Get Rich in Niche Marketing

Niche markets are made up of identifiable groups of people with a common interest. This interest might be photography, cooking, or playing tennis, and the practitioners may be found in camera shops, cooking schools or tennis clubs. Selling your books to people in niche markets entails identifying potential readers, and making your books available to them where they congregate.

Tordis Isselhardt at Images From The Past sold over 10,000 books to places like Mount Vernon, the Young America’s Foundation, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and to Eastern National stores. One buyer even “kicked in an additional $2,000 ‘for marketing and educational purposes’ on the first printing,” said Tordis.

Every store that sells a product on your topic can be a source of sales for your books. As is appropriate, you could sell your products to museums, to zoos, at national parks, in home-improvement centers, pet shops, auto-supply stores, drug stores, camera shops, toy stores, garden supply stores or computer stores. Here are examples that should stimulate your creative juices to come up with more places in which to sell your books.

Do not limit yourself to brick-and-mortar stores, either. Think online stores, too. If you have educational children’s books, why not sell them through Learning Express at http://www.learningexpress.com/. If yours is a patriotic topic, sell your products at http://www.hnhgifts.com/huttonhammo. If you have a topic related to relationships, money or health for baby boomers, sell it in the Marketplace at BoomerCafe©, http://www.boomercafe.com.

Museum stores as a niche market

Museums in particular offer an excellent sales opportunity for the right titles. Every year millions of people visit museums, most of which have a gift shop in which books could be sold. Museums want to inform and educate their visitors, and if you have a book that will enhance their ability to do that, you may make a good sale.

There are approximately 1,800 museums in the United States that belong to the Museum Store Association, all of which either have a store or are in the process of creating a retail operation. Founded in 1955, the MSA is an international organization representing museum store professionals worldwide. MSA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the general welfare of the museum store industry, and it helps museum store managers better serve their institutions and the public.

MSA member stores range in net sales from less than $5,000 to more than $17 million with median net sales of $137,457 and mean net sales of $415,074. Because museum stores sell items (including books) that provide visitors with souvenirs and educational materials directly related to their museum experience, your book on any of those subjects could be ideal for sales through their shops. The Association is located at 4100 E Mississippi Avenue, Suite 800, Denver, CO, 80246-3055 and their telephone number is (303) 504-9223. You can find more information by emailing them at info@museumdistrict.com or by visiting their website (http://www.museumdistrict.com).

The Canadian Museums Association is at 280 Metcalfe St., Suite 400, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1R7 Canada. The telephone number there is (613) 567-0099, and the fax is (613) 233-5438 and email is info@museums.ca. Or, more information may be found on the Web at http://www.museums.ca. Visit their bookstore while you are there.

Museums run the gamut of subjects, including ethnic groups (Polish Museum of America in Chicago), art (MOMA), science (Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago), time (Timexpo Museum, Waterbury, CT), natural history (Museum of Natural History, New York City) and many other focused topics, in large and small cities. In addition, there are military museums, an example of which is The United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio (937-255-3286 http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/).

Books are considered impulse items in this market and should be priced accordingly. In addition, to a low price, buyers look for quality of production and content. The information in a new title is expected to be precise, and it may be subjected to a formal review process. Your submission to the buying authority should include a statement that facts and dates have been checked for accuracy.

The purchasing procedures at most museum stores are similar to those of a gift store or a bookstore in the sense that they buy at just-in-time inventory levels, usually in small quantities. However, you can contact one organization to sell your books to many stores at once. Eastern National is an association providing educational products and services to 150 stores in more than 130 national parks and other public trusts in 30 states, from Maine to the Caribbean. It is located at 470 Maryland Drive, Suite 1, Ft. Washington, PA 19034. You can reach them at 215-283-6900 or by fax: 215-283-6923, email: customer_serv@easternnational.org. They have a bookstore on their website (http://www.easternnational.org/) as well as access to all the stores they represent. Many of their museum stores also have websites through which they market books. You may find a broader selection representing a greater opportunity for your titles here.

If you want to learn more about how to market to museums, go to the site of the American Association of Museums (http://www.aam-us.org) where they have a bookstore with titles on how to do just that. And if you want to find out the contact information for bookstores at many national parks, go to http://data2.itc.nps.gov/hafe/bookshop/index.cfm and track them down.

Why sell to niche markets?

People go to bookstores to buy books. There, your books are on a shelf, surrounded by competitive books. In niche marketing, you make your books available to prospective buyers outside of bookstores, in a non-competitive setting. In addition:

1) Your promotional dollars are more efficient because of less wasted exposure. You can be very specific in the people you contact, and the benefits they will receive by reading your books.

2) Your book may be the only one available in a place where there is no competition and no price comparison. You can offer your books for sale in car washes, doctors’ offices, banks, restaurants, ski lodges, movie theaters, appliance stores or coffee shops.

3) It may be easier to sell to niche markets than those in large corporations. Proprietors of small businesses look upon books favorably as a special service to their customers, a source of incremental revenue.

4) Most of these venues purchase directly from the publisher, so there may be no distribution discounts.

5) The individual orders will typically be smaller than those to larger companies, but you will find the buying period shorter, the process less formal and access to buyers through mass communications such as email or direct mail.

The selling process

You may find the selling process different for each niche. If in doubt about the proper procedures, visit local stores, or call major ones, to ask them how they buy products. Must you use a distributor, and if so, which ones are the best? What are the traditional percentages on which sales are made? What are the industry operating procedures and expectations? What are the major industry trade shows, magazines and associations? Ask questions that will enable you to reach your potential buyers most expeditiously.

When you contact small retailers, approach them as you would any other business buyer. Find out the buyers’ names and make appointments to meet with them (you can usually find this on their website, as well as other information that will help you prepare for the sale). Sell to the buyers in terms that are important to them. Describe how your products will increase their profit per square foot. Tell them how your media promotion will stimulate traffic through their store. Prove that you know what their customers want, and that your titles will help increase their overall sales.

Although there are no industry standards for purchasing books, sales are typically non-returnable. An exception to this rule is a sale for a special event. They usually seek a 50% discount, and if your titles sell well they will be re-ordered regularly. Stores in most museums may only sell books directly related to their themes, or they are subject to the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). So the more targeted your titles are to the topic of the museum the more likely they are to be purchased.

Niche marketing offers an opportunity to sell more books, with short discounts, few distribution fees, no returns and on repeat orders. Be creative; find buyers in specialty stores interested in selling your books to their customers, and everybody benefits.

Brian Jud is author of Beyond the Bookstore (a Publishers Weekly book) and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM describing new ways to sell more books profitably to special-sales buyers. He is editor of the Book Marketing Matters special-sales newsletter, and creator of the Book Market Map directories for special sales. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or visit http://www.bookmarketing.com

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