| Do you include selling books to
| |
| | incentive (gift ) for customers and
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| organizations in your marketing program?
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| | prospects or as an incentive to employees
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| You should.By getting outside of the
| |
| | or channel partners. (Some people use
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| bookstore channel, you will have the
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| | the term "premiums" to differentiate the
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| potential of selling - not just one book
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| | merchandise portion of incentives. That
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| at a time - but 1000s of books at a time.
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| | is, to distinguish merchandise from cash,
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| You'll want to take advantage of these
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| | travel, etc.) When these organizations
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| powerful strategies if you are...* A
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| | buy a book, they order it by the 1000's,
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| published author who desires to help more
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| | the 10's of thousands, even the 100's of
|
| people through higher book sales* A
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| | thousands.A study conducted by the
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| published coach, consultant, speaker or
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| | Incentive Marketing Association
|
| trainer who wants to catapult your
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| | (IncentiveMarketing.org) among a broad
|
| reputation and open opportunities to sell
| |
| | spectrum of companies revealed that 82%
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| other products and services* A published
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| | of them used merchandise or travel as
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| author who wants to make serious money by
| |
| | incentives. Even more significant, they
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| selling books by the 1000s at a time* A
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| | reported an 80% success rate in achieving
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| published author with disappointing book
| |
| | their goals.Is Your Book a Candidate for
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| sales who wants to recover your financial
| |
| | Incentive Sales?If your non-fiction book
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| investment in your book* A self-published
| |
| | provides quality how-to information, if
|
| author who wants to leverage better sales
| |
| | it inspires or entertains, if it's well
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| into acquiring additional sales channels
| |
| | designed and put-together, it's a
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| or a publishing house* A published author
| |
| | candidate. Any corporation, association
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| who is ready to update an existing book
| |
| | or other non-profit which has target
|
| but needs to sell the remaining inventory
| |
| | audiences that match those of your book,
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| of the current version to help finance
| |
| | and whose management feels your book
|
| the update* An aspiring author who is
| |
| | reflects positively on its brand values,
|
| looking for direction about what kind of
| |
| | are potential candidates. How Big are
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| book will be attractive in the
| |
| | Incentive Deals, Really?* As a incentive
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| marketplace* An aspiring author who knows
| |
| | for joining their condensed book club,
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| you will be much more successful if you
| |
| | Reader's Digest gave away 750,000 copies
|
| plan ahead about how and to whom you will
| |
| | of Judith King's Greatest Gift Guide
|
| market the book before and during the
| |
| | Ever.* Grossett & Dunlap offered Nancy
|
| creation of itWhy Authors Get Frustrated
| |
| | Drew and Hardy Boys books as a
|
| with Book Sales: The Bookstore Trap -
| |
| | self-liquidating (break-even) incentive
|
| Boxes of Books with Nowhere to GoIf
| |
| | on 20 million boxes of Post Raisin Bran
|
| you're like most authors, the process of
| |
| | cereal, resulting in the sale of over one
|
| writing and getting your book published
| |
| | million books!* R.J. Reynolds distributed
|
| was a painful experience - whether you
| |
| | 1.5 million copies of the Great Trails
|
| self-published, were fortunate enough to
| |
| | Road Atlas as an on-pack (attached to the
|
| get a traditional publisher or opted for
| |
| | package) incentive offer on cartons of
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| a print-on-demand publisher. It took far
| |
| | Marlboros to promote the image of the
|
| longer and far more effort than you ever
| |
| | Marlboro Man.Are all the deals that
|
| imagined it would.Next you may have
| |
| | big?No...* U.S. West purchased 2,000
|
| experienced the "post-partum blues," the
| |
| | copies of Talking with Your Customers to
|
| separation anxiety that comes with your
| |
| | demonstrate appreciation to their Yellow
|
| book finally being "delivered" - a vague
| |
| | Pages advertisers* Before its publish
|
| empty feeling haunts you.After getting
| |
| | date, Kenneth Blanchard sent copies of
|
| your life back to some semblance of
| |
| | Who Moved My Cheese to the CEOs of
|
| normalcy, the day came when you fully
| |
| | corporations. The Bank of Hawaii bought
|
| confronted a realization. The books
| |
| | 4000, Mercedes Benz 7000, and Southwest
|
| aren't selling in any significant
| |
| | Airlines 27,000.* Judy Dugan sold 5,000
|
| numbers. You have boxes of books sitting
| |
| | copies of her self-published book, Santa
|
| in your garage or basement, your office,
| |
| | Barbara Highlights and History, to a
|
| a warehouse somewhere. Sure, you've sold
| |
| | Santa Barbara bank who gave a copy to
|
| a few books at events, or a dozen here
| |
| | every customer who came in to a new
|
| and there at book signings and such. But
| |
| | branch openingThe Average Size of
|
| at that pace, you're in the storage
| |
| | DealsAccording to MotivationShow.com,
|
| business more than you're in the
| |
| | most of the sales of books as incentives
|
| practice-building business!You begin
| |
| | start at a quantity of 5,000 books and
|
| musing, "What's the point of creating a
| |
| | goes up from there. That's at least 5,000
|
| book to help people and promote yourself
| |
| | people benefiting from having your
|
| if nobody ever sees it? What's the point
| |
| | expertise in their hands and each of them
|
| of taking time away from my clients or
| |
| | telling probably 5+ other people about
|
| other work to do book signings, only to
| |
| | it.And if you personally made a profit of
|
| sell a mere dozen or so books per
| |
| | $1 a book, that's $5,000
|
| event?"Since the books aren't going to
| |
| | $2 a book = $10,000
|
| sell themselves, you may have made some
| |
| | $4 a book = $20,000And what if they
|
| efforts to figure out the book marketing
| |
| | wanted 30,000 copies of your book or
|
| and distribution business to try to break
| |
| | more? Such deals are happening all year
|
| into bookstores, only to find it all
| |
| | long.So, Giving Things to Customers is
|
| archaic, complex and frustrating. You
| |
| | Pretty Much How Organizations Use
|
| may even have gotten into a bookstore or
| |
| | Incentives?Nay, nay. There's a real
|
| two. But the books didn't move, because
| |
| | "whew" list of ways. In a 2003 study by
|
| nobody knows the books are there."I don't
| |
| | Louisiana State University and Glenrich
|
| have time for this!" you probably
| |
| | Business Studies, 2000 randomly selected
|
| exclaimed at some point. "This is not how
| |
| | promotional product distributors ranked
|
| I want to spend my life!"But the reality
| |
| | usage of promotional products in
|
| is, if book sales are to be, it's up to
| |
| | different types of programs as
|
| thee.Welcome to the Bookstore Trap.You're
| |
| | follows:RANK USAGE CATEGORYBusiness
|
| not alone. The vast majority of authors
| |
| | Gifts: Gifts to foster customer goodwill
|
| have a disappointing publishing
| |
| | and retentionEmployee Relations & Events:
|
| experience. At The Book Standard Summit
| |
| | Morale and motivation, corporate/employee
|
| 2005, Nielsen Bookscan reported that 93%
| |
| | events, employee orientation,
|
| of the books sold at retail in 2004 sold
| |
| | organizational commitment/corporate
|
| less than 1000 copies!Self-publishers
| |
| | identity, corporate communication,
|
| don't do as well. Overall, the average
| |
| | employee training (other than safety),
|
| self-published book sells around 250
| |
| | employee referral programsTrade Shows:
|
| copies! (Granted, it allowed them to get
| |
| | Trade-show traffic generationBrand
|
| their book published when it probably
| |
| | Awareness: Promotion of brand awareness
|
| wouldn't have been published otherwise.
| |
| | and brand loyaltyEmployee Service Awards:
|
| But yikes!)The problem is, most authors
| |
| | Anniversary recognition, service awards,
|
| and independent publishers focus almost
| |
| | etc.Dealer/Distributor Programs: Dealer
|
| exclusively on trying to get their books
| |
| | incentives, co-op programs, company
|
| into bookstores. Even if you're
| |
| | storesPublic Relations: Corporate
|
| initially successful in passing muster,
| |
| | involvement with community, fundraising,
|
| if your marketing efforts don't drive
| |
| | sponsorship, school programs, media
|
| people to the bookstore to buy your book
| |
| | relations, corporate imageNew Customer
|
| in significant numbers within the first
| |
| | Account Generation: New customer or new
|
| 30 days or so, the books are going to be
| |
| | account generationInternal Promotions:
|
| returned. Bookstores return some 60% of
| |
| | Sales incentive, TQM/quality programs,
|
| all books they order!!!But There is Good
| |
| | productivity, inventory reduction, error
|
| NewsHere's the fact that I'm asking you
| |
| | reduction, attendance improvementNew
|
| to focus on to break out of the
| |
| | Product/Service Introduction: New product
|
| less-than-1000-copies bookstore sales
| |
| | or service introductionSafety Education
|
| trap: According to a Feb 2005 report from
| |
| | Incentive: Employee safety and
|
| the Association of American Publishers,
| |
| | educationNot-For-Profit Programs:
|
| of the $23.7 billion of books sold in
| |
| | Not-for-profit use for fundraising,
|
| 2004, only 45% were sold through
| |
| | public awareness campaigns (health,
|
| bookstores, the most competitive and
| |
| | environment, public safety, etc.)Customer
|
| challenging-to-penetrate channel for
| |
| | Referral: Customer referral incentive
|
| selling books. That means that
| |
| | programsMarketing Research: Marketing
|
| non-bookstore outlets account for more
| |
| | research, survey, and focus group
|
| book sales than bookstores!!!So, if you
| |
| | participation programsSo, How Big are the
|
| learn how NOT to be dependent on
| |
| | Benefits to the Author of Selling to This
|
| bookstores for sales, you're tapping into
| |
| | Market?You be the judge:* It's likely to
|
| the majority of the book market
| |
| | be the best thing you've ever done to
|
| (55%)!!!So, What's the Author's
| |
| | promote your practice and other products
|
| Answer?One of the most powerful
| |
| | and services. Success provides you
|
| strategies for tapping into the
| |
| | greater exposure, credibility, pride and
|
| non-bookstore market is selling large
| |
| | self-confidence.* Unlike bookstore
|
| quantities of books to organizations for
| |
| | channels, you have little or no
|
| use as incentives, the billion-dollar
| |
| | competition! Because authors and
|
| book portion of the $29 billion* (and
| |
| | independent publishers don't understand
|
| growing) incentives marketplace. (*year
| |
| | this market, organizations receive very
|
| 2000)The what? The incentives marketplace
| |
| | few, if any, proposals. Present yourself
|
| is that part of non-bookstore sales
| |
| | professionally and persuasively (with the
|
| comprised of organizations -
| |
| | tools I'll give you) and you have a great
|
| corporations, associations, charities,
| |
| | chance at getting noticed and considered.
|
| etc. - that buy books to use as a
| |
| |
|
