We just enjoyed our annual meeting with our publisher, Avalon Travel. They flew to Seattle this time, and twenty of us sat around our conference room table for most of the day getting up-to-date on our guidebook work. I’m thankful to have a publisher I’ve been friends with for 15 years with a staff that works well and closely with mine. We’re all enthusiastic about the mission of our teaching. And when we get together, either in Seattle or in Berkeley, we break from the huddle ready to make our guidebooks better and more efficiently than ever. We know Europe, and Avalon knows publishing.
The two most quotable quotes of the day from our publisher:
“Our sales are up, but that’s to a great degree because Europe guidebook sales were down the most in the economic crisis last year.”
“How you’ve grown without being aware of what others are doing is truly remarkable.”
We used to brag, “Don’t be fooled by overweight guidebooks” — celebrating that our books were light and easy to pack. Now most of our editions have put on weight and come in at 600 to 900 pages. We asked if this was a concern. Our publisher replied, “No. As long as your books are lean, crystal clear, and poetically charged, more is more.” (Though he did admit that our page count — combined with our priority to keep the books portable — is “pressing the limits of modern printing technology”).
While everything used to hinge on annual updates, now we update with nearly every printing whether it’s a “new edition” or not — so the actual new edition is less important. We are “constantly updated.” This means that some of our biannuals (the lesser-selling half of our books, which are undated and come out in “new editions” only every two years) are actually updated more often than every other year — just without a new cover. Not having a date on the cover is a plus for bookstores because they don’t need to clear the shelves each 12 months. So with “constantly updated,” we get the best of both worlds: shelf space and updated content. The biannuals are selling as well as they would if they had dates on the cover, it’s more efficient for the retailers, and we sneak in our updates between new editions when we reprint the book.
New printing technology makes it easy to make small but efficient print runs, enabling us to publish shorter and much less expensive guidebook excerpts we call “Snapshots” (for example, Norway, Stockholm, and Denmark, which are derived from our bigger Scandinavia book). This allows readers to buy just the destinations they want. It also takes the pressure off us to address the market demand for these regions, and it lets us test-market destinations to see where a full-fledged guidebook would be justified. Of our twenty-some Snapshot titles, Barcelona is a top seller. That indicates that, if we were to publish another full-fledged guidebook, it should be Barcelona.
Traditionally, my publisher is always pushing for more new titles. But now he’s satisfied that we’ve covered Europe pretty well. The one thing we’re missing is “pocket guides.” Our competition is selling lots of these smaller trim, full-color, distilled versions of standard guidebooks. Until now, we’ve given them a free ride. In 2011, we will get into that game.
Our sales are pretty good. We’re in the top tier (Frommer, Fodor’s, DK, Lonely Planet, Rick Steves — in no particular order), and the top tier leaves everyone else in the dust. Out of every 100 books we sell, 82 are sold in the USA, 9 in Canada, 5 in Europe, and 4 everywhere else. Everyone’s excited about electronic books, iPhone apps, and digital publishing — but it’s still only 3% of our total sales revenue. Both my publisher and I are encouraging our staffs to keep our eyes on the prize: printed-on-paper guidebooks.
With our phrase books, we took on Berlitz and won (outselling them in bookstores). With our journal, we took on Moleskine and lost. We designed a cool journal in two sizes, but it just doesn’t sell. I think it’s overpriced, and encouraged my publisher to go wild in reconsidering their pricing. Stay tuned.
The big stress in the book business is how to adapt royalties and author payments to electronic books. Amazon and Apple are jockeying to lock up the electronic sales. Map sales are going to hell in a handbag — hit much harder than guidebooks by Internet alternatives (Google Maps and GPS). The American Booksellers Convention is not the vibrant thing it used to be.
The thirtieth anniversary of my first edition of Europe Through the Back Door is this May. We’ll have a little party.
