Four independent presses--Seven Stories Press, Catapult, Europa Editions and Grove Atlantic--have teamed up to create the Indie Playlist, a promotion aimed at supporting independent bookstores
The promotion will run three times per year, in April, June and October, and for each promotion the participating presses will create at least two playlists, or themed collections of titles, offered to indies at a higher than usual discount. At the same time, the presses will be running a display contest based on the promotion, and the winner will receive $500, with half going to the store and half to the bookseller in charge of the display.
The debut playlists are "Quick Reads" and "Award Winners," and feature titles from Catapult, Europa and Seven Stories. Grove will come on board with the June promotion.
"What we're really trying to do here, as independent publishers, is help bookstores make the experience of discovery as vivid and full of surprises as possible for their customers," said Dan Simon, publisher of Seven Stories Press. "There's a push from the big five of more and more commercial product. The independent publishers, very like the independent booksellers, stand for something a bit different."
The Indie Playlist program has grown out of a monthly promotion that Seven Stories launched in August of last year. It was inspired by discussions with the executive director and president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association about how independent publishers can run promotions that also support indie booksellers. The previous promotion also featured themed collections of titles and a display contest, though that version had a smaller prize.