Publishers Join Booksellers Above the Treeline

In the 19 months since Rubin Venture Consulting rolled out its online software product, Above the Treeline -- a tool meant to help bookstores improve finances by controlling inventory costs and increasing staffing efficiency -- the number of bookstores using the software has grown from four to over 50. Now, the company is adding "publishers to the mix," Rubin Venture Consulting founder John Rubin told BTW. This past month, three publishers -- Random House, HarperCollins, and Workman -- signed up for the Above the Treeline program and will use the software to help better serve their independent bookstore customers, Rubin said. "We're talking with all the major publishers, as well," he added.

Rubin created Above the Treeline because he felt that there were few good tools available to help booksellers analyze operational performance and create operationally focused forecasts and budgets. Inspired in part by ABA's ABACUS survey, Above the Treeline permits booksellers to track inventory, staffing, and to see which titles are selling well at their own, and at other, Above the Treeline stores.

Now, with participating stores' permission, the three participating publishers' sales reps will have access to this data, too, Rubin noted. "Most publishers are committed to keeping independent bookstores strong," Rubin told BTW. "They will use the [Above the Treeline] software for their sales reps, who ... will access the store's [inventory information]" to help make title suggestions.

By using the Above the Treeline software, a sales rep will be able to see what a store has, should have, and "what they shouldn't have," Rubin explained. "So this is a tool to help publishers and booksellers communicate and cooperate -- it gives the publisher a better picture of the store."

Steve Bercu told BTW that his store, BookPeople in Austin, Texas, has been using Above the Treeline for nearly a year and a half now, and he described it is a "great" tool. One of the store's buyers uses it and "has had incredible results," he said. "There's been a reduction in inventory, accompanied by an increase in sales in her sections. That's what I call a successful program."

Bercu continued that the publisher program "seems like it will be another good thing.... I think it will be very helpful in terms of reducing returns, which is something that both the publishers and we would like to see. If we buy better, we'll return less." He added that [using Above the Treeline] would make it easier for publishers to "tailor what they're selling to our needs."

Though, at present, the bookstores using Rubin's software all have annual sales of $3 million or more, Bercu stressed that "if you're large enough to have a computer inventory system, [Above the Treeline] is a good idea."

Furthermore, Robin Venture Consulting recently introduced a tiered-pricing structure to help attract smaller stores to the program. "I think the product is just as helpful for small stores as big stores," Rubin said. He explained that, since shelf space is limited in smaller stores, his software's inventory tracking capabilities would help booksellers make better decisions about which titles should be taking up valuable sales space.

For more information about Above the Treeline, contact Rubin at (734) 995-0635, or go to www.abovethetreeline.com.