Go to Kepler’s, Name a Character

by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 5/31/2006

When Kepler’s Book and Magazines kicks off its new Mystery and Mayhem series on Thursday featuring Barry Eisler (The Last Assassin), the customer who has bought the most books during the week leading up to the event will have his or her name appear as a character in the author’s next John Rain mystery.

The contest is part of the Menlo Park, Calif. independent’s revitalization plan that started last fall when the store reopened. Kepler’s chief marketing officer Anne Banta said that focus groups in the fall showed customers preferred going to events grouped by genre. In April, the store started a travel series. Along with Mystery and Mayhem, Kepler’s will also launch a Grassroots Tuesdays series in June, focusing on new and local authors. Other Kepler’s series to be rolled out in the coming months will focus on literary fiction, public affairs and science.

“We are getting resounding results from people now that we are advertising our events in groupings,” said Banta.

The idea for the name-a-character contest was Eisler’s suggestion. “He lives down the street from the store and he always has his coming out party at Kepler’s,” said Banta. This will be the sixth time the author holds his initial book event at the store. “We bounced the idea off Clark and we then came up with the promotion,” she said. Eisler said he backed the idea for the promotion, because, “I love Kepler’s. It’s as simple as that.”

Banta said the Eisler contest “illustrates the community’s willingness to support the store and the store’s commitment to find innovative ways to give its customers what they want.” Kepler’s is just finishing up a month-long series of The Da Vinci Code puzzler events that included an opening-night screening of the movie for Kepler’s customers at a local movie theater.