New Pocket Books Initiative Looks to Drive Consumers Into Bookstores

Pocket Books wants to make mass-market paperbacks more "bookseller friendly." That, at least, is the goal of a new Pocket Book initiative that aims to drive traffic into bookstores, according to Roger Williams, vice president, director of field, online, and telesales for Simon & Schuster.

On the final page of the mass market edition of Jeffery Deaver's Stone Monkey, which was released on January 28, a special order slip invites consumers to reserve a copy of the upcoming Deaver hardcover Vanished Man, due for release in March. The slip directs the reader to "Submit this special order form to your favorite book retailer, and you'll be notified when The Vanished Man is available." The order slip was created, said Williams, because "we want to find ways to increase the mass-market sales in the independent bookstore."

That Williams spearheaded the new initiative for Simon & Schuster is not surprising, considering that he is a former independent bookseller. He said the idea was hatched years ago at an American Booksellers Association committee meeting in Tarrytown, New York, which he attended when he and his wife, author Gina Cascone, owned Wit & Wisdom Booksellers in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. "We were all kibitzing at the fact that mass-market publishers did not do more to drive consumers into bookstores," Williams said. "Now, Pocket is doing something."

The special order slip will contain a space for the customer's name, address, telephone, and e-mail address, Williams explained. Readers will be directed to bring the slip into the nearest bookstore. Most importantly, the order slip will not offer the consumer the option of ordering through the publisher. He explained that, in the past, order slips placed by publishers in the back of a book would send the reader back to the publisher to purchase another book. "I haven't seen it done this way before, perhaps it has," he said. "Having been a former bookseller, it's nice to enact something like this. This is a grass-roots way of driving traffic into the store."

Williams added that Pocket Books already has plans to put the special order slip in upcoming releases by Mary Higgins Clark and James Lee Burke.