Penguin Random House's 13th annual two-day holiday transit program begins today, October 15, and will run through January 25, 2025.
The program, which is designed to support independent bookstores during and beyond the holiday season, will again feature a "no minimums" requirement for independent bookstores, which was added during the COVID pandemic. Booksellers can submit orders in whatever quantities work best for them, on their schedule, without having to build up to a minimum-retail-value threshold.
Weather and transport conditions permitting, PRH will expedite the picking and packing of orders received from indies at its Westminster, Md.; Crawfordsville, Ind.; and Reno, Nev., operations centers for its PRH-affiliated publishers' physical-format titles, and schedule transit "from our dock to the bookseller's door" to arrive in two days or less. All three centers have weekend shifts on duty to expedite Monday shipping for orders received Friday and Saturday.
The expedited-shipping program encompasses every frontlist and backlist title from the imprints of the Crown, Knopf Doubleday, Penguin Publishing Groups, Random House, Random House Children's Books, Penguin Young Readers, Penguin Random House Audio divisions, and DK Publishing as well as the many clients of Penguin Random House Publisher Services.
"Booksellers continue to tell us how critical this program is to their fourth-quarter planning, and how it helps them get books into their customers' hands at the busiest time of the year," said Jaci Updike, chief revenue officer, Penguin Random House US. "This has become one of our favorite holiday traditions."