ABSTRACT
While it is the job of marketing to understand the needs of the market and promote books to the relevant audiences, it is the sales staff who stimulate demand through the various retail channels. They realize income by sustained face-toface selling to key intermediaries. With the decline in independent bookselling, the dominance of the chains and their shift to central buying, and the rise of supermarket and internet sales, the focus of sales staff has altered in recent years. Publishers have redesigned job roles to create key account managers, who deal with the chains and other key customers, and there is less emphasis on visiting individual bookshops. Publishers have reduced the number of their fi eld sales representatives, and redefi ned their roles to focus on marketing and customer relations.