I have always had good success with Rick Steves’ guidebooks and transitioned away from the older brand names because RS ETBD’s were a bit more user friendly and more entertaining to read. I would never depend on RS entirely because the others we use (like Fodor, Frommer and Lonely Planet) each have something that makes them special. However, all these books are relatively expensive so for the first cut I page thru all at the bookstore or the library and then cherry pick the best. Frankly though, there is real pleasure in not following a guidebook as tho it were a cookbook or a train schedule. Having the time (and the funds of course) to “wander” makes traveling a pleasure rather than a chore (ex. if it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium or we Must see this or that no matter how long the lines, argh). Good as RS is, and the company is very good both in the field and at Edmonds, I know at heart I’m an Untour person. Now if RS ETBD could just package a lead guide in his books who could be reconstituted simply by adding water, he would have a real barrier to competition.
Congratulations on your success Rick, and thanks for sharing what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what’s new. I tend to use RS almost exclusively in Europe now, and find myself “evangelizing” about them to my friends who are not hip to the guidebook scene. I know you have Europe pretty well covered, but there are some notable omissions: Iceland, the Greek Isles, Turkey (outside of Istanbul), and Russia (at least Moscow & St. Pete) come to mind … any plans on adding any of them to the RS collection as separate guides or part of existing ones (Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, etc.)? My wife and I had a wonderful honeymoon traveling solo from Istanbul to Athens by way of Ephesus and the Greek Isles, but missed having RS guides for all but the beginning and the end. I know the Greek Isles aren’t your favorite, but among those thousands of islands, surely there has to be a back door or two? And clearly, there is a lot of untapped demand, from the business side of things.
I just bought a copy of Rick Steves Europe 101. I’ve used Rick’s guidebooks for years, but this was the first non-guidebook that I’ve purchased. I am absolutely blown away by the amazing photos and quantity & quality of content. Whether you’re a back-door style traveler or not, you should read this book! It is so interesting and will make museum visits so much more meaningful. I wish I had read this ten years ago!
As for maps, they are being blown out by GPS more than anything else I think. For Steve from TravelingProfessor.com, do like Rick recommends and cut up your guide book. Take only the pages you need. I’ve done that and it makes a big difference. For Rick Steves–how about making the walks peforated to make tear out easier? Have them in discrete sections so that you don’t have overlap and it will make cutting up the books easier.
I always enjoy “behind the scene” posts, thanks. WRT guides, I really like it that Lonely Planet now lets me buy by the chapter instead of the book for downloading – and I can print the result in bigger type that I can read easily! But what I’d really like is a guidebook that’s easier to cut up. Stopping chapters at section boundaries instead of randomly would help, although the ideal would be some innovative binding.
Well there is no doubt in my mind that RS has mastered the art of the focus group in print. Part of his company’s success is being upfront about what it does and gleaning superior advice for no cost. You have to give the guy credit.
We have had great sucess with your guide books, been using them for 10 years. The few trips that we took to places you don’t write about, was a struggle. Even though we have a GPS and rent cars with them, my husband always wants a back up map. And I have to admit it has helped us many times clarify something on the GPS. We are going to Ireland in a couple months. We will bring our GPS, Michelin Map, and RS planning map!
Thanks to Judy for alerting me to the fact RS has a planning map. Maybe it will help us in Ireland also.
Here is another title for your publisher. Rick Steves’ Europe by Cruise Ship. It sounds like with the modern printing technology you talked about it would be fairly easy to pull all of the cruise ship ports into a new book. In fact it could be two new books a Northern Europe edition and a Mediterranean Sea edition. I view a cruise as a highlights tour. If I see someplace that I like I put it on a list to come back for a more in depth visit. These new editions could be a way to introduce cruisers (and probably first time travlers to Europe) to other Rick Steves’ books and products. Rick is in the guidebook selling business. So let’s sell some more books. I have used many of Rick’s books during my travels and have been on one of his tours. However I have some friends going on a cruise this May from Rome to London (1st trip to Europe) and I was thinking it would sure be great to be able to give them a Rick Steves’ guidebook for all of the ports they are going to be visiting.
