Indie Bookstores Invited to Partner With Book Post Newsletter

Book Post, a bite-sized, newsletter-based book review delivery service, is currently looking for bookstores to partner with in the future. Bookselling This Week spoke with Book Post’s founding editor, Ann Kjellberg, about the opportunity.

A sign at Left Bank Books that announces the store as Book Post's featured store for November.

In addition to working as a bookseller and in publishing, Kjellberg worked for many years as a book review editor at the New York Review of Books; she started Book Post in 2017 in order to find a “creative way to broaden the audience for book criticism” and to support reading.

“My idea was to dedicate [Book Post] to building and boosting reading around the country — to find creative ways to reach readers and support and nurture new reading,” said Kjellberg. Book Post, she said, is a place where people can “engage with new ideas in literature, history, science, etc., and try to grow a common language based on shared ideas.”

Every few months, Book Post partners with a different independent bookseller for book sales. So far, Book Post has worked with Malaprop’s in Asheville, North Carolina; Greenlight Bookstore in New York City; Mac’s Backs in Cleveland, Ohio; and Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri. The partnership offers a variety of benefits, including:

• A post announcing the partnership, which includes a profile.
• Store links at the end of each book review included in Book Post
• News regarding the store shared on social media, plus she uses the store in in her free posts about the book world. (For example, in a post about partnering with school book fairs, Kjellberg has included stories and photos from her most recent partner, Malaprop’s).
• Shelf-talkers that quote Book Post reviewers and highlight the partnership.
• Complimentary Book Post subscriptions for staff.
• Event collaboration with writers brought to stores by Kjellberg or with Kjellberg herself, who talks on book criticism and book culture.
• Special offers. (For example, this holiday season, readers can receive a Book Post subscription if they buy a $35 Malaprop’s gift card.)
• Readers can receive a free subscription to Book Post in exchange for spending $100 at the partner store.

Kjellberg is looking for the following for bookstore partnerships:

• Partnerships with bookstores in underserved communities. She’d like a broad geographic reach.
• Bookstores willing to share information about Book Post in their communities to help the service grow. A strong social media presence is a plus.
• Bookstores that have found creative ways to maintain a virtual community during COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Bookstores interested in working with Book Post can email [email protected].