Publishers are not willing to wait for consumers to go to the bookstore to buy the titles they release. Increasingly, publishers are going where the consumers are, including upscale clothing boutiques, baby stores, butcher shops, cafes, DIY/hardware stores, cookware stores and carwashes.
Customers at the Anthropologie store in New York's SoHo district come for the clothes and accessories, but now they can also buy copies of Annie Leibovitz's A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005 and other titles matched to the store's core customer base.
Abby Hoffman, the vice president of sales and marketing for Chronicle Books, told The New York Times, "It's a way for the book business to stay alive. Anyplace that sells merchandise is a place to sell books."
Book sales have been off, down 2.6 percent in August, and publishers are looking to put themselves in front of consumers in spots where consumers are already motivated to buy, such as Anthropologie, Starbucks and Mike's Deli (Mike's Deli?) in the Bronx, New York.
Mike's has sold more than 4,500 copies of Ann Volkwein's Arthur Avenue Cookbook at $25 each. The book sold only 8,000 copies aside from those sold at Mike's.
The Arthur Avenue Cookbook sold so well that Mike's added more titles, including The Italian American Cookbook by John Mariani and Con Amore: A Daughter-in-Law's Story of Growing Up Italian-American in Bushwick by Bea Tusiani.
David Greco, owner of Mike's Deli, said selling books in an unconventional environment such as his store requires some flexibility on the part of the merchant. "When you deal with salami and mozzarella, it's a little greasy. So we keep the books in plastic bags."
With years focused on growing the bookstore business, publishers have only recently put a more serious effort into growing alternative channels of distribution.
Simon & Schuster, according to the Times article, is looking to have its sales representatives seek out shops and markets that may offer a natural fit with some of its titles. Time Warner Book Group has changed the color and design of book jackets to coordinate with a store's merchandise.
"The publisher now has a responsibility to put books in front of more eyeballs," said Jack Romanos, president and chief executive, Simon & Schuster. "The market was always there, but I don't know that most publishers were as aggressive about trying to develop it 10 years ago as they are today."
Some titles actually do better in alternative locations than they do in the major booksellers. Wall and Piece, written by the graffiti artist Banksy, has achieved its biggest sales at Urban Outfitters along with some independent bookstores.
Discussion Questions: The push to sell books in places other than bookstores shows the shift to selling to consumer lifestyles and not simply to product categories. How will this lifestyle marketing and sales approach impact the retail book business in the future? How will lifestyle marketing and sales impact other product categories and merchandising in retail stores?