BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : AUGUST 28, 2000 ISSUE
FINANCE Page-Turners for the Portfolio Set The market for investment books continues to boom There's little doubt that stocks have been in a bit of a funk in recent months. But another, clearly related phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down: the market for personal-investing and personal-finance books. Book publishers say that, largely as a result of the bull market, sales of these books began to speed up about five years ago, and continue to accelerate. Despite an ever-growing number of advisers--from CNBC to magazines such as Smart Money and Web sites such as CBS MarketWatch--all clamoring for public attention, the demand for guidebooks to the gold fields is on the rise. Observes Suzanne Oaks, a senior editor at Random House Inc.'s Broadway Books: ''Readers are looking to balance all the up-to-the-minute data with books that give in-depth, step-by-step advice--not the least of which is the motivational message: You need to take action!'' CULTURE OF INVESTING. American investors are not easily sated. For some, pursuit of investment advice has become both a hobby and something akin to an itch that needs regular scratching. ''There's a growing culture of investing,'' observes Joan O'Neil, publisher of the finance program at John Wiley & Sons, one of the biggest publishers of financial-advice volumes. Wiley published about 30 such books in 1999, will have 40 to 45 in 2000, and increase that by at least 10% over the next two years. McGraw-Hill, publisher of the best-selling 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success by Investor's Business Daily founder William J. O'Neil, is in the midst of a similar expansion: from 45 titles in 1999 to 60 in 2000. (The McGraw-Hill Companies also publishes BUSINESS WEEK.) But an impressive increase in titles isn't the sole barometer of publishers' ardor. Warner Books, part of Time Warner Inc., is known for producing a relatively small list of Big Bang books--it recently shelled out $7.1 million to win the bidding war for General Electric Co. Chairman John F. Welch Jr.'s forthcoming opus. Warner currently has three white-hot titles on Business Week's Best-Seller List: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, and two sequels to that volume. Rich Dad, which promises to reveal the lucre-generating secrets of the wealthy, has been on the list for a year and has held the No. 1 spot on the paperback list for the past five months. Says Rick Wolff, a senior editor at Warner: ''Their message is: To be rich, you don't have to be brilliant or particularly savvy about finances. You just have to have the guts to go after it.'' With the flood of market information, investors now have access to a lot of the same information as Wall Street pros, and this has led to a greater savvy among readers. Simon & Schuster, a division of Viacom Inc., is betting that ''the next wave of books that's going to sell big will be more sophisticated,'' according to Frederick W. Hills, a vice-president and senior editor there. As an example, Hills cites Mary Farrell's Beyond the Basics, by the PaineWebber managing director, and he notes that some future Simon & Shuster titles will be linked to Web sites that will amplify their message. Some very advanced investment books have proved to be hot-sellers. These include Yale University economist Robert J. Shiller's market debunking best-seller, Irrational Exuberance, and the long-running Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy J. Siegel, now in its ninth printing. Explains Debra Englander, editor of Wiley's personal finance program: ''People want books that will help them use the other tools that are out there.'' NICHE OPPORTUNITIES. A glance at the personal-finance and personal-investing shelves at the bookstore reveals that, as a group, publishers have segmented book-buyers into numerous groupings. There are books for Wall Street pros, books for serious personal investors, books targeting women, books aimed at African Americans, and, needless to say, books for those who know little about investing. And fads can prompt subgenres, such as last year's flurry of day-trading titles. Indeed, observes Lori Sayde-Mehrtens, Wiley's director of publicity: ''One reason for the increase in titles is the fact that there's such opportunity for niche publishing,'' readers being interested in getting exactly what they need and no more. So what happens if the Dow takes a dramatic dip? Adrian Zackheim, associate publisher at HarperCollins' general books group and a veteran of the business-book scene, has an interesting theory: ''There was a period within the last decade when books about management were dominant and personal-finance books were less noticeable.'' With today's prosperity, though, managers are under less pressure to squeeze employees, and everyone is focused on making moola. ''So,'' he observes, ''the trend is just the reverse.'' So would publishers respond to a market downturn with a new wave of management books on downsizing--or will they be there with investing how-tos for hard times? Despite the popularity of Shiller's Irrational Exuberance, which all but calls the current market valuations a con job, many, such as McGraw-Hill's business and general reference group editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Krames, have no plans for bear-market books. ''The Dow and S&P have been flat for months, but many individual stocks are doing well,'' he offers, adding that McGraw's books aim at helping investors make decisions on individual stocks. Others, such as Broadway's Oaks, say they can respond to any development. ''We present all sides,'' she explains. ''Even in the type of market Shiller predicts, there will be a need for investing advice.'' Brother, can you spare a stock tip? By Hardy Green in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Page-Turners for the Portfolio Set TABLE: Reads to Riches INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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