International: 1-419-281-5100
Fax: 1-419-281-0200
BookMasters, Inc.
30 Amberwood Parkway
Ashland, Ohio 44805
Volume 6, Issue 4 April 2008
The BookMark is our free monthly newsletter featuring news and information of use to publishers, authors, retailers, and others involved in the publishing industry. On the fifteenth of every month, The BookMark will deliver useful tips, helpful news, and upcoming events directly to your electronic in-box. Now in addition to our publishing and printing news, we will be including monthly articles on Book Sales and Marketing by combining our book distribution monthly newsletter, The Advocate, with The BookMark to create an all-encompassing Book Sales and Publishing Industry Newsletter. If you would like to receive a free copy of the The BookMark in your monthly e-mail, please visit http://www.bookmasters.com/subscribe.htm and complete the subscription form.IN THIS ISSUE: Industry News & Events
BookMasters to Attend Book Expo America
A number of BookMasters, Inc., and AtlasBooks employees will attend the annual BEA Trade Show to take place in Los Angeles, California, from May 29 to June 1. Among those attending will be BookMasters’ executives C.O.O. Dave Wurster, President Ray Sevin, and Sales Manager Paul Stevenson. Sales executives Shelley Sapyta, Sue Bray, Cathy Purdy, and Emily McQuate will also attend. Representing AtlasBooks will be executives Matt Wurster, Distribution Sales Manager; Randy McKenzie, National Sales Manager; and Amanda Dowdy, Buyer Relations Manager.
This year, the AtlasBooks booth (number 846) will feature Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian, film director, television producer, and chef. Also appearing will be Stan Lee, former president of Marvel Comics and creator of such notable superhero characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and many others. Bobby Brown, singer and reality television star, will also be appearing. The superstars will be appearing at the booth on Saturday, May 31.
The AtlasBooks and BookMasters, Inc., booths - numbers 846 and 847 respectively - are located between halls G and H, next to the university press section. Events like this offer the opportunity for the staff to meet with publishers and buyers. Buyers, publishers, and individuals can discuss printing, composition, distribution, or sales services. Anyone who would like to set up a specific appointment with the attending staff members can contact them by calling 888-537-6727 or 419-281-5100.
The Web site for Book Expo America is http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/.
AtlasBooks Notes Sales Increases in 2008
Through the first quarter of 2008, AtlasBooks has seen significant sales increases to nearly all of the national accounts. The increase is most notable at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with AtlasBooks’ sales more than doubling in 2008. In addition to the growth with Amazon and Barnes & Noble, AtlasBooks’ sales are also up with Baker & Taylor (89%) and Ingram (41%).
“We are continuing to increase sales and create new markets for our publishers on a daily basis,” said AtlasBooks National Sales Manager Randall McKenzie. “Our increased presence in the market means more exposure for our publishers’ titles, which results in more sales.”
The final piece of the sales puzzle, according to McKenzie, is always a strong consumer marketing campaign to increase the sell-through at the bookstore level.
“We are successfully getting the books on the shelves, now it’s time for consumer demand to take over,” McKenzie concluded.
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AtlasBooks Adds Focus to International Sales
International sales are fast becoming a major sales outlet for publishers using AtlasBooks Distribution.
AtlasBooks, a leading U.S. distributor, has continued to expand their sales territory by focusing on creating and expanding key relationships that allow their client publishers the opportunity for success in the worldwide market as well as the U.S. market.
AtlasBooks has recently strengthened its Canadian sales representation with the addition of Quanta Distribution, Inc., a Canadian book distributor located in Toronto, Ontario. This relationship is in addition to AtlasBooks’ existing Canadian distribution relationship with Scholarly Book Services (SBS). Quanta was founded in 1994 and offers AtlasBooks’ titles further exposure in the Canadian market with specific marketing campaigns directly to the major buyers.
“We are very excited about this new relationship,” said AtlasBooks National Sales Manager Randall McKenzie. “Canada is a great market and it’s close to home, which allows our Quanta rep and me to make joint visits with major Canadian buyers.”
Another key market for AtlasBooks is the United Kingdom. AtlasBooks sells to the U.K. market through European distributor, Gazelle Books. Gazelle Books was founded in 1988 and offers a fast, flexible, and effective distribution service, stretching across Great Britain, Ireland, Eire, and Eastern and Western Europe.
Since 2007, AtlasBooks has more than doubled sales through Gazelle into the European market.
“We’ve really experienced a spike in sales with Gazelle recently,” said McKenzie. “And the wonderful part about these sales is that the return rate is extremely low, so we don’t expect unusual return rates on the increased sales numbers.”
With the current state of the U.S. economy and the struggling value of the dollar, overseas sales efforts such as these will become more and more necessary in the effort of all publishers to sell more books.
Press and Manufacturing Expanding with New Equipment
BookMasters, Inc., has recently added a new Oce 8090 digital printer to its already extensive list of book manufacturing equipment.
The Oce is a roll-fed digital printer with an unwinder and a finisher for black and white digital work. This new machine will greatly increase the capacity in the digital printing department by increasing the throughput with increased quality and better schedules.
“The Oce is giving us exceptional quality at incredible speeds,” said BMI President Ray Sevin. “Because of this, we are able to pull off longer run orders in less time.”
Also added to BMI’s manufacturing division is a Muller Martini Diamant 30 case-binding line. This machine is one of only two machines operating within the United States and was chosen to case bind short digital runs as well as longer offset runs.
To supplement the Diamant 30, BMI has also added a new case maker and foil stamper. With the addition of a new UV coater, BMI continues to offer all available manufacturing options to their customers without the need to outsource.
“We continue to add equipment in our pursuit to improve pricing and schedules for our client publishers,” said Sevin. “We truly are a single source that can provide services from initial composition to printing and distribution. And we do it all under one roof.”
Think Locally. . . Sell Nationally
Everybody has to start somewhere.
We’ve all heard the expression, but rarely is it ever more apparent than when creating momentum to build sales of your book. Local book signings, speaking engagements in your hometown, and regional shows are all great ways to promote your book to a captive local audience.
National Sales Manager for AtlasBooks, Randall McKenzie, suggests contacting the bookstore’s community relations manager (CRM) to schedule a signing at your local store.
“Stores are always very receptive to inviting local authors to do a signing,” said McKenzie. “If you have a good turnout for your local event, word travels in the bookstore community and that can really propel sales into the region.”
McKenzie notes that the chain reaction created by a successful local signing can first begin a regional buzz on the title, which creates a domino-effect in sales on a national basis.
This successful campaign starts with a successful signing. As an author, there are some inexpensive ways to help make your signing a success.
“Most bookstores are open to spicing up a bit,” claims McKenzie. “Something as simple as making coffee and sweet rolls available to customers is a great way to bring people in and make your signing a success.”
When this buzz is created, be sure to contact your distributor to let them know of your success. Your distributor can then pass this information along to other regional bookstores.
“We really love it when an author keeps us in the loop about this successful event, whether it be a signing or a speaking engagement,” said McKenzie. “With the right information, we can really pump up our sales force to get the book out there.”
Atlasbooks Distribution is the distribution arm of BookMasters, Inc., a full-service publishing provider. After the recent acquisition of Biblio Distribution (NBN’s small press division) and former BookWorld Companies’ publishers, AtlasBooks is the leading distributor for small-to-medium size press.
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Double Profits by Changing Your Marketing Strategy
Book sales are the driving force of the publishing industry, so the number of books you sell in many cases is the difference between profitability and bankruptcy. But what if you could double your profit margin on certain sales?
That is the question posed by Matt Wurster, Distribution Manager of BookMasters, Inc. Wurster’s answer is very simple: Focus more efforts on direct-to-consumer sales.
BookMasters and its trade distribution arm, AtlasBooks, have used their nearly 40 years of experience in the publishing industry to evaluate profitability of publishers in trade versus direct-to-consumer sales.
“Everybody needs to have their books available in stores, there’s no question about that,” Wurster contends. “However, a good mix of direct-to consumer sales can take a publisher from the red to the black in short order.”
Wurster claims that publishers who work with his company benefit not only from trade distribution through AltasBooks, but also a direct-to-consumer 800 phone line and Web site.
“The direct-to-consumer sales are highly profitable for the publisher because they don’t have to offer a discount,” said Wurster. “And because it’s not a trade sale, AtlasBooks does not take a commission.”
Creating these direct-to-consumer sales can be accomplished in your marketing pieces by simply including your fulfillment provider’s ordering information. Wurster encourages publishers and authors to contact BookMasters for any questions about direct-to-consumer sales.
BookMasters is a full-service publishing provider headquartered in Ashland, Ohio, which has a range of services such as composition and design, printing and binding, warehousing and fulfillment, and trade distribution all performed in-house from the Ashland facility.
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Book Marketing Columns
Experted –with permission from Book Marketing Matters special-sales ezine by Brian JudSavvy Self-Promotion
By Penny Sansevieri, author of From Book to Bestseller, penny@amarketingexpert.comFive Things You MUST Know About Web Marketing (Final Three Tips)
Emphasize Your Personality. The Internet has forced all of us online-guru’s to become more personal. By this I mean offering insight into all things related to our topic (both good and bad). Gone is the formal corporate