Book Promotion Myth -- The Best Place to Sell Books is a Boo
By Judy Cullins
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Book Promotion Myth --
The Best Place to Sell Books is a Book Store
Judy Cullins
©2001
When most people think of buying books they think of
bookstores. Marketing guru, John Kremer, author of
1001 Ways to Market Your Book says "I'm glad I
don't rely on retail "brick and mortar" bookstore sales
for my income, but it will be nice to add that icing on
the cake into my cash flow again."
In the past three years, John has sold 45,000 copies of
his book, many from non-traditional marketing strategies;
his web site, his eMagazine which offers tips, products and
seminars, specialty stores, foreign markets, libraries, and
back of the room sales. Because he is a recognized name,
he and other bestsellers by famous authors get a lot of shelf
space in the bookstore--cover side out. For your lesser-known
book, only your spine will show and after three months of
initial placement, your book will fade away unless you put
on your promotion hat to get customers to the store.
In one book coaching session, a new client thought he wanted
to sell to the bookstores. I asked him who was his particular
audience. He said business people. What kind of business
people? Do these people go to the "brick and mortar" bookstore
for a business book? Or, will they be more likely to visit a
particular business Web site for specific kinds of business books?
DID YOU KNOW?
*Seventy percent of US adults haven't been in a bookstore
for the last 5 years
*Bookstores sell only 45% of all books sold
*Bookstores return non-sold books to the author-think of the
Starbucks people dripping their coffee and scone on your book.
The author will get those returns.
*Bookstores will take 90 days, even a year to pay you for your
total book sales
*Bookstores only order two or three copies at a time because of
limited shelf space
*Bookstores buy only from a distributor or wholesaler.
Why the big push to get a wholesale or distributor and get into
the bookstore? These people represent so many other authors;
don't you wonder how much attention your book will receive?
They exact healthy fees, around 55%. That leaves a small profit
for the author, and remember, bookstores, distributors and
wholesalers don't promote your book!
After her distributor went belly up and she lost $160,000, one
author said she would rather have more control over her priceless
products. She distributes them all herself now through various
venues that suit her personality.
Authors spend a lot of time and money chasing the improbable,
when the "golden egg" of self-publishing and self-promotion is
right in front of them. In my opinion, I'd sell my books everywhere
except the bookstore!
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Judy Cullins: author, publisher, book coach
_Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online_
http://www.bookcoaching.com/products.shtml
Subscribe to FREE ezine "The Book Coach Says..."
mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com
About the Author
Judy Cullins is a 22-year veteran publisher, book coach, and author of _Write your eBook or Other Short Book--Fast!_ and _Ten Non-techie Ways to Market Your Book Online_, and 30+ others. Known as the Non-techie eBook Queen, Judy helps people to market their products and services online. She publishes "The Book Coach Says..." a free monthly eZine. Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com and visit her Web site at http://www.bookcoaching.com.
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What Everyone Should Know About How To Buy Wholesale
By: Melanie Burns
Finding a supplier for the product you want to sell, at a price that you can profit from, can be a big task. The best suppliers for your online sales or auctions do not advertise their services and often cannot be found online.
Those that you can find online tend to be middle-men. It is often difficult to get a good enough price to make any real profit online.
Let me tell you about my simple 2 step system to find an untapped source for wholesale suppliers. This is so simple that it's often overlooked as a source for product. This system involves thinking outside the box and not letting policy stop you. (continued below)
The First Step to find a supplier is to find someone that already sells or has access to what you want to sell. This could be a website, an eBay seller, a manufacturer, a wholesale outlet, or a regular store in your city. This is the easy step. You know what you are looking for and you can search on the internet, not for a wholesale source, but for anyone already selling what you want to sell.
Another valuable source for a local supplier is your local phone book. The yellow pages are the best way to find local sources. This should be the first place you look. Doing business locally with someone that you can meet face to face is a big plus for your business.
Another potential source for your product is to find a distributor who would be willing to private label a product for you. You could get a very high quality product for a much lower price than if it had the name brand label.
The Second and Key Step is to convince the source you found to become your supplier.
Manufacturers and wholesale sources often have minimum orders that might be beyond your reach if you are just starting out. Online retailers, eBay merchants, and retail stores may be your best bet. Try to find a small store who is looking to expand.
But remember, you are dealing with a human being and they can be convinced to do business with you. Just be sure to sweeten the deal for them. One way is to offer the person you are dealing with at your new found source, a percentage of your profits from the products he supplies you.
Be sure to project it out for him. If he can see the benefit of working with you even though it causes extra work for him, you can be successful in making a deal.
You could offer him 20% of the profit from sales of his products. For example you could show him that you project to make at least $100 profit from each product, and you expect to sell 40 of them per month. The $4000 a month means an extra $800 per month in his pocket. You still make a nice $3200 profit for the month in this example.
On top of that, he will be ordering more products from his supplier and may be eligible for a higher price break from them. This way, his reward for the effort to work with you, is making money on both sides.
There are many benefits you can offer your potential supplier, but no matter how you look at it, the main thing it comes down to is MONEY. What's in it for your potential supplier to do business with you? If can you show him that, you have a better chance of making a deal with him and starting your online sales.
NOTE: When looking for suppliers around your city, don't go trying to impress the big stores with your $800 or even $3,000 extra income per month proposal. Try going to the little stores that are looking to expand their business, they are the ones that are usually more open to new opportunities.
The big stores are making hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in profits, so an extra couple of thousand would probably not impress them the least bit.
So now you see that by thinking outside the box, you open the door to many possibilities and increase your ability to make money online with your products.
About the Author:
Copyright © Melanie Burns
This article is free for reproduction but must be reproducted in its entirety including live links and this copyright statement. Subscribe to the iBusiness How2 Newsletter to receive hot tips, how to's, internet business tools, and relevant product reviews by sending an email to: newsletter@internet-business-how-to.com
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