Booksellers and University Presses Discuss Growing Partnerships

A panel at the annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses in late June brought together independent booksellers and university press personnel to discuss ways in which the two groups can partner to form strong and mutually beneficial business relationships.

ABA President Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas; Jeff Mayersohn of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and ABA Board member Jonathon Welch of Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, New York, were on the panel “What’s New at Indie Bookstores,” together with Emily Hamilton, assistant director for book publishing and head of marketing and sales for the University of Minnesota Press. The panel was chaired by Gianna LaMorte, sales manager at the University of Texas Press.

Bookselling This Week recently spoke with LaMorte as well as booksellers Bercu, Welch, and Mayersohn about some of the topics covered during the panel and the major takeaways from the conversation.

Overall, said Bercu, the panel discussion was an opportunity to encourage a receptive audience of university press sales, editorial, and management personnel to think about independent bookstores when they are drawing up their plans.

Noting that the relationship between independent bookstores and university presses can be “a win-win,” Welch said that university presses “publish interesting and unique books, books that are often cutting edge in terms of what becomes mainstream later on.” He noted that by adding such titles to their inventory when they are published, booksellers can set their stores apart and provide an important distinction for customers “who read beyond the bestseller list.”

Based on recent sales numbers at Harvard Book Store, Mayersohn said, “People who buy university press books from us seem to spend more money with us and come to us more often. People who buy these books are among our best customers.”

LaMorte, who has made a concerted effort to align the University of Texas Press (UTP) with independent bookstores, said she hoped the panel discussion would inspire other academic presses to recognize the benefits of working with independent booksellers. For UTP those benefits have included a title being selected for the Indie Next List and inventory on the shelves of independent bookstores in all parts of the country.

Certain issues can be addressed in order to smooth the process for booksellers working with university presses, said Welch, including establishing better communication practices (through Edelweiss, sales reps, or e-mail lists, suggested Bercu), working toward faster turnaround for book shipments, and the need for more accessible pricing.

Mayersohn suggested that university presses could work more with independent booksellers on business-to-business sales. He also noted that Harvard Book Store has found success in selling university press titles on consignment, an arrangement that has increased the store’s ability to stock more titles and to offer a better selection. Though Harvard Book Store is not the official university store, being surrounded by an academic community means that about 10 percent of its sales are university press titles.

University of Texas Press currently has commission reps all over the country and has established working relationships with several independent stores, LaMorte said. The press has worked closely with BookPeople, particularly on a book project about punk rock in the 1980s in Texas. Advice was sought from BookPeople’s staff regarding the cover and the price. “I can’t do that anywhere else,” said LaMorte. “That’s something specific to independent bookstores.”

Pointing to BookPeople’s experience selling books on consignment from the University of Texas Press, Bercu suggested that other university presses explore similar relationships with independent bookstores in their areas. In addition, he said, university presses that focus on a particular theme or subject can work to establish relationships with independent stores that specialize in those topics.

Harvard Book Store has found that its best sales of university press titles tend to come from events, said Mayersohn. Because of that, the store dedicates one event per week to university press or academic titles. It also has a publisher focus window available “for rent” and highlights scholarly titles in the store newsletter, in addition to printing them on request on the store’s Espresso Book Machine. “We work very hard to showcase university press titles,” he said. “The old fashioned world of print is very much alive in the scholarly community.”

Independent bookstores generally are looking for university presses to function in the same manner as trade publishers, said Bercu. “You can talk about trade terms, you can talk about replenishment, supply chain, and shipping,” he said, but the main message to the university presses in attendance “was that the more they can emulate trade publishers in dealing with independent bookstores, the better the relationship will be.”

There is a common belief that university presses don’t offer trade discounts or that they don’t have books suited for independent bookstores, LaMorte said. To counter that, she is looking to get UTP titles on Edelweiss and to open lines of communication with booksellers.

Critical, said both Bercu and Welch, is for AAUP to include independent bookstores — as well as readers — in its mission.

The big takeaway from the panel, said Bercu, is the need for the discussion to continue. To that end, planning is underway for a panel at Winter Institute 10 in Asheville, North Carolina, next February that will feature representatives from university presses who will talk with booksellers about strengthening their working relationships.