sell books in gift shops

Successful Book Selling – The Non-Traditional Way

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Bookstores, brick-and-mortar or online, are wonderful places to buy books – and for authors to sell books, but they aren’t the only places.  Do you know that more than half of all books are not sold in bookstores?  If you really want to take your business to a higher level, there are so many other venues for selling your books.
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Your Own Webpage
David Gaughran wrote: “
The first obvious advantage is higher royalty rates. You can earn a lot more than 70% if you sell direct. I’m making $3.49 on my $3.99 titles (as opposed to $2.70 from Amazon) and I’m getting nearly double the royalties on 99c titles.  On top of that, I can now directly serve readers who face higher charges internationally (such as readers in Amazon’s surcharge zone) and those readers who can’t buy from the major retailers (e.g. Barnes & Noble only serve the US, and Amazon don’t serve much of Asia, most of the Middle East, and nearly all of Africa).”  David gives in his article detailed information to pro’s and con’s of selling directly, payment options etc.

Gift shops
Many books fit well in the gift or souvenir market. The price for your book should be under $15, the cover bright and the book a good impulse item. If you offer your book in person, bring a display for dominantly presentation at the cash counter. A good place too is a hospital’s gift shop: visitors and patients need something to occupy their time at the hospital, right?
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Local Festivals
Build your local brand and get recognized by your community and sell your book at local festivals and fairs. Contact festival organizers in your area and ask them how you can set up a booth at the next festival. It may surprise you just how much traffic your booth could attract. Bring a fish bowl and initiate a raffle, and get names and email addresses to invite for your next book launch.  A side effect might be that people demand your book at the local library and even in local bookstores.
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Retail outlets
Some golf club shops, gourmet shops, sporting goods stores, home improvement stores, museum stores, wineries or children’s shops sell books as sidelines, items that complement their other merchandise. Offer the outlet ten copies on consignment, plus a free display to get the ball rolling. For example: if there is an exhibition about the Victorian era announced, and your book takes place there, offer a limited time consignment of your book. Or an ice wine festival at a winery: offer your gourmet book to them.  Golf tournament: show your mystery that happens on a gold course.
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Corporate gifts
A book is the ideal goodwill builder because people value books. Most corporations have marketing budgets for creating goodwill and turning prospects into clients or say thank you to customers. Do you have a guide on personal finance that you could sell to a bank or investment brokerage? Could your health-oriented book interest a pharmaceutical company or hospital?
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Book-Signings
Unless you’re a celebrity, don’t expect book signings to sell a ton of books for you; look at them as building brand awareness, the true power of a book signing is in its promotion. Get lots of tips for book signings on Writing-World’s blog post.

Catalogs
There are thousands of consumer and business-to-business catalogs that cover every imaginable subject. Find the ones that already have your customer base and convince them about the value of carrying your book. You can do this online or via a major library that has various directories. Catalogs have three great advantages: No book returns, they usually pay promptly and they order frequently and for a long time.
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Local mall
Contact the mall in your area and speak with the person in charge of leasing tables. Ask them how much it costs to lease a space in the mall, as well as the best locations to sell books and the best month, other than December: Easter or Back-to-School might be a good time too.
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E-books & audio-books
Make sure to sell it to e-book vendors all over the internet – not only to Amazon. There is Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Waterstones, Google, Gardners, Sony, Powell’s etc.  If you don’t want to deal with each of them on a direct basis, there is BookBaby, who submits your e-book for a flat fee and you keep all your net-earning royalties.
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FuturePerfectPublishing wrote:  ”Non-bookstore retail venues use different selling models.  For example, Starbucks sells only one book at a time in its stores, featuring a title for several months. Costco, Walmart and other big box retailers carry bestsellers as well as a selection of lesser known titles.   A recent New York Times article on non-reported sales of consumer books sold through such non-traditional outlets grew by more than $260 million.” 

“Publishers have many book-selling options today and may continue to migrate away from bookstore retailers – as long as their outdated and onerous returns and payment policies remain in effect.”

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $159 for 3 months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/ to advertise your new book, specials or your KDP Select Free Days.

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Tagged: audio books, book signings, Bookstores, corporate gifts, Non-traditional book markets, retail outlets, sell books in gift shops, sell your book on your own webpage