The American Booksellers Association is in the midst of rolling out several initiatives, including a new affiliate program with Biblio.com, which will enable ABA member stores to offer used, rare, and out-of-print books on their Web sites, even if they don’t carry used books in their stores. The announcement comes as the fall regional trade show season gets underway today with the very first conference, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance meeting in New Orleans. Participating stores will be able to link to Biblio’s inventory of more than 85 million books and earn an 8% commission (up to $20) on orders placed on Biblio through a banner on their Web site.
“The flexibility of ABA’s partnership with Biblio is particularly exciting,” said ABA member technology director Neil Strandberg. “Not only is the affiliation open to members whether or not they sell used books, but participating stores can also feature their own used book inventory, the used book inventory of their indie colleagues, or the entire Biblio seller community.” Booksellers can sign up on the ABA’s Biblio page.
Other programs include an encore of last holiday season's Thanks for Shopping Indies. It kicks off on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 30, which has become known, thanks to American Express, as Small Business Saturday. Booksellers who are new to the promotion have untilOctober 14; stores that participated last year are automatically signed up. This holiday season booksellers will be able to choose from among nearly 80 titles, on which they will get increased discounts that they can pass on to customers as part of a promotion, or keep.
And ABA is already readying a similar promotion for the spring. the Spring 14 Indies Introduce promotion of 10 adult debut authors and 10 new voices in children’s. Booksellers have until October 25 to take advantage of publishers offers. “I encourage every store to participate in this promotion. With these books on your list, you will definitely see your sales in this category grow. The second reason we want you to join in is that we want to confirm to publishers what we’ve known for a long time — indies can and do move the needle on new titles, and we are an undeniable force in launching debut authors,” said Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex., and chair of the children’s books panel.
