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OUTSIDE-THE-BOX SALES
By Bob Ibach
As the author of six books, two of which sold well, two of
which sold "so-so" and two others that kind of floundered,
I was very interested in a NEW approach to selling books that
I learned from a self-published author, Rich Wolfe, two years
ago when my company was helping him promote his "For Notre
Dame Fans Only: The New Saturday Bible." This was a book
that Mr. Wolfe had printed for about $3 per copy, and it
looked like and actually felt like a REAL bible--right down
to the red ribbon included inside that served as a bookmark.
Although this book was carried by Borders and Barnes & Noble
and other traditional book store outlets, what enabled him
to sell more than 60,000 copies were the deals he made with
non-conventional retail outlets. His books were in Costco,
Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and Walgreen's. As Rich told me,
"In some stores, I'd rather be the only book in the store--
no competition. I have sold books to hardware stores, bakeries,
gas stations and many more. Why go into competition with
2,000 other titles in a book store?"
It got me to thinking how right he was. And I found that to
be true when helping him sell 60,000 Notre Dame football bible
books!
If the book cost $3 to print, and you could sell this to a
Walgreen's for $5, that allowed Walgreen's to sell it at their
favorite discounted rate of $9.99. (tip: Walgreen's absolutely
LOVES selling items at that price). With another book that
Wolfe had done in the past, on the late Dale Earnhardt, he
sold more than 400,000 copies to Walgreen's at the $5 price,
made a profit of $2 PER BOOK, and walked away with more than
$800,000 in profit.!!
The key is finding those kind of distributors. A good marketing
company, or even a PR firm, can sometimes assist in getting a
book into the hands of key decision makers at these outlets.
But even if you can't be as fortunate and get a Walgreen's or
a Costco to bite on your product, you can sell more books if
you look at more unconventional ways to sell. Forget the book
store appearances, where you are lucky to sit for three hours
and sell 25 books. Or the FREE rotary club meetings in the
hope of selling 10 books.
Try these on for size:
If you attend a meeting of 100 or more, have the sponsor of
the meeting buy from you copies for each attendee ahead of
time. Give them a discounted price on the book and let them
"swallow" the cost and bury it in their lunch or breakfast fee.
I mean, if a breakfast charge is normally $10 for attendees,
for $18 they can get breakfast AND a free book, which you will
autograph for each of them. That way, you are guaranteed of
moving 100 books in one sitting!
Breakfast restaurants or brunches. Work out an arrangement
with the owner of a nice local breakfast restaurant to hold a
talk there, and include a FREE book with the talk. If they do
any sort of PR beforehand they should get a nice turnout. They
sell food, and also make folks aware of their restaurant for
return trips. And you win because you are guaranteed of selling
books ahead of time.
It also works with sports restaurants--if your book has a
sports angle--and with novelty shops, or with small strip mall
shops which are looking to build traffic.
Conventions. Many conventions are attended by thousands, and
often they give attendees a "goody bag" loaded with items for
those who paid a fee to attend. At the recent Winter Baseball
Meetings in Nashville, which I attend annually, there were
4,000 attendees from the world of pro baseball. Topps sponsored
a "goody bag" and there were a bunch of items inside the bag.
If you had been writing a sports book, for instance, Topps might
have been an excellent group to approach and, for a small fee,
they would have bought 4,000 books with a foil stamped logo on
the cover. Mark up the price of the wholesale price of the book
by $2, let's say, and those 4,000 books now translate into $8,000
profit!
To increase turnouts at retail stores other than bookstores, and
to help "sell in your concept to the shop owner," go ahead and
book yourself (or have your PR contact do this) on a local radio
show, or target a local columnist to write about your book and
mention your upcoming appearance at XYZ store. That brings value
added to the host of your event and will make them see the residual
benefits of your appearance.
Stop in at a local drug store, a hardware store or any local
mom & pop store that might want to take 10 of your books on
consignment and have them put the book at the checkout counter
of their store. We all know that's how so many things are sold
"last minute" at grocery stores--think of all the tabloids on
the shelf right there, staring you in the face as you wait in
line. It's an impulse buy and there's a REASON for being in
that location.
Anyway, hope this helps a few of your readers make some good
business decisions in the near future, and avoid "giving away
the candy store" and serving others while not getting any
returns or benefits.
PS: I just signed two very nice deals with Penguin Books for
my baseball author, Dan Schlossberg. Baseball Bits comes out
before Father's Day in 2008, and is a great book for baseball
fans, chock full of "Did You Knows" and trivia. A book I co-
authored with Schlossberg, "Making Airwaves" about Hall of
Fame baseball broadcaster Milo Hamilton of the Houston Astros,
is in its 3rd hardback printing and just went to paperback this
season. Last spring, we purchased 2,000 copies of Making
Airwaves at the author's price, and went on a spring training
tour to Disney and other spring training site locations in
Florida and sold all of these books. We made $8 per sale,
and netted $16,000 in ONE month! It works!
=====
Ibach & Associates
Sarasota, FL Office phone: 941-312-4588
Sarasota, FL Office fax: 941-377-7059
Cell number: 847-922-6686
Continental Baseball League
http://www.cblproball.com/
http://www.ibachsportspr.com/
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