At-Home Trunk Shows Are Huge Moneymakers. I Attend One To Find Out Why

On a Wednesday evening in April, I find myself in a well-appointed home in Brookline, a wealthy Boston suburb, sipping wine and eating macarons with a dozen oncologists from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Sitting around a coffee table displaying Asian art and colorful books about design, the women—colleagues from the same medical research group, aged between 40 and 60—aren’t talking about their work. “Oh, you never wear bright colors, but that red looks so good on you,” says one to the other. “I keep buying these pants every season, because they fit so well,” another says. “They are perfect for hiding problem areas on your tummy.” I’ve joined these women for a trunk show run by Cabi, a social shopping brand that operates in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. It was founded in 2001 by Kimberly Inskeep, a finance executive looking for a flexible career after her kids were born, and Carol Anderson, a fashion designer in need of a new way to market her products. Together with ten of their friends, they launched Carol Anderson by Invitation (hence, Cabi), a line of clothing that they would sell in their homes in a party-like setting. In the brand’s parlance, they were creating “alternative stores.” Over the last 15 years, the company has steadily grown, and its team of 3,500 salespeople around the world generate more than $250 million in revenue a year. The concept of selling directly to your friends has been around since the 1950s Tupperware party. But direct selling... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2017-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #bottom line

Other Publishing stories related to: 'At-Home Trunk Shows Are Huge Moneymakers. I Attend One To Find Out Why'

Young US readers 'like print', finds Pew

Younger readers in the US are more likely to have read a printed book in the last year than older... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #younger readers #printed book

Survey Shows Amazon Leads Japan in Ebook Sales, Apple Already Second

A new survey in Japan shows that Amazon's Kindle is leading the market for ebook sales, with Apple (launched in March) second, followed by Kinokuniya's Kinoppy, Sony's Reader Store and Kobo. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ebook sales

ALA 2013: Sweet Home Chicago!

The 2013 American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition will be held in the great city of Chicago, where the ALA is based. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #great city

Reprint for A M Homes after Women's Prize win

Granta is reprinting 60,000 copies of A M Homes' May We Be Forgiven after it scooped the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

'Dazzling' Homes scoops Women’s Prize for Fiction

The American novelist A M Homes has won the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction for her... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american novelist

Amazon’s Huge London HQ Says “Publishing Revolves Around Us Now”

Amazon's massive new HQ in historic central London is nothing short of symbolic, and will overshadow neighboring Penguin, Faber, S&S UK, and Bloomsbury. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ss uk

BEA 2013: The Show Evolves

BookExpo America at New York City's Javits Center began with a full day of panels and presentations on Wednesday, May 29, and ended with a newly energized Consumer Day on Saturday, June 1. While exhibitors and attendees were still evaluating the new Thursday–Saturday schedule for the exhibit... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookexpo america #full day #exhibit floor

Children reading more on screen than print, NLT finds

The growth in children’s digital reading is an “opportunity for publishers rather... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #children reading #digital reading

International Titles Finding New Ways into the U.S.

According to the University of Rochester’s translation database, 413 translated works of fiction and poetry were released in 2012, up from 370 the previous year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #translation database

Pulitzer Prize: huge sales neither required nor guaranteed

After winning the highest honor in the literary world, the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winners have seen sales increases – but so far the numbers are pretty tiny. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pulitzer prize #highest honor #literary world #sales increases

World Book Night: the most popular books and which Broadway show is getting involved

World Book Night, the celebration of reading which includes the distribution of free books, has arrived. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #popular books #free books

‘Stoner’ Finds Overseas Success

The most surprising bestseller in international markets in March was in the Netherlands, where John Williams’s classic novel Stoner reached #1. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #international markets #john williams

PublishNews Brazil: Breakfast at LBF, Int’l Authors to Attend Rio Fair

Publishing news from Brazil: The London Book Fair will host a networking breakfast for those interested in Brazil, numerous international authors confirmed for Rio's book fair, and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishnews brazil #publishing news #book fair

'Follow Her Home' to Marlowe territory

Steph Cha's debut novel begins as an homage to the famous gumshoe and Raymond Chandler before ending up exploring vastly different mean streets of L.A. Raymond Chandler is among the undisputed masters of crime fiction, especially for stories set on the mean Southern California streets. His... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #female characters #crime writers #michael connelly

5 Innovations That Show Libraries Don’t Have To Die

Sure, the age of browsing for books and checking them out may be coming slowly to a close, but the idea of a library can adapt rather than fade away. These five locations are doing just that. When I took a high school class in "library science," the primary innovation I learned about was the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #coming slowly

Argentine Isol Takes Home World’s Largest Children’s Lit Prize

The Argentine illustrator known as “Isol” has won the world’s largest award for children’s literature, the SEK 5m (roughly $766,000) Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #largest children #largest award

Almanac app to chart Gaiman's huge 2013

Neil Gaiman looks set to be one of the busiest authors of 2013, with a host of book publications... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #neil gaiman #book publications

Bookshop browsing vital for publishing, research finds

The crucial role of physical bookshops to a healthy publishing industry was underlined this week... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #research finds #crucial role #physical bookshops

Finding Different Ways to Prosper

Higher ebook sales, expansion into new markets, and leveraging the wild popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey were some of the ways the publishers that made this year’s list of PW’s fast-growing independent publishers prospered in 2012. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #wild popularity #fifty shades