Beginning in June, the club will send its catalog to the 1,100 members of Book Sense, independent bookstores organized by the American Booksellers Assoc. The catalog will be a marketing and educational tool for sellers who want to develop poetry sections and promote their titles. The poetry club's biggest challenges, according to member surveys, are speeding up service and becoming competitive with online booksellers. The book club can take weeks to deliver the same volume, because books are shipped from a warehouse in Atlanta. The club's prices and shipping charges are much higher, too.
Some members also report that the book club's selections tend to be too mainstream and old.
There is little in the way of new or risky voices. According to Mr. Flowers, the book club is working to address these concerns, but he isn't too worried about the price issue. If people are looking strictly at cost, he says, they will shop elsewhere. But if readers value the academy's expertise, its many outreach programs like National Poetry Month, and its 65-year reputation, they will stick with the club. There's rhyme and reason to that.