“Scholastic Does About-Face on New Potter; Won’t Sell Them Direct”
The prospect of dealing with scores of angry booksellers has helped persuade Scholastic not to presell Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix through its book fairs division after all.
After the ABA and assorted members spoke out last week, Scholastic has decided to modify the program so that it drives customers into stores. Students can still order through the fairs, but instead of picking up the book at the warehouse, customers who order Phoenix through the school fairs will now be given a coupon that they can redeem at participating retailers. Scholastic will reimburse stores for every coupon they receive. Scholastic has cancelled plans for parties at the warehouses and the facilities will only be open to accommodate customers who can’t make it to stores.
The change in policy was outlined in a letter from Scholastic senior v-p for the trade group Michael Jacobs that was sent to American Booksellers Association headquarters, directors of regional associations and ABA board members. Jacobs wrote that “our goal has always been to make the publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the biggest bookselling event of the year and that’s what we’re doing.”–Jim Milliot (PW Newsline 3/25)
(Further to this:)
[Participating retailers] will receive a $20 credit from Scholastic for every coupon they redeem with one of the books they’ve ordered, plus ten hats of their own to give away. Stores will have the chance to sell other books to these customers, or add them to a customer list. There will be no warehouse parties to compete with what booksellers have planned.
Cissy Greenbaum of Westwinds Bookshop in Duxbury, one of the more vocal opponents of the original policy, told PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, “It’s wonderful that Scholastic heard how upset independents are and will redirect the business to our shops.”
This new policy will also, of course, spare millions of American parents the trouble of learning where the nearest Scholastic warehouse is. (JLBell/RAWI/PW)
(It’s great to see that this has sorted itself out this way. Just about every bookseller I met during the signing tour was livid about what Scholastic’s previously announced sales policy was going to do to their own businesses, come the release date.)
