Ever since David Steinberger took over Arcadia Publishing, the company has made partnering with the American Booksellers Association one of its major promotional efforts. Arcadia is furthering that tie at next week's Winter Institute by presenting all 380 attending bookstores with a personalized catalog featuring 16 titles selected specifically for that store as part of its YourTown Store Match program.
According to Steinberger, representatives from each bookstore will receive a catalog with titles tailored to their store, as well as a physical copy of one listed book. The catalog for River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury, Ct., for example, includes such backlsit titles as Connecticut River Ferries, Connecticut Witch Trials, and Lobster Rolls of New England.
Steinberger, backed by former Disney and Penguin chief Michael Lynton and his sister Lili, bought Arcadia in May 2018. The company specializes in publishing books on local topics, and has a backlist of about 14,000 titles.
Under the upgrade program, booksellers can order curated local titles from Arcadia, as well as through Ingram's iPage platform. According to Ingram chief commercial officer Shawn Everson, starting with Winter Institute attendees, and eventually expanding to booksellers everywhere, "iPage will provide an updated and curated assortment of local titles, unique to each store, ready for ordering and delivery.”
Meghan Hayden, owner of River Bend, said using YourTowm Match "was a great way to identify regional titles likely to be popular with my new customer base."
