Panorama Project Highlights Sales Opportunities for Booksellers

On Tuesday, May 28, the Panorama Project, a publishing cross-industry research group, introduced Panorama Picks — a program that provides booksellers with localized, curated lists of books that library patrons are waiting to borrow.

Panorama Picks uses aggregated, anonymized local library hold list data to identify titles beyond the obvious bestsellers with long wait times for library patrons. The Project makes these lists available to booksellers at no cost — giving booksellers, publishers, authors, and others a new, easy, and cost-free way to promote titles of local interest and increase sales.

The Project has been previewing Panorama Picks to selected regional bookseller associations and is receiving enthusiastic feedback. Wanda Jewell, executive director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, “emphatically endorsed” the program and will be working with the Project on a webinar on Panorama Picks for SIBA members.

The first set of regional Panorama Picks lists of in-demand titles are available to view and download on the Project website. The project will compile and publish new lists on a quarterly basis. The list selection methodology will be refined in response to user feedback.

The Panorama Project is a multi-year industry initiative focused on researching the impact of public libraries on book/author discovery, brand development, and retail sales. The project is supported by a growing list of publishers, booksellers, libraries, service providers, and industry organizations. The Panorama Project Advisory Council includes members from Penguin Random House, Sourcebooks, Open Road Media, American Library Association, Audio Publishers Association, Cuyahoga County Public Library, NISO, Rakuten OverDrive, and Ingram Content Group.

Learn more about the Panorama Project and sign up for monthly project updates on the Project’s website.