Bookazine Turns 75

For its 75th anniversary, Bookazine Co. Inc., in Bayonne, N.J., is focusing on the classics, long a cornerstone of this family-owned and -operated wholesale business founded just before the start of the Great Depression in 1929. At the beginning of the year, Bookazine began sending out monthly kits featuring backlist books as part of its Bookazine Featured Titles Club. Each kit contains an easel-back display, a flier that can be reproduced and other supporting material, such as suggested order forms, posters and bookmarks. Also included are promotional tips for contests, in-store displays and open-mike readings.

One of the most popular easel-backs, according to Kathleen Willoughby, v-p of marketing and online development, was one combining classics and travel, which pictured Odysseus sitting in a subway car beneath a map of the Ithaca line. The tagline read: "The best journey never ends. Discover a classic." "Booksellers are having a good time with the kits," said Willoughby. "Looking at the sales, they're really helping specific titles. I'm seeing steadily consistent sales for The Odyssey, both the Fitzgerald and Fagles translations." Two surprise sellers were Christopher Paul Curtis's Newbery Honor Book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham (Yearling) and Gordon Parks's The Learning Tree (Fawcett), which completely sold out. "Most of the titles have sold more in June and July than all of last year," she adds. Bookazine, which bills itself as the number one transportation bookstore supplier, developed the kits and other POP material as part of its effort to reach out to independent booksellers.