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Left: Susan Brody
Above: A Japanese children's book
No Language Barrier
Bloomfield Hills firm helps put foreign publishers'
offerings in American bookstores.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
eir business is books, but
there are few books at their
business.
That's because the peo-
ple operating Kurtzman Book
Sales Inc. in Bloomfield Hills rep-
resent foreign publishers inter-
ested in reaching buyers in the
United States.
Working through publishers'
catalogues, they contact book-
stores, libraries and schools to so-
licit sales and then notify the
publishers where the editions are
to be shipped.
Operating for a decade, the
business is changing hands.
Founder Sol Kurtzman, who
owned the Birmingham Book
Store with his wife, Betti, before
establishing this firm, is turning
his responsibilities over to Susan
Brody, who has worked with him
almost since the firm's beginning.
In its first year of operation,
Kurtzman handled sales of
10,000 editions. Last year, the
number reached 100,000. As far
as they know, Mr. Kurtzman and
Ms. Brody are the only ones sell-
ing foreign-language books in this
way.
"After we sold our store in
1983, I was at an American Book-
sellers Association convention
and spoke with a French pub-
lisher," said Mr. Kurtzman, who
had made a special effort to stock
his Birmingham shop with for-
eign-language books, particular-
ly storybooks for children.
"At our suggestion, the idea
started to emerge about our rep-
resenting this publisher in the
United States," Mr. Kurtzman
said. "He felt there was a lot of
business here he wasn't getting."
Mr. Kurtzman built a cus-
tomer base for that publisher, as
well as others he approached, by
traveling to bookstores.
"I was representing the pub-
lishers we had been buying from
when we had our own bookstore,"
he explained.
Paid on a commission basis,
Kurtzman currently represents
nine publishers — three French,
three Spanish, two German and
one Japanese. To find new mar-
kets to approach, Mr. Kurtzman
and Ms. Brody attend trade
shows and watch for new store
announcements in trade publi-
cations.
Most of their work now is done
by phone.
"Since we got started, it's been
our emphasis to get people to cre-
ate special sections for foreign-
language books within their
stores," said Ms. Brody, a former
librarian who studied French lit-
erature at the Sorbonne. "We've
also tried to educate bookstore
owners to let customers know
they carry foreign- language
books.
"People will call us and say we
were right. One told us about a
customer who walked in and
bought every French book off the
shelf"
Spanish titles have become the
biggest in demand because of the
large number of Hispanic people
in the Southwest. Other solid
markets are states where there
still is a foreign-language re-
quirement to get a high-school
diploma and in communities
where there is a large workforce
of one ethnic group.
"We have had to become prob-
lem solvers because of the mis-
understandings that can occur,"
said Ms. Brody, whose phone con-
tacts with the foreign publishers
are with people who have learned
to speak English.
"We've had books shipped to
us instead of the customers or-
dering them and losses due to
packing that is not done well."
Because shipments are out of
their control and they cannot ac-
cept responsibility for missing or
damaged items, Mr. Kurtzman
and Ms. Brody consider insur-
ance coverage very important.
The biggest boon to their busi-
ness has been the fax machine,
which accelerates the placement
of orders and the time needed to
make corrections.
Competition comes from
BARRIER page 48
•
More than 4,000
Industries (IAI) .wor k
Beersheba staged _a; protest
against management's decision
to shift prodUction of certain
parts for the Astra executive jet
to a Spanish coMpany. Work-
ers at the IAI's Rai:lit:a -sub-
A memorandum of under-
standing on economic coopera-
tion between Israel and the
Canadian province of Ontario
was signed in Jerusalem by In-
dustry and Trade Minister
Micha Harish and Ontario Pre-
mier Bob Rae. The deal en-
courages_ the studying of coop-
erative research and develop-
ment projects, -a "Doing
Business-in Ontario" seminar
for Israeli tirMs and an ex-
change of information on Op-
portunities between. Israeli and
Canadian firms.