general and academic trade publishers. Our key category focus is on business books, high-end/illustrated/coffee-table books, children’s books, young adult fiction, and serious non-fiction. While we are not an academic sales force, we work with the customers who distribute into the larger academic market. Fiction is of great interest and our team has a great deal of experience selling fiction from major houses, but it’s a difficult category to acquire since most authors are already published in India, or their rights are licensed into the market. So, while we would not rule out any fiction publisher, that’s probably not going to be a main focus for these reasons. We are open and flexible about who we might consider. The selection criteria are really more about the character of the publisher and the potential for international sales. There are some who may have a presence in India, but without an effective strategy. So, working with us may help them to strengthen their market position. And the publishers will direct how we grow. Through acquisitions of publishers, we can take ourselves into potentially new areas whereas if you are publishing the same kind of books year after year, you are concentrating on a certain aspect of the market and don’t have the opportunity to go outside your comfort zone because the list isn’t driving there. We have a lot more flexibility. We can potentially have a very broad range.

When I formed GPS, I had certain type of potential publishers in mind, but as we announced it was great to find a variety of others took notice. So, we’ve had clients we wouldn’t have thought of coming to us for distribution.

We launched in August 2016. In September, we signed our first batch of four clients. They include (1) Glitterati, a high-end illustrated publisher, (2) Sellers Publishing, publishers of journals, gift books and calendars, (3) Arcadia Publishing and the History Press, which is a beautiful publisher with a very deep backlist. And (4) Sourcebooks, which is a great find. The CEO and Publisher of Sourcebooks is Dominique Raccah, who was named Publishers Weekly’s person of the year, and Sourcebooks was recently listed as a Top 10 US publisher by Publisher’s Weekly. This is a great partnership for GPS, and we are extremely excited to bring the Sourcebooks brand and several bestselling authors to India. They publish adult, including romance, and YA fiction, children’s books. They also distribute Prufrock Press — a publisher of trade books targeted to the parents and educators of gifted and talented children and children with special educational needs.

Most recently, we signed Sounds True, a mind body spirit publisher, with a high concentration on Buddhism and spirituality. They originated as audio publisher and began publishing books about five years ago. This is a very important list for India, for both the local and tourist market.

THE PUNCH: Independent publishers are doing some great books. Do you see them becoming a part of mainstream publishing?

CHITRA BOPARDIKAR: We are playing a crucial role here. Over the years, I have observed that major publishers, the big five trade houses, are moving towards global publishing. So, if you are an author of a Penguin Random House or HarperCollins, you can be globally published through their vast infrastructure. But if you’re an author at an independent house, you don’t really have a way of achieving that instantaneous global publishing experience,unless your publisher is attached to a larger solution. GPS provides independent publishers with a level playing field.

Pricing to market and speed are the two most critical factors to meet consumer demand. Pricing to market is something sales team can negotiate or achieve through local printing. Speed to market is as important because if you miss out on the prime opportunity for the book, then you’re just back peddling on demand or you’re not there at all. As a global logistics provider, speed is one of Baker & Taylor’s strengths, and we have a variety of options available within our supply chain. So, by joining us, the publisher immediately gets access to a global marketplace, with a tailored approach to their list, and speedy delivery.

In the end, it’s most important that we cooperate with our publishers to get the price, format, and packaging elements right, and then deliver the books as quickly as possible. Beyond that, leveraging the author, through their personal appearances and social media, can greatly enhance sales.

Page

Donate Now

Read Now	Read Now	Read Now
Read Now	Read Now	Read Now
Read Now	Read Now	Read Now
Read Now	Read Now	Read Now
Read Now	Read Now	Read Now

We provide the publisher a tailored approach to each and every market: Chitra Bopardikar

More from The Byword

Comments