13/08/2024
TitlePage is continuing to strengthen its presence in the New Zealand market, where it is now used by over 150 booksellers, and Cat Colwell recently visited Auckland for the Booksellers Aotearoa conference to promote the service to New Zealand publishers.
After a busy trade day filled with meetings with booksellers and publishers, the awards night was a celebration of excellence in the New Zealand Book Industry. Celebrating the innovation at the heart of the service, TitlePage again sponsored the Innovation Award, which this year went to Booksellers NZ’s BookHub – a new website that simplifies online book purchases from independent bookstores. The judges said that the service was ‘one of the most exciting and impactful advances in bookselling at least in the last decade.’
The subsequent conference offered a whirlwind of fresh ideas and perspectives on the current and future challenges facing the industry. Notable moments included a panel discussion on the Future of Bookselling, and an open dialogue on Honouring the Treaty: What can booksellers do to be better Tangata Tiriti? (which translates as People of the Treaty, or New Zealanders of non-Māori origin).
New Zealand booksellers are already passionate users of the TitlePage service, and they came out in force with enthusiasm for recent improvements to the service and their access, and shared expert opinions on its future developments.
Given the unavoidable supply chain challenge of slower lead times to New Zealand, accurate and reliable supply information from Australian publishers on TitlePage is more crucial than ever for these booksellers.
Of the value to Australian publishers in the New Zealand expansion, Colwell said:
‘TitlePage is becoming increasingly important in the New Zealand supply chain. That means Australian publishers can increase their visibility in this market through better supply chain data. The simple act of providing TitlePage with New Zealand pricing and availability metadata will ensure your titles are seen across the Strait, reaching an ever growing number of NZ booksellers actively seeking Australian titles.’
Now is the ideal time to check in with your metadata or ONIX team to ensure that all your New Zealand metadata is up to date. Ensuring that title information includes basic New Zealand-specific data, and that titles are correctly included or excluded from relevant markets, will allow booksellers to access all available titles and make more informed and efficient decisions.
We’ve put together a guide to optimising your metadata to get your titles in front of NZ booksellers.