Seven Stories Press Launches Indies-Focused Promotion

Seven Stories Press has launched the first in a series of monthly promotions aimed at supporting independent bookstores alongside online sales.

For the entire month of August, Seven Stories Press is offering indies a higher than usual discount on two separate collections of SSP titles, one of Women in Translation and another of books For Human Rights, Against War. On SSP's website those same collections will be discounted for one week only.

At the same time, SSP is also running a display contest. The store with the best display featuring titles in those collections, as judged by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, will receive a $250 prize from SSP.

Dan Simon, founder of Seven Stories Press, reported that the promotion grew out of discussions with Eileen Dengler, NAIBA's executive director, and NAIBA president Todd Dickinson, co-owner of Aaron's Books, Lititz, Pa., about ways publishers can work with indies on online sales.

"We are not saying that we've figured it out," said Simon. "But we think we've created a model for partnership and that, with that model in place, we will figure it out."

Simon said he is committed to doing this as a monthly feature for the foreseeable future, with a new collection each month. September's collection will include young people's literature. After six months or so, based on feedback and results from the previous promotions, Simon and SSP might tweak the way it works.

Dengler was optimistic that the partnership will serve as a first step in solving the problem of publishers' direct-to-consumers promotions undermining independent bookstores. Said Dengler: "Dan has been wonderful in his desire to work with our retail channel to come up with ideas to make this work."

Dickinson added that after discussing the issue with a number of publishers, it was Seven Stories Press who "came back the strongest" and "were the most interested in developing some sort of pilot program" with indies. He said that while the program might change over time, the important thing was that there had been a first step, and "it's something that we really want to give our members the opportunity to do."

Powered by: Xtenit