Publishers, Promote Your Books Through BookSense.com!

The American Booksellers Association is inviting publishers to participate in the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program. The new program helps publishers promote their books through both the Web sites and bricks-and-mortar locations of participating stores. ABA has been testing the program with the help of four publishers -- AOL/Time Warner, Harcourt, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster -- and 30 bookstores. The BookSense.com Reimbursement Program will be rolled out to all BookSense.com stores at the upcoming BookExpo America (May 28 - June 1, in Los Angeles).

Through the program booksellers are provided with pre-packaged "theme" content to post on their Web sites. Each theme contains five titles, with jacket covers and descriptions, and each title is eligible for newsletter co-op from a participating publisher. In addition to posting the content online, booksellers are required to place a minimum order for each title (varies by publisher) and to display the books in the store. Displays, online and off, will be maintained for approximately one month.

To participate, a publisher must be an Associate member of ABA in good standing, have a newsletter co-op policy (also known as "exempt co-op") published in the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook, and be willing to apply that policy to the Co-op Reimbursement Program. Publishers of all sizes and varieties are welcome.

For more information, contact Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com, at [email protected] or (800) 637-0037, ext. 1215.