Edelweiss to Demo Publisher eCatalogs at BEA

John Rubin, the founder and CEO of Above the Treeline, will hold demonstrations of Edelweiss, an online, interactive catalog system developed by Above the Treeline, at BookExpo America.

"We're excited to be able to show booksellers at BEA what we think is a great time-saver and improvement to the new title buying process," said Rubin. "There is no doubt that publishers are moving to eCatalogs -- and we look at Edelweiss as a way to provide a better solution to publishers that keeps the interests of the bookseller front and center. If each publisher develops their own eCatalog, the overall usability and features for booksellers will be significantly less than in a cross-publisher platform like Edelweiss."

Ongoing Edelweiss demonstrations will be presented at the Above the Treeline booth (#4130) on the exhibit floor. Additional demonstrations will be held on Friday and Saturday mornings from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. in Room 1E02 on the lower concourse (just down the hall from the ABA Lounge).

Edelweiss is available at no charge to book buyers, regardless of their current Above the Treeline affiliation, as well as to other industry catalog users such as publicists, bloggers, and agents. It works across participating publishers so that booksellers need learn only one system.

Publishers currently working with Edelweiss for the fall season are Cambridge University Press, Chronicle Books, Columbia University Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Ingram Publisher Services, Penguin Group (USA), Random House, Thomas Nelson, and Workman. And, Rubin said, more publishers are expected to come on board soon.

For more information about Edelweiss, read this interview of Rubin by Mark Nichols, ABA's senior director of publisher initiatives. --Karen Schechner