Simon Kolz

A weblog by Simon Kolz

Increase Book Sales: When a Sale Is No Longer Just a Sale

Do you have books sitting in your garage that you haven’tsold yet and looking for ways to move them? Then you willwant to know about these five outrageous ideas that aren’tdifficult and can be just plain out fun.

Dede Hall, author of The Starving Student’s Cookbook hadvery poor sales for her books. Then one day an outrageouslylight bulb moment appeared. She added an inexpensiveskillet with the book and shrink-wrapped them. Then shetook 150 of them to two stores that she thought wouldn’tsell them. Yes, to her surprise, all 150 sold in two days.Dede stumbled on an outrageous idea and it worked out bigtime. She sold over 100,000 copies in a few months. Wheredid she sell them? Thought you would never ask. PriceClubs and Kmarts.

Do you have a book that could be packaged with somethingelse and create outrageous sales for yourself? It’sChristmas time and no it isn’t too late. But before youdart off to come up with an outrageous idea for your book,continue reading so that you can get all the facts.

Another cookbook was repackaged with a scarlet ribbon andsome imported cinnamon sticks and then sold at departmentstores in the housewares and gift sections. The bookcouldn’t sell at $5.95 but flew off the shelves at $10 andwent into second printing in 30 days.

Would your book sell well in a three-ring shrink-wrappedbinder? Why not create and audio or CD version of thematerial. Just read directly from the material. You do nothave to be fancy. Add “read by the author” language to theoutside in big letters. Or maybe “F*R*E*E Bonus, LimitedTime Offer, Free Audio read by the author” in big letters.

Another key is to look for an item that makes the packagelarger than the book. This requires a larger space and thenbigger visibility.

What about a book on money? Add a mug labeled,”Millionaire” and watch it fly off the shelf. Do not forgetthe second part of the formula — the place you are going tosell it. When you add the mug, it is now considered a giftitem. This opens the doors to more stores and places.

Try all the independent gift shops, especially at theairport. They are always looking for these type of uniquecombinations.

Have an exercise book? Add a “walking meter” with it. Theone that measures how many miles you are walking. Have noclue what they call those things but I have bought threeover the past few years. Again, now it is a gift item. Howabout contacting a sports equipment vendor and selling themcopies of your book that would be a freebie for a limitedperiod with a purchase.

Get the store to add a sign, “limited quantity and watchthem go even faster. What is great about this angle is thatgift stores, department stores and similar stores are muchmore open to add things to their shelf. They will work withyou much better than a bookstore.

Now that you brain is going a mile a minute with ideas, bestwishes for selling many more books!

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