The Amazon contract dispute with Hachette has given the American Booksellers Association an opportunity to come up with a set of lines for booksellers to post in-store or online, touting themselves as retailers that carry all publishers' titles—except maybe Amazon's.
Earlier this week, the ABA created a “Thanks, Amazon” logo, as part of its DIY materials available for booksellers. The message echoes what ABA CEO Oren Teicher said at the keynote panel on “The Future of Brick-and-Mortar Retailing” at the opening of BEA last week: “Independent bookstores sell books from all publishers. Always.”
The “Thanks, Amazon” message is also the banner headline for the Indies First Facebook page. River Road Books in Fair Haven, N.J., is among the bookstores that have already added the Amazon thank-you to their Facebook page, along with a reminder to pre-order Hachette titles from indies.
When asked about the campaign's claim--that indie bookstores carry all publishers' titles--given the fact that many indies do not stock books published by Amazon or in fact by every publisher, Teicher noted that no brick-and-mortar store has the space to carry everything.
"In a world with so many more new titles being published, not even the largest indie can always carry every title from every publisher all the time, but, every indie I know will special order any title from any publisher for their customers,” said Teicher.
