Melville House Books

They are some of the most colorful, popular, hardworking and legendary people in the book business: sales reps, the people who go into a book store on behalf of publishers or distributors and convince the buyer that customers are definitely, no question about it, absolutely for certain going to love a particular book. But a new development in the U.K. “puts a question mark over the long-term future of the rep,” says Ralph Baxter in a Publishing News report. The development? As of January 1, the U.K.’s huge bookselling chain Waterstone’s will no longer take orders from sales reps. “Instead, all titles will now be ordered electronically from branches.” Baxter says “Larger houses have welcomed the move,” because, as one tells him, it “systematises the process effectively.” But smaller publishers, he says, “are more sceptical” of teleordering because buyers can change their mind after reps leave the store . . . if they continue to visit buyers, that is.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.