Simon & Schuster has unveiled a new portal for booksellers that will give them access to promotional funds and make it easier for them to collect information on titles. The new coop program is called Premier Marketing Plan. The other program, called Customer Portal, which will launch on June 10, will bring together a variety of information on the publisher's titles, such as digital catalogs, coop information, order tracking and invoices.
Those eligible to use Premier Marketing Plan, or PMP, must be independent (owned and operated) bricks and mortar stores, open full-time, with no more than 15 shipping destinations. The funds in PMP are allocated, S&S explained, based on "the prior year's total direct and indirect net physical purchases" and are paid directly, in quarterly credits, to booksellers' accounts. The new system will replace the existing coop pool and newsletter coop, while also eliminating current coop procedures. The PMP is effective as of January 1, 2013.
The Premier Marketing Plan follows other recent initiatives from S&S to support independent bookstores, including 60-day dating (from end-of-month) and a new, lower 30-unit minimum for orders.
Booksellers can sign up for PMP at the new S&S Customer Portal (http://customerportal.simonandschuster.com) on June 10. Booksellers can also visit the S&S booth (#2638, Level 3) or meeting room (#3239, Level 3), at this week's BookExpo America, to sign up.
