As subscribers of our eNews have heard, it is once again PubFight season, where usually friendly coworkers turn into bitter enemies.
For those of you unfamiliar with PubFight, it’s a fantasy publishing league BookNet Canada designed for educational purposes and, let’s be honest, for fun. The game teaches players about inventory management and P&Ls, and gets staff thinking about the broader Canadian market and the variety of books on offer. Publishing teams create fictional publishing houses and they go to Fakefurt for a heated auction to create their list for the fall. The titles on auction are real titles and the sales figures they work with are actual sales. During the fall, these teams will choose print runs and monitor stock to make sure they maximize sales, pay off advances and don’t build up unnecessary debt from overprinting.
This year, we are proud to announce that we have integrated CataList into the game. The industry is changing and adapting and so must the game. We’re still using print books but we’re embracing digital catalogues. So for the first time, the trade league will be using the PubFight 2012 catalogue on CataList to strategize pre-Fakefurt. All titles in the PubFight catalogue will be up for auction and there’s a wide selection from big, medium and small houses.
Here’s the cover:
It’s beautiful isn’t it? I think it really captures the spirit of the game.
For those of you wimps who didn’t have the courage to play this year, you don’t need a CataList account to view the PubFight catalogue because it’s public. Go ahead and check out what you’re missing. But those PubFighters who want to do their research before heading to Fakefurt will want to log in for full functionality. SalesData is integrated into CataList so that you can view comp titles and backlist sales directly inside the catalogue title pages.
If your company already has a CataList account, just make sure your access is turned on. Basic access will do and it can be turned on by whomever manages your company account. If your company isn’t already on CataList, we will set your league up with a demo account for PubFight purposes. Just contact the CataList team and we’ll get you started.
As usual, @Fakefurt will be on hand to discuss and heckle #PubFight tweets. The PubFight team, led this year by Lauren Stewart, will be reachable at pubfight@booknetcanada.ca. And the CataList team will be on hand for any CataList questions.
Let the games begin!