Robert, Rick hinted at just that at the reunion in Edmonds last month. I too think its a great idea. I would love to see those cruisers dump the expensive shore excursions and see at least the port cities the way we see them. Imagine them cutting the shackles of the tour guide with the umprella parading them up the Rambla, or through Tallin or Naples. Instead help them take public transportation and walking on their two feet instead of being cooped up on a big tour bus with their fellow passengers. Its a great idea Rick. Save the cruisers from the shore excursion rip-offs!
Finally pocket guide books! I have been using the DK “Top 10″ books because the RS are just too bulky for my use. I travel to the EU on business(yes, I am blessed) which means I have to pack a 22” with both my suit, dress shirts, ect. along with my touring clothes and I can pack 4 Top 10 in my backpack less space than one of the guides–and strictly for the locations I will be visiting. I kind of remember talking to someone on your staff about this a couple of years ago, however, he said something about book stores were concerned about having to carry too many titles(or some such. Candidly, I sometimes have to hunt for the DK top 10’s at a couple of stores to find them, and finally had to go to Amazon to get one. Stay real!
Rick, The value of your Guidebooks became abundantly clear in January when I was visiting Edmonds. Although I was there primarily for the Tour Alumni Reunion, I used the opportunity to do some trip research using the awesome collection of books in your Library. After perusing numerous Guidebooks from Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Rough Guides and several others, I gave up. I found the structure and layout of the other books to be very awkward and cumbersome. They didn’t seem to be organized in any kind of logical and easily read fashion, as your books are. It would be nice if your Guidebooks were offered in a format that would allow some sections to be easily removed, so that I don’t have to pack along an entire book if only a small portion is needed for a particular trip. Aside from that, keep up the good work!
The description of RS journals does not include a built in document pocket on the inside cover (which Moleskine has). If it has a pocket, say so to increase sales. If it does not have a pocket, add it to be more competitive. For me,the most valuable part of the guides is information on how to get from one place to another and the hotel information.
The description of RS journals does not include a built in document pocket on the inside cover (which Moleskine has). If it has a pocket, say so to increase sales. If it does not have a pocket, add it to be more competitive. For me,the most valuable part of the guides is information on how to get from one place to another and the hotel information.
Rick, there are more ebook readers than the Kindle and the iPad. I wish Travel as a Political Act were available in Adobe ePub Digital Editions. PDF is not the greatest format for ebooks unless you’re reading them on a nice big PC screen, and many of us are not. Just about every non-Kindle dedicated ebook reader can take ADE ePub, so you don’t have to go crazy with expanding formats. Just please add the one. Also, the most recent edition of ETBD available at my favorite ebook retailer, BooksonBoard.com, is 2005. 2005!!! I mean, I own ETBD 2006 and feel guilty lending it to people that are going to Europe for the first time. Thanks for reading my little rant. :-) verification word: swimmingly. One hopes. :-)
Hi Rick, Your guidebooks are so helpful, and so full of information. I just bought the new Spain 2010, for the hubby and I are going to Spain in May. Instead of getting a decent night’s rest, I stayed up half the night reading the book;-) And, I also watched on dvd your shows on Spain. I can’t wait to go!
Pocket guidebooks, yes!! When I take your trips, I take a Moleskine City Notebook with me but what I would give to have a small pocket guidebook to go with them, that has all the distilled info I need. If you’re debating size, please consider the really wonderful, really sized-to-fit-pockets 5.5 x 3.5 size (like the Moleskine). Nothing would make me happier! Thanks. In response to Robert and a cruise ship book — I don’t know if you see the irony, but seeing Europe through a cruise ship is about as polar opposite from a Rick Steves travel philosophy as you can get (and I’ve been on my share of Caribbean cruises!). How’s this for a suggestion: Keep your cruises to the warm waters.