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Angry Robot’s e-book initiative, which sees independent bookshop customers receive a free e-book copy of a book purchased in physical format, has trebled sales of the publisher’s titles at the trial store.
Angry Robot has been trialling the Clonefiles initiative at Mostly Books, Oxfordshire, since 4th July, with sales of Angry Robot books trebling in that shop over the two-week period. The initiative has been supported in-store with a window display and signs explaining the scheme.
Rebecca Smart, c.e.o. of Angry Robot’s parent company Osprey Group, said 20 other indies had expressed an interest in signing up to the scheme, and said it would be expanded to other stores “very soon”. She said: “It’s not like giving an e-book away with a coffee, because the customer still has to invest in the IP. I do hope other publishers do something similar and support high-street booksellers.”
Smart said the publisher was “keeping an eye” on how Amazon, which normally price-matches e-book offers, would react, saying “there hasn’t been any response as yet”.
Meanwhile independent Stone Skin Press, previously focused on gaming guides and now expanding into SFF publishing, plans to expand its initiative Bits and Mortar, which offers the same free-e-book-with-physical-copy scheme. Independent bookshop Clapham Books, south London, is the first mainstream bookshop to sign up to Stone Skin Press's scheme.
Stone Skin Press publisher Simon Rogers said: "It broadens the options for indies and for publishers, and it strengthens the relationship between publishers and customers, which is crucial." He said the publisher had already talked to Turnaround about recruiting more members to the scheme.