Packaged Books

Many books are the creative work of their authors - Scott Meredith Literary Agency "star" authors include Sheila Lukins in cooking and thriller writer Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. Some books are the result of teamwork - for instance, Mayo Clinic's publishing line, whose books are combinations of staff physician, editorial, graphics and design teams.

But many significant book projects are "assembled" in one manner or another and follow a wide variety of business models - sometimes to enhance "image," sometimes to utilize content otherwise unavailable, sometimes to take advantage of specialized distribution or advertising support for a book.

Arthur Klebanoff has nearly twenty years of experience with these packaged books. Each such project, by its very nature, is its own story:

In the mid-1980's, Arthur Klebanoff represented the Vatican Library. In connection with that representation, he helped to assemble the first trade book in the United States using writings of Pope John Paul II.
The text was edited from speeches of the Pope during pilgrimages and the photography was culled from hundreds of thousands of images shot by the Pope's personal photographer, Arturo Mari.
The result - Pope John Paul II: Pilgrim of Peace - was published in 1987 to coincide with the Pope's pilgrimage to the United States.
 
 

In 1989, Roger Tory Peterson was completing the art plates for a revised edition of his Field Guide to Western Birds. Peterson's Field Guide art plates (several thousand in all created over more than 60 years) represent one of the most important bodies of nature art since Audubon's birds. Yet the art itself had only been published in small format with black line overlays for field identification.
Arthur Klebanoff proposed and arranged with Easton Press a private full size (12" x 17") facsimile edition of Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide Art - with the black line overlays published on the facing page rather than over the art itself.
The result was a 10,000 copy sale at $300 of a two volume leather-bound set. Production on a hand fed sheet press took nearly a month.

The 1992 America's Cup Race in San Diego presented an unusual publishing opportunity for International Management Group and its local partner. Arthur Klebanoff directed the business side of the project. The resulting book - America's Cup 1851 to 1992 - won a variety of industry awards, set standards for a visual tie-in book and made a profit from a wide variety of international and deluxe editions.

1993 was the 75th Anniversary of the Hertz Corporation. Arthur Klebanoff supervised an award-winning visual book, which Hertz supported in advertising, with point of sale materials and in a show in the corporate museum - all for image purposes. One item illustrated a risk of image books - a two-page spread in the first printing covered O.J. Simpson jumping over cars in an airport.

In 1995, Michael Bloomberg set out to write a book which would tell his story, the story of the machine and company which bears his name, reach the general media in the United States, position the company in its many foreign markets and encourage wealthy people to donate substantial sums to charity while they were alive. The book achieved these objectives and more - on New York Mayoral primary night 2001, the book jacket was on placards throughout the hall. Arthur Klebanoff worked on this project and its company support for seven years. And Arthur had the pleasure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his toastmaster at a book party for The Agent at the offices of Bloomberg LP.
 
 

In 1997, Arthur Klebanoff organized the entry of Oshkosh B'Gosh into children's publishing. Arthur directed a team which assembled editorial, graphics, design and delivery of finished books. Oshkosh marketed the initial line of 14 books in their own stores and arranged for distribution at Toys 'R Us. The line was licensed to Simon & Schuster for national distribution.
 
 
 
 

In 1999, Arthur Klebanoff financed and organized the Bloomberg Diary and Information Center 2000, a book and CD-ROM which was marketed to the trade by Universe, a unit of Rizzoli and to Bloomberg LP customers on line and supported by print advertising.

In 2003-4, Arthur Klebanoff organized corporate CEO books for Paul Dolan of Fetzer Vineyards (True to Our Roots), Lars Nyberg and Mark Hurd of NCR (The Value Factor) and Bankrate.com (Your Financial Action Plan). All three books advanced strategic corporate purposes and achieved significant media coverage in their targeted communities. For Father's Day, 2005, Gillette backed a title organized by the author of the "Are You Normal" series.