Book- Business Lingo

■Social MediaDescribe your prospective readers using objective characteristicssuch as age, income, and education. Relatively precisefigures can be helpful: for example, people in the targetmarket are between the ages of 25 and 45 and have annualincomes of $50,000 or more. But more general informationis useful too. For instance, you might note that the buyersfor your book about retirement planning skew toward thehigher age and income brackets, which would tell a distributorto focus on specialty stores for this title and avoid sellingit through discount stores.The unique value you bring to thesupply chain is defined differentlyat each level.Also describe potential buyers in subjective terms. If yourbook is about increasing wealth, readers may have a varietyof objectives. It could sell to a younger adult audience savingto buy a new home or for children’s college funds, or toempty-nesters saving to buy a boat, a second home, or anexotic vacation. The more you can tell a distribution partnerabout each audience, the more likely it becomes that the distributorwill be able to make your book available where thataudience looks for the kind of content it offers.Be clear about the benefits the book provides. Consumersdo not buy 320 perfect-bound pages of words; they buy howthose pages can help them. They do not buy the recipes ina cookbook; they buy the pleasure that they feel when dinnerguests oooh and aaah over a dish they had never heard ofbefore. A distributor’s sales force can use information aboutbenefits to distinguish your book from similar titles whenpresenting it to retail buyers.952-322-4005winningbookinteriors &coverdesignsprofessionalediting &proofreadingattractive,easy-to-useWeb sitesebookformattingwww.editorialservice.comqualitybook productionservicesFinally, describe the competition, highlighting the ways yourbook is different from and better than each competing title.That will help you compete for your distributor’s attention.4. Target your promotion to each rung of the distributionladder. The unique value you bring to the supply chainis defined differently at each level. Distributors want qualitybooks that are supported with creative and well-implementedmarketing plans. Retailers want products that will increasestore traffic and move off the shelves quickly and profitably.Consumers want content that will help them in some way.Your job is to make each level aware of your book’s uniquevalue and what it will do for them.You can help distributors succeed in selling your book toretailers by using push marketing. Ask distributors about tradeshows where they have booths. Could you display your bookthere? Tell them what shows you are exhibiting at and exploreopportunities for partnering there, too. Tell them about yourother promotion plans. Could you conduct a contest orsweepstakes for the distributors’ sales representatives? Couldyou attend and speak at their sales meeting? Would they like tohave sales literature and quality reproductions of your cover?Once your books are on nonbook retailers’ shelves, a distributionpartner’s role is to refill the pipeline after promotion getspeople to buy. Consumer promotion—or pull marketing—isyour responsibility. Customize your promotional activities foreach segment. Generate media exposure that aligns your messagewith seasonal sales peaks and customer demographics.Be sure to tell your distributors where and when your promotionalactivities will take place so they can alert retailersin those areas to put more of your books on their shelves inanticipation of increased demand. Regularly send summariesof your upcoming promotion activities. Make it easy for distributorsto sell your books, and they will do so.Providing value for nonbookstore distribution partners issimply a matter of knowing what they want and providingit. Giving them current, practical solutions to their problemswill elevate you above the mass of average suppliers to thelevel of trusted partner. Then watch your sales increase. ■Brian Jud, the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books, now offers commission-basedsales to buyers in special markets. For more information: P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001-0715;860/675-1344; brianjud@bookmarketing.com; premiumbookcompany.com; and twitter.com/bookmarketing.42 | IBPA Independent | September 2012