Asheville, NC (PRWEB) June 4, 2008 — Leading book marketplace Biblio.com and California-based Bibliopolis, LLC today announced that they have reached an agreement to provide independent booksellers and bookstores with free inventory management software to help manage both their online and brick-and-mortar businesses.
The Mac OS X version of BookHound 7 community edition will be available to booksellers on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008. The release of the Windows version (XP or Vista) is scheduled for July 1st, 2008.
BookHound is used by hundreds of bookstores and booksellers worldwide, and has been a leader in the industry for over ten years. Biblio.com will be the exclusive distributor of this release of BookHound 7ce through its website, and will provide basic product support to booksellers. Bibliopolis will continue to offer options for higher level support to booksellers on an annual or per-incident basis.
BookHound boasts many features, such as an integrated BISAC subject library, integrated spell checking, advanced searches and global editing of data, and easy-to-use options for managing inventory across multiple online sales venues. BookHound also includes tools specifically designed for brick-and-mortar shops.
After exploring several options, Biblio.com ultimately pursued a licensing agreement with Bibliopolis because “Bookhound is the clear choice in terms of superior quality, flexibility and interoperability for our booksellers,” explains Allen Singleton, Biblio.com’s president and chief operating officer.
Bibliopolis, which also builds websites for independent and antiquarian booksellers, sees the distribution agreement as an opportunity to expand the growth and marketshare of its other products and services. “BookHound is now free. That’s a great thing for booksellers,” says Luke Lozier, Principal and Co-Founder of Bibliopolis, LLC, “We are excited to increase the user-base of BookHound through the broad reach of Biblio.com.”
Biblio.com currently works with more than 5500 independent booksellers and expects that by offering BookHound freely to their clients, they will strengthen their position in the industry. “Our booksellers are our partners. Their success is our success,” says Brendan Sherar, CEO of Biblio.com. “We believe that delivering a high quality, mature product for inventory management will materially contribute to the growth of their businesses, and therefore, to ours as well.”