Under a new partnership between publisher Chelsea Green and Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., the publisher will provide books to Northshire on consignment in exchange for a prominent display of Chelsea Green Books. In addition, the bookstore will feature "Chelsea Green Author Events" with multiple authors appearing to promote the content and vision of the two companies.
"The current book business paradigm is limiting to bookstores and publishers," said Chris Morrow, owner of Northshire Bookstore. "It is time to become true partners in selling books."
Margo Baldwin, publisher of Chelsea Green, observed: "This branded area partnership is the only model that works to preserve and enhance the vitality of both indie publishers and indie bookstores. They need to move into alliances that support one another and build on local economies and shared communities and mission. We look forward to showing the rest of the industry that all is not doom and gloom if you can carve out authentic human relationship and build on it."
The Northshire/Chelsea Green partnership also includes a commitment to reduce the excessive energy waste associated with the shipping and returning of books. "One of our goals is to eliminate the middlemen remainder
dealers from the equation, thus allowing both Northshire and Chelsea
Green to keep more of the net income from book sales," Baldwin noted.
"Rather than returning Chelsea Green books to the publisher, we will do shared markdowns and special sales of books right on the shelves," said Morrow. "Instead of bookstores spending time and money minimizing our inventory and publishers hiring more people in their credit departments as their warehouses fill with books that customers can't see, this model allows for us both to focus on getting more books in front of more customers. The sales will follow. Chelsea Green is a great partner for us--they are unafraid of new ways of doing business and open to experimentation."