Target’s ability to select and sell titles to its customers that may not be major bestsellers in traditional bookstores is the focus of an NYT feature, which says their Bookmarket club “has highlighted largely unknown writers.” Their picks are focused on trade paperback fiction, and include special designations such as a recent “Hand-Picked Titles From Emerging Authors.”
Among the successful picks, which can sell 50,000 to 150,000 copies at Target alone, have been Michelle Richmond’s The Year of Fog, Meg Waite Clayton’s The Wednesday Sisters, Lisa Genova’s Still Alice, Diane Chamberlain’s The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key.
A company spokesperson says the focused book selection programs are designed to turn “Target core guests into regular Target book shoppers.” (Last year an NYT feature offered praise for the power of Costco and book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello’s “uncanny knack for leading customers to buy books, for molding their taste.” The article said “a forgotten older paperback, recommended and featured by the book buyer at Costco, can sell more copies in six weeks than it did in the last few years combined.” Today’s take is that “the other big-box retailers rely mostly on the biggest commercial books of the moment, though Costco does on occasion offer its own special picks of little-known authors.)
NYT