When She Woke Bundling Promo Begins This Month

Starting this month, Algonquin Books is offering an e-book bundling promotion for Hillary Jordan’s much-anticipated hardcover title, When She Woke, the number-one Indie Next List Great Read for October. Since there is no specific lay-down date for When She Woke, the promotion begins as soon as the book arrives in stores in mid-September. The promotion gives customers who purchase the hardcover book a code to download a free e-book version of the title.

“Algonquin loves finding any and every excuse to help bring readers into stores, and it’s no secret that everyone is excited about When She Woke,” said Craig Popelars, director of marketing at Algonquin. “The pre-publication buzz has been through the roof, and now that it’s rolled off the press, the book looks absolutely stunning. By providing a free e-book version with the purchase of the hardcover, we’re rewarding those customers who are helping booksellers make When She Woke a big hit right out of the gate. There’s no doubt, however, that the biggest reward comes from the pleasure of reading this absolutely stunning novel.”

“We applaud this very innovative step taken by Algonquin,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “By making this eagerly awaited title available in both a hardcover and a digital edition, they are demonstrating how critically important innovation and the exploration of new business models are to both publishers and booksellers. We are hopeful that this bundling promotion will demonstrate one additional way in which great writing coupled with unparalleled bookselling expertise will help consumers discover their next great read as we know some readers are inevitably going to want to have access to both a print and electronic version of a book simultaneously.”

The bundled e-book download for the promotion is being provided as an unencrypted ePub file, separate from the Google eBooks™ integration on IndieCommerce websites. Stores are not required to have an IndieCommerce site in order to participate. To help booksellers promote the special offer, Algonquin is providing stores with postcards that both direct customers to IndieBound.org and list instructions for downloading the e-book.  Algonquin is shipping out postcards this week to accounts that have ordered the book directly from Workman or from their Workman sales representative. If booksellers have not ordered When She Woke directly through Workman but would still like to participate, they can request stickers and instructional postcards through the Algonquin website [1].

ABA has also created a template for stickers that booksellers can place on the postcards to direct customers to their store’s own website. The template lives in the e-book promotional area on IndieCommerce.com [2], the resource site for IndieCommerce stores.

The bundled e-book is DRM free and compatible with any e-reading device. Customers must purchase When She Woke in hardcover before October 31 and redeem their free download before November 30. Instructions for download can be found here [3].