Book Catalog Goes Digital

Book catalogs have long been like the products they sell: mostly made of paper and glue. But today's readers and bookshops are used to quickly finding information online, which could mean the death knell for the traditional printed book catalog. At least it is for Bonnierförlagen, which has now switched from paper to digital.

There are seven individual catalogs for seven of the publishers within Bonnierförlagen. Each of the catalogs will be updated seasonally four times a year, with previous seasons' books also easily found.  

"Many of the advantages of a digital catalog over a printed one are obvious," says Per Widell, web manager at Bonnierförlagen. "For example, no paper, ink or even fuel for delivery trucks are needed to print and distribute the catalogs. But just as important are the less obvious - such as the fact that we can keep adding on as needed without worrying about page counts or becoming too heavy. You can easily search by genre as well. Not only that, we've added a host of features that are impossible in print - high-resolution cover and author photos can be downloaded, there are filmed interviews with authors and even interactive features that allows users to post to Facebook and Twitter."

Equally important, the catalogs will always be up-to-date, not just with the important information necessary in a catalog but also with content from a wide range of sources within Bonnierförlagen, says Widell. "In the future we'll be able to spend much less time in producing each catalog and end up with more timely and easy-to-grasp catalogs filled with rich content," he says.

Check out the catalogs here (in Swedish).