The Case for Book Fairs

Book Fairs, despite what many sellers will tell you, are prime marketing, buying and selling tools. In this age of virtual homogeneity, it is imperative to have a physical connection with potential customers and for potential customers connect you and your business with your inventory. Some material will sell itself especially if it is a reading copy priced low: the item is a known entity and a modest financial risk. But a vast amount of higher priced collectible items and non-fiction material need to be seen to not only be appreciated but also assessed as worthy of being purchased. And there is no better way to facilitate this than at a book fair.

Here are 10 good reasons to exhibit at a regional book fair:

1. Give your internet business a 'face.' Consumers respond to personalities and human contact and when you connect a real person with a business name and inventory you improve your chances of making a long-term connection.

2. Think Collateral Sales. Book fairs provide you an opportunity to sell related material that a customer did not plan to buy or even know existed. Collateral sales generally do not occur on the internet.

3. Book fairs provide us with new customers. When was the last time your inventory was seen by 2000 potential customers in person? Even if they don't buy at the fair, there is strong possibility for a follow-up sale if you have won buyers over with your personality, your knowledge, and the quality and breadth of your inventory.

4. Book fairs allow you to network with other booksellers. Other members of the professional trade can be great resources for information, sales trends, business activities, and new technologies. Other booksellers can also be some of your best customers. Let them see what you have to offer.

5. Regional book fairs, with between 50 and 100 exhibitors, offer the single best opportunity to replenish your stock with salable material or purchase specific titles on the want list of your best customers. Exhibitors will usually bring their most interesting, not necessarily their most expensive, material and some it may be out of field for them but right up your alley.

6. The book fair can be used to show your best customers your latest New Arrivals exclusively offered to at the show.

7. During the run of the book fair, the show will be the largest and best used and collectible bookstore in the host region, and what business person would not want to be a part of that focus on their stock and trade?

8. As an exhibitor, the book fair can inject important cash-flow into your otherwise lagging on-line activity.

9. Think long-term. As an exhibitor, your business will be listed in the show program which is often retained by serious attendees for future reference. You and your inventory will also be seen by your colleagues who may become future customers. They now have a face, a personality and an inventory that will set you apart from the herd of faceless, nameless sellers who prefer to keep their businesses anonymous and out of the spotlight. Book fairs will help you build a long-term reputation and presence in the trade.

10. Think of exhibiting at a book fair as an advertising opportunity. The fair is your 3-dimensional, life-size, living advertisement of the type of material you buy and sell. Many a bookseller has been offered a great collection by having their specialties seen at a book fair. I'm one of those.

There are several criteria by which every book fair should be judged: selling well, buying well, effective advertising, follow-up sales or purchases, and new customers. Remember the book business, like any other successful business, is about being proactive and taking the initiative. Don't just passively sit back and hope that good customers will find you; go out and put yourself where the good customers congregate and shop.

Thoughts on "Sales"

As you may have noticed I am currently having an Anniversary sale at Gregor Rare Books. Personally, I am not in favor of regular sales for a number of reasons. Sales can send a negative message to your customers. Not always but it depends on how the sale is presented. Certainly sales work as a way of celebrating special events and/or saying 'thank you' to your best customers i.e. customers who have been with you for some time or have done a lot of business with you. Sometimes you just need to generate some cash flow to pay taxes or buy a library. Sometimes you need more room and you need to clear space. Sometimes you need to change locations and not all of your inventory can go with you. All are legitimate reasons for offering your stock at a discount.

But in order to have an online "sale", you need customer information. You need to have a customer database complete with email addresses, which plays into my contention that it is important to constantly harvest your customer information. When I say, "customers are our business" this is what I mean. Without customer contact information we limit our control over making sales. We cannot initiate a sale if we don't know who we've done business with, what they purchased and how do we contact them with the news of our "sale"? Remember..."control" is one of the four key words in my seminar. If we leave all the control to potential buyers, we are at the mercy of their attention. Many of your good customers would like (and need to be) notified of your special offering. We are all bombarded with literally hundreds of places, events, and demands for our time, our consideration and our disposable income. We need to be present in the lives of people who have already shown us through their purchases that they are interested in what we have to offer. Passivity is not an effective sales technique. Be proactive. Be front and center. Be present. Keep your name and fine products and services in front of those most likely to respond to your offerings.

There should also be some tangible benefit to your customers for engaging in your "sale" and again doing business with you. If you make it worth their while, they will come...if they're interested.

Strategy. If you have significant holdings in a lot of different subject areas, each month you could present a special offering to your proven customers. To do this you would need you track who buys in which subject areas. You can set up an access file with all the pertinent information documented. So in January, you could offer your select Americana customers a 20% discount on your entire Americana inventory. In February, you do the same for your customers of Cookbooks. In March your gardening section etc. And in each case, only the customers who have bought in the specific section would receive the "sale" notice. That way your entire customer base is not receiving a "sale" notice every month for material they are not specifically interested in...thus over-doing the "sale" tool and potentially creating a negative impression of your business.

These are my initial thoughts regarding "sales"; I'd be interested in yours. Please feel free to post them on the facebook page for others to see.

SHIPPING DEMONSTRATION

This little exercise is something I have wanted to document for some time. Shipping horror stories abound and I wanted to ensure that people involved in my BSI programs at least get exposed to some basic shipping protocols that ensure that purchased items reach their intended buyers in the same condition they were ordered. My key mantra is: assume the worst handling and package accordingly. You do not have to spend inordinate amounts on good packing material. I seek out cardboard, either small boxes that work for books or large boxes that I can cannibalize, from neighboring shops. They are happy to not have to recycle the material themselves. So here we go.



Step 1. Once I receive the order, I wrap the book in brown wrapping paper (never newspaper because the ink could rub off on the exposed text block)to protect it from any possible rubbing to the binding or potential soiling. Once the book is wrapped, it is ready to be "boxed". Whenever possible I use the USPS Flat Envelope because it is the most affordable way to get a regular sized book to the furthest customer in the fastest time. The less time the package spends in the postal system, the better I like it.













Step 2. At this point the book is ready to be "boxed" in salvaged cardboard. The intent is to completely wrap the book in a protective material that will withstand the often harsh treatment packages receive once they leave our hands and before they reach to intended recipient. We have to assume the worst treatment and prepare our packaging in anticipation of rough handling.












Step 3. Here I have two pieces of cardboard cut long enough to fully wrap around the book long-ways. I always cut the cardboard about a 1/2 inch larger on each side than the item I am wrapping. This adds additional protection to the book edges. Then I tape this piece down.













Step 4. Here the top and bottom edges of the book are protected from any potential bumps or mishandling in transit.












Step 5. Now I lay the book cross-ways over s second piece of cardboard to protect the open sides of the book. I fold this piece of cardboard over the exposed edges and tape it down.













Step 6. Now what we have is a book with all of its edges protected by cardboard. Item to be shipped is now technically in a "box".













Step 7. This is the final step. The fully wrapped book is slipped into a flat-rate envelope basically "boxed" for shipping. This also works for using padded or bubble envelopes. Book itself is fully protected on all sides, the envelope is just the delivery package.


Professionally packing your sales is one of the most effective ways to ensure your long-term profitability. If we take the prudent steps in packaging our sales, then we greatly reduce that chances that the items will arrive damaged and therefore returned for a refund excluding shipping costs. What this translates to is damaged books that are no longer salable and a loss of income. And none of us want that. In my 23 years of shipping books all over the world I have never had a purchase returned due to poor packaging on my end. I assume that my package will receive abuse from postal workers who handle thousands of