MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
October 23 – October 30, 2008 Edition
New IndyBound
Book Community
Delayed Until 2009
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News/10/23/08)-The American Booksellers Association is delaying the launch of an open-source web site for members of the new IndieBound marketing program in order to allow booksellers more time to become oriented to the new Drupal software management program. Drupal is a robust personalization environment that will allow IndiBound stores to tailor book content, marketing presentation, and administrative tasks to their own preferences and local interests, while being tightly integrated with IndieBound’s online financial and sales resources. The system will allow the ABA and individual stores to create a vibrant online community with greater interaction with customers. About 230 stores must transfer from the old BookSenes.com site into the new IndieBound.org program, using Drupal software. While booksellers are eager to have an open-source Web site, they face a technology learning curve.
A delay in the launch date, originally scheduled in November, will give booksellers more time to experiment with their stores’ beta sites. Webinars and in-person training sessions will begin just after the holiday selling season. Len Vlahos, ABA chief program officer, said the ABA should have a couple of sites posted by Thanksgiving, and that he hopes to see the majority, if not all of the sites, operating under Drupal by next year’s BookExpo America. He said the slowdown will enable them to “get it right.” The new program will use the Ingram database as its search engine. Until the new system is completed, all ABA e-commerce stores will continue to operate under the old system at IndieBound.org or individual store web sites. The majority of stores will be moved to the new system by Summer 2009.
The open-source web community is vital to independent booksellers in helping them compete with big box chain stores and Amazon.com.
