About batch.connect

The batch.connect web-based service is wholly owned by The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland connecting publishers and booksellers. The service will enable our members to receive sales and marketing information from publishers, assist with in-store promotions and events and share information with each other.

Benefits

Batch.connect will enable independent booksellers to specify the types of titles they are interested in receiving details about. Publishers will then send electronic information about those specific genres, reducing the need for mailings and printed catalogues.

The service complements the BA's successful electronic payments and returns system Batch, which is now widely used by booksellers and publishers.

The BA consulted with independent booksellers and the Independent Publishers Guild during the development of the service, which will be demonstrated at the forthcoming BA Conference in Harrogate.

Nielsen will be the sole bibliographic data provider to Batch.connect, and it is expected that publishers will enrich the information on their featured titles in order to more effectively promote them. Nielsen will add additional features such as seamless order routing and sales data to the Batch.connect service.

Commented Tim Godfray, Chief Executive of The Booksellers Association: "The aim, of course, is to sell more books for authors, publishers and booksellers. But there is more to batch.connect than that. The beauty of batch.connect is that it isn't just one more way of pushing books down the supply chain, its strength is in the way it connects booksellers with publishers and authors to develop relationships".

Roll out

There will be a beta service for testing in Summer 2007 and full roll-out in the Autumn 2007.

Charges

Batch.connect will be free to BA members and after an initial free period an annual subscription will be sought from publishers.