Holiday Events, Retailers, and Your Book

 

I’m trying to get my Christmas shopping done. I’m even getting boxes ready to ship to people who live out of town (or in LA, across town!). That may sound nutty, but it’s a longstanding habit and one that came in very handy when I was in retailing and found November and December exhausting months. This holiday season is so important to retailers. Did you know that many retailers don’t break even for the year until about December 4^th. Thus their year’s entire profit must be made in less than 30 days?  That means the holidays are a great time for book sales...and for approaching a retailer with a profit-making event idea.

This same early-bird habit has worked for me as a writer too. Anyone with published books is, in fact, a retailer. Not exclusively, but they are whenever they’re selling books at seminars they’re speaking at, when they’re selling books from their own Web site, and when they’re promoting (retailers—even online retailers—must promote!). 

It goes to reason that the more we understand retailing, the better retailers we’ll be. But it’s even more important that this knowledge can be used to partner with retailers like bookstores and alternative retail situations where your book can be sold. Stand in a retailer’s shoes, and you’ll better understand how to let him or her know how you and your book can make a difference for them. May I suggest some of my own retail books (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm)?

I especially recommend the one for retailers on planning in-store events. Authors and books are mentioned in it as a way to up a retailer's profits. (-:. But if you substitute "author" for "retailer" here you'll be able to apply much to your own event marketing and you'll certainly benefit when you pitch an event to retailer. You'll be able to talk their language (language like "p-r-o-f-i-t-s").

 Find it here: http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide. You could even quote me in your pitch!

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: