Mystery Shopping
Spent an 'undercover' morning on Saturday, ringing round a few shops to see whether or not they had stocked my book after my recent approach. For those stores that are stocking it - may I say THANK YOU VERY MUCH! They all admitted that it is in fact selling well, so that was good news for me. For those of you that have failed to take it on, well, maybe I will be able to convince you very soon. All of the latter did offer to order it for me though, which was good (remember, I didn't ring up as the author, but as a potential buyer!)
Had some intersting replies though, which should help me work out how best to market this book to bookstores in future. One major store said they didn't stock it because they don't make very much for themselves from that particular publisher, so they would usually only take it if it was a guaranteed seller. She did say though that she was surprised that they weren't stocking it, and would be having a word with their local interest buyer, because she was sure a book about Radio City would be popular (and this, remember, was unprompted by me).
As for the Welsh stores - well, they are just not taking it at all (except my own local bookstore, who even then would only take 3 copies on a sale or return basis - but I went for a sneaky look around on Saturday and they have sold one already!!) Maybe the Welsh have forgotten that 194 Radio City broadcast to both North Wales and the Great North West (as the famous jingle went). Never mind.
In the meantime, I have noticed that things have become a little better on the Lulu site, in that you can order books and have them sent via an international economy rate, which means the price for postage can now be as little as £3.41 (this will vary due to the exchange rate). This is much better than before, and even the cost of buying in bulk for my own sales has improved dramatically. This was always a major bugbear for the Lulu author in the past, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. If you wish to buy from Lulu or take a look at other print-on-demand books, or just wish to browse their site, you can click on here:
Had some intersting replies though, which should help me work out how best to market this book to bookstores in future. One major store said they didn't stock it because they don't make very much for themselves from that particular publisher, so they would usually only take it if it was a guaranteed seller. She did say though that she was surprised that they weren't stocking it, and would be having a word with their local interest buyer, because she was sure a book about Radio City would be popular (and this, remember, was unprompted by me).
As for the Welsh stores - well, they are just not taking it at all (except my own local bookstore, who even then would only take 3 copies on a sale or return basis - but I went for a sneaky look around on Saturday and they have sold one already!!) Maybe the Welsh have forgotten that 194 Radio City broadcast to both North Wales and the Great North West (as the famous jingle went). Never mind.
In the meantime, I have noticed that things have become a little better on the Lulu site, in that you can order books and have them sent via an international economy rate, which means the price for postage can now be as little as £3.41 (this will vary due to the exchange rate). This is much better than before, and even the cost of buying in bulk for my own sales has improved dramatically. This was always a major bugbear for the Lulu author in the past, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. If you wish to buy from Lulu or take a look at other print-on-demand books, or just wish to browse their site, you can click on here:
posted by Kathy Barham | 5:33 PM
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