SUPER PROFITABLE NEW TECHNIQUES FOR SELLING BOOKS BY MAIL!
The total number of books sold by small, part-time mail order entrepreneurs is growing
each year. Total sales each year for the past five years have increased by almost 30
percent over the previous year's sales.
Two "new angles" have greatly contributed to this phenomenal growth in total
sales.
One is the practice of offering a wide selection of books via "mini-catalogs"
to prospective buyers as "inserts" imprinted materials the prospect has already
ordered.
Mini-catalogs are usually printed on 81/2 x 11 sheets of paper, then folded in half
along the length, and simply slipped inside the covers of a magazine or the folds of a
newspaper. Often-times, a mini-catalog is folded and sent out as a self-mailer. Both of
these methods of obtaining circulation are very profitable.
A book-selling "mini-catalog" is made up of a "full-page
commercial" on the front page. This is your mail sales thrust, or primary attempt to
sell a "featured" book with each of your mailings. The second, third, and half
of the last page of the mini-catalog should be two columns of listings of other books you
have to offer.
Each listing should consist of the title of the book offered, followed by a short
description of either the book itself, or how the book can benefit the buyer. This is then
followed by the catalog number of the book, and the price.
The bottom half of the last page of your mini-catalog should be devoted to your
customer order coupon. The "mini-catalog" should be typeset, and printed on a
different color paper for each mailing. Recent sales analysis results indicate that the
better quality paper your mini-catalog is printed on, the more sales it brings in for you.
To major publishers who are currently supplying ready-made catalogs for your use in
generating business are:
PREMIER PUBLISHERS of Fort Worth, TX, and WILSHIRE BOOKS of N. Hollywood, CA.
Write to them on your letterhead, and ask for samples of their promotional material.
Once you have got a mini-catalog with which to advertise your books, you must bring all
your efforts to bear on the problem of obtaining maximum circulation of your mini-catalog
among the prospective book buyers.
The easiest and least expensive method is as follows: check at your area newspaper
offices for a listing of all their distributors and/or route carriers. Contact these
people and ask them to give you a price they would charge to include one of your
mini-catalogs with each paper they sell or deliver. Determine how many
"mini-catalogs" you will need for this kind of distribution, have that number of
mini-catalogs printed, hand them out to your contracted distributors and newspaper
carriers; then sit back and prepare to fill book orders. It's simple and easy, but best of
all it really results in big profits for your book-selling business.
Another simple method would be to line up students from difference junior high schools
in your area, and pay them each $10 per thousand to deliver your mini-catalogs
door-to-door. If you have junior high school age children, this could be the easiest and
least expensive method of distribution for you.
Major cities also have professional distributing services which deliver advertising
material to the residents. Check your local phone directory yellow pages for their names
and addresses.
The orders which you develop through the local distribution method can be filled by
mail.
To expand your market beyond the local area, you need to solicit the
business by mail. Several excellent books are available on methods of developing sales by
mail.