Special-sales opportunities are so ubiquitous that we fail to see them. We become so used to seeing a gift shop, toy store, beauty salon or museum for what they are that we do not think of them for what they could be: potential outlets for book sales. You can find these new sources of revenue by conducting simple grassroots market research.
Start at the beginning
The way to find a better mousetrap is to ask people how they would alter their existing one. And if it were changed to their specifications, how many would they buy? Do this by asking incisive questions. You will not have a complete sense of the market until you get the answers. This process may lead you to discover that you already have an existing title that solves their problems, but the marketplace does not know about it. Then your strategy becomes one of improved communications.
Market research is easier – and perhaps more valuable — when conducted among people in your target market segments, rather than the general populace. An example is found in the job-search market, beginning with the assumption that there are 6,000,000 unemployed people in the United States. If you could afford the time and money to survey all these people, you would probably find that each wants different information, customized to his or her specific needs. But you would not want to publish 6,000,000 unique books.
So, the first step is to look for points of similarity among your potential customers. Graduating college seniors have different requirements than do graduating high-school seniors. 55-year-old unemployed white corporate executives have different needs for information than do 55-year-old blue-collar workers looking for employment. Your opportunity lies in your ability to find out how many people need what information, and the number and content of competitive titles.
Suppose you decide to create a new title to help graduating college students find a job. The next step is to contact career-development offices, bookstore managers and librarians at colleges by email, mail, telephone calls or personal visits. Ask them questions about how the needs for job-search information are currently being satisfied. Look for areas of unmet need.
What titles are currently available? What are their strong and weak points? What title is the segment leader, and why? Without that information you might blindly forge into this segment, erroneously thinking that the information you have is unique and necessary.
Margot Silk Forrest did some research for her title, A Short Course in Kindness. She searched in the kindness category on Amazon.com and found 336 competitive titles. She then sought the best-selling titles by sorting them in order of their sales. A quick review showed the content people were looking for in this segment, since they usually voice their opinions with their wallets. This quick scan also provided competitive information on the segment leaders and the price range people seemed to be willing to pay.
The results of marketing research may be expressed in the form of creativity. Why not sell A Short Course in Kindness to religious bookstores, to gift shops, to support groups, to retreats and perhaps even to anger management centers? Insurance companies might even use it as a tool to reduce road rage.
What opportunities and trends do you see that others do not? Where are the holes in competitors’ product lines? A case in point is the myriad job-search titles focusing on the basics of writing effective resumes and creating persuasive cover letters and conducting successful interviews. Rather than duplicating existing titles, an author might decide to publish a title about how to dress for interviews, on job-search skills for women, or one with tips for performing during the first few months on the job. These are all subsets of the umbrella category.
Remember that your competition may not be a book — it may be a state of mind. College students are typically frugal. They can get free information from the career-development offices or their colleges’ libraries. Why should they pay money to buy your book? This information might lead you to sell your books to the parents of graduating students, or to instructors to use as a textbook, or to create low-priced booklets.
Find out where potential buyers look for information about your topic. Readers of romance novels would not be surprised to find them in hospital gift shops, at Victoria’s Secret stores, flower shops (brick-and-mortar or online) or on cruise ships. You might sell golf books at driving ranges, business books to local chambers of commerce or diet books in beauty salons. Sell your books where people interested in your topic gather, work, reside, play or shop.
Where do you find this information?
There are many sources of information that require more time than money to survey. Use those below to uncover information that can serve as fodder for your creative thinking.
1. Online stores. Search online for competitive information such as pricing, cover design, book size, number of pages and binding. On Amazon.com you can sort by relevance, best selling, price, average customer review or publication date. See what makes your competitors’ books best selling.
2. Bookstores. You can perform RBWA (Research By Walking Around) in bookstores. Talk to employees and ask them what books are selling well, particularly in your category. Why are they selling? Is it the content, size, price, cover design, number of pages or internal layout? Peruse the shelves for examples of cover designs that you like. This information will benefit your sales wherever your books are displayed face out, such as in airport stores, supermarkets, catalogs, or drug stores.
3. Web sites. Go to your favorite search engine and explore the Internet using your topic as a keyword. An excellent by-product of this exercise is that you should find many ideas for new places in which to sell your books.
4. Trade shows. BookExpo America (www.bookexpoamerica.com) is perhaps the single best source of firsthand information about the book-publishing industry in the United States. Here, most of the top companies in the publishing industry gather to introduce their new titles. Attend the seminars and other events that usually occur there.
5. Distributors. If you have a relationship with a distributor, talk to your contacts there. Go to their exhibit at BEA and ask them why one book sells over another. How can you work with their sales representatives to increase your sales to non-bookstore markets? Do the same thing with exhibitors at gift, premium and incentive shows.
6. Publisher associations. The Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly the Publishers Marketing Association) is the largest association for independent publishers. Go to www.pma-online.org for helpful, free information and a list of local affiliates. SPAN (Small Press Association of North America) has a similar list of their partners (www.spannet.org) and an annual seminar. Find and join one of these local groups of publishers. Attend their meetings and educational events to network and learn. IBPA’s Publishing University is an intensive book-marketing extravaganza that is held during the three days prior to each BEA.
7. Listserves. Join online groups and participate in the discussions. Ask questions and read the posts of others. Keep in mind that while the participants mean well, their postings contain opinions that may or may not be in your best interests to adopt. Evaluate what you read and apply that which seems most relevant to you.
8. Read. Subscribe to and read all the major industry magazines such as Publishers Weekly and Writer’s Digest. Purchase and read the books by top authors Dan Poynter, John Kremer, Fern Reiss, Shel Horowitz and Brian Jud. Read their newsletters, too.
9. Purchase data. If your budget allows, have research companies compile proprietary statistical information for you.
Brian Jud now offers several programs to sell more of your books in special markets through personal sales calls, customized mailings and telephone calls. There is a program for any budget. Reach Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or go to http://www.bookmarketing.com
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