Super Profitable Techniques for Selling Books By Mail
By DeAnna Spencer
Posted Tuesday, February 1, 2005
The total number of books sold by small, part-time mail orderentrepreneurs is growing each year. Total sales each year for thepast five years have increased by almost 30-percent over theprevious year's sales.
Two "angles" have greatly contributed to this phenomenalgrowth in total sales.
One is the practice of offering a wide selection of books via"mini-catalogs" The other "angle" is the practice of sendingthese "mini-catalogs" to prospective buyers as "inserts" inprinted materials the prospect has already ordered.
Mini-catalogs are usually printed on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets ofpaper, then folded in half along the length, and simply slippedinside the covers of a magazine or the folds of a newspaper.Often-times, a mini-catalog is folded and sent out as aself-mailer. Both of these methods of obtaining circulation arevery profitable.
A book-selling "mini-catalog" is made up of a "full-pagecommercial" on the front page. This is your main sales thrust, orprimary attempt to sell a "featured" book with ease of yourmailings. The second, third, and half of the last page of themin-catalog should be two columns of listings of other books youhave to offer.
Each listing should consist of the title of the book offered,followed by a short description of either the book itself, or howthe book can benefit the buyer. This is then followed by thecatalog number of the book, and the price.
The bottom half of the page of your mini-catalog should bedevoted to your customer order coupon. The "mini-catalog" shouldbe typeset, and printed on a different color of paper for eachmailing. Recent sales results indicate that the better qualitypaper your mini-catalog is printed on, the more sales it bringsin for you.
Once you've got a mini-catalog with which to advertise yourbooks, you must bring all your efforts to bear on the problem ofobtaining maximum circulation of your mini-catalog among theprospective book buyers.
The easiest and least expensive method is as follows: Check atyour newspaper offices for a listing of all their distributorsand/or route carriers. Contact these people and ask them to giveyou a price they would charge to include one of yourmini-catalogs with each paper they sell or deliver. Determine howmany "mini-catalogs" you'll need for this kind of distributors,have that number of mini-catalogs printed, hand them out to yourcontracted distributors and newspaper carriers; then sit back andprepare to fill book orders. It's simple and easy, but best ofall it really results in big profits for your book-sellingbusiness!
Another simple method would be to line up students fromdifferent junior high schools in your area, and pay them each $10per thousand to deliver your mini-catalogs door-to-door. If youhave junior high school age children, this could be the easiestand least expensive method of distribution for you.
Major cities also have professional distributing services whichdeliver advertising material to the residents. Check your localphone directory for their names and addresses.
The orders which you develop through the local distributionmethod can be filled by mail.
To expand your market beyond the local area, you need tosolicit the business by mail. Several excellent books areavailable on developing sales by mail. Follow these steps then sit back and prepare to fill book orders. It's simple and easy.
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