The first shipment in the distributor's SNAP initiative went out last month. So far more than 30 stores across the country have signed up for the program, launched at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in July.

SNAP--standing for STL New Auto Placement--offers 43% discount on 10 new titles selected by STLD, which automatically ships two copies of each.

"We were thinking that some of the major publishers have increased their margins so much that some of the smaller stores aren't able to really do business with them anymore," said Rick Regenfuss, STLD vice president of sales and marketing. "We thought that perhaps there was a place for us, where stores might outsource that part of their ordering to us."

The monthly selection, made by STLD staff, includes large and small- to mid-size publishers. "We choose what we believe are going to be the top 10 releases for that specific month," Regenfuss said.

Dennis Lovvorn, owner of New Covenant Christian Bookstore in Shelbyville, Tenn., who signed up for the program while at ICRS, said that it was too early yet to judge SNAP.

Though he has been in business 15 years, he thought that having help in identifying strong new releases could be useful. "When you are wearing 73 different hats, sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the new releases as well as you would like," he said. "It's just a way to keep up with them."