Actually, they are dumping their print catalogs. Starting this fall, HC will forgo the traditional bound catalog in favor of a digital one. Hard to believe this decision wasn’t made years ago.
HC’s digital catalogues, housed at www.harpercollinscatalogs.com, will, in addition to featuring the standard information in print catalogues, include reviews, interviews and promotional videos. The publisher is also promising that the online catalogues will be updated frequently, reflecting any evolving changes with the publication details or marketing efforts surrounding titles. The digital catalogues will also feature access to authors’ backlists and, on select titles, link to browsable galleys. The search functionality will allow users to create lists of titles based on categories like genre, format and on-sale date. A pdf version of the catalogue will also be available, for those who want to print it out, but HC will not mail any print catalogues.
Josh Marwell, president of sales at HC, said the new online catalogues mark the “next step in the evolution of how we bring our books to market.”
Amongst the trees, there was much rejoicing.