Thursday, June 30, 2011

Selling to Markets Outside the Bookstore

I recently listened to a special podcast with Brian Jud and he talked about selling books to special markets. Thought I would share with you some of the things he covered. Most of this works better for non-fiction, but there are plenty of markets for fiction, too.

He talked about selling what your book does, not what it is. When you’re contacting these special markets, how will the person/company you’re speaking to benefit? How will readers benefit? What problems will your book solve? Can you reformat your book into booklets, pamphlets, or pdf downloads? Can you match your book with an association’s cause?

Some of the markets he mentioned:

Book clubs
Associations
Airport stores (besides the bookstore)
Corporate libraries
Alumni groups
Catalogs
Corporate gifts
Reading groups
Military
Gift and specialty stores
Display marketing
Cruise ships
Museums, parks, and zoos
Home Shopping Network

Does this give you some new ideas? Here’s another great thing about these markets - they don’t return books!

Visit Brian Jud’s site Book Marketing Works and sign up for his newsletter.

9 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Sounds like some amazing ideas! Thanks, Diane. :)

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Some good ideas there Diane, some I wouldn't have thought of.

Yvonne.

Helen Ginger said...

I go to several conferences/conventions each year with my husband. Often, they have speakers at the closing meeting. And often those speakers are selling a book. But...they don't really talk about the book. They do, however, do such a great job entertaining the audience with their talk that folks gather to buy their book afterwards. I've bought a book just because the speaker was so inspirational. At a recent convention, if the speaker had had a book, I would have bought it just because I liked him (Steve Ford).

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

A post worth marking for future reference. Thanks, Diane.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Authors and publishers definitely need to be thinking beyond the bookstore right now.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Helen, those are some smart speakers. Bet they get a lot of media interviews, too.

Karen, yes they do! That's why I paid to hear this seminar.

Ciara said...

Sounds like some interesting ideas, Diane. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Tony Eldridge said...

Thanks for sharing, Diane. These are some great ideas. I know authors who make a great living selling almost exclusively to markets outside the bookstores. Your lists is really worth a bookmark for future reference.

Ann Summerville said...

I hopped on over from Thoughts in Progress.
Ann