How Taschen conquered the global book market

Publisher Benedikt Taschen was born in Cologne on February 10, 1961. At the age of 18, he founded a comic book publishing company in his hometown and soon began sending copies around the world.

Shortly thereafter, he switched to the art book business and, in 1984, he had his first major success. With the money he had scraped together from his aunt and parents, he bought 40,000 copies of an illustrated book by the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte at a trade fair in the US for $1 each. Within a short time, he had sold all the volumes at a significant profit, 9.99 deutsche marks (equivalent to about €5 or $6 today).

To Taschen, it proved that there was a market for high-quality, yet affordable, illustrated art books. "At the time, we had bought remaining book stock from all over the world that others couldn't sell at regular prices. René Magritte was a great hero of mine," Benedikt Taschen recalled in a previous interview with DW.

It all started with 'Basic Art'

Taschen's first successful in-house production, Picasso — The Genius of the Century, was published in 1985. The first volume of what the publishing house called the "Basic Art" series was translated into 25 languages.

Salvador Dali and Vincent van Gogh picture books followed, selling for the low price of 9.99 deutsche marks, and quickly became hits.

"In the beginning, we had tried to buy licenses from other publishers, but they didn't want to sell us anything, so we then had to start publishing ourselves, which was also much better. That way we could produce the books exactly as we saw fit," said Taschen.

A publisher of extremes, Taschen is unafraid to feature pornography in the same way as pop art, the interiors of Parisian residential mansions or a collection of rare antique vases. "The fact that we have spanned this arc from small to large, from conservative to progressive, from high to low, is something we are proud of," the publisher said.

The publishing company's offerings include volumes of the Luther Bible, as well as books about the fetish photographer Elmer Batters, who spent his life photographing only women's legs. This breadth, aimed at capturing a variety of interests, is the publishing house's unique selling point.

The first publishing flop 

Yet not all of the publisher's endeavors have been a success. One of Taschen's failures was the photo book Kölner Junggesellen ("Cologne Bachelors"), a who's who of marriage-minded boys in the western German city. But for the most part, his company saw success.

Taschen's secret is keeping prices down with the help of a high initial print run of 50,000 to 100,000 copies and a low-cost layout. Nevertheless, the standard of the texts, topics, and the quality of the printing remains high.

That success inspired many to imitate Taschen's strategy. "Since we are by far the most copied publisher and still are today, at a certain point, the competition became so strong worldwide that we said we can't go along with it. Our books are extremely cheap anyway, you can't make them cheaper than that. So we had the idea to go in a different direction, which is to produce the most exclusive books in the world," he said. 

An expensive endeavor

As a result, Taschen decided to enter the luxury market by publishing some of the most expensive books the industry had ever seen. Twenty years ago, this success came with SUMO, a book of photographs by German photographer Helmut Newton that was more than 400 pages and one meter (3.2 feet) tall. Weighing 30 kilograms (66 pounds), the publication was priced at €3,000 ($3,600). The volumes quickly sold out, with collectors demanding many times the asking price. 

The company further developed that unique approach with GOAT: A Tribute To Muhammad Ali, weighing in at 35 kilograms. The book no longer fit on a shelf, and was delivered on a designer table by Philippe Starck, bringing the "coffee book table" concept to a literal extreme.

Yet despite this success, Taschen's best business doesn't come from these unique publications. "We're a typical backlist publisher, a publisher that lives off what it's done before, and most books can only work economically if they stay in the program for years."

The books remain inexpensive only because they are sold in 100 countries, Taschen said. All publications are translated into at least three languages. The company also doesn't do small-scale orders — booksellers can only place orders in large quantities.

At home in Los Angeles

Benedikt Taschen was also one of the first to conquer the global book market. In addition to Cologne, he has offices in Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Madrid and London. "Basically the program is available worldwide," said Taschen, although "in certain Asian countries or the Middle East, art books by Gustav Klimt or Renoir can't be sold because of the censorship laws there," he added.

Now based in Los Angeles, Taschen co-manages the publishing house with his eldest daughter Marlene. He's become a successful art collector and nurtures his interest in architecture. Years ago, he published a book about the architect John Lautner, who designed his unique home in the California hills, called the "Chemosphere." The octagonal building resembling a UFO is accessible via cable car and is an icon of modern architecture.

 

Correction from January 10, 2021: This article previously stated that Benedikt Taschen was 12 years old when he started selling comic books. It was corrected, as he actually started at the age of 9. We apologize for the error.

This article was translated from German by Sarah Hucal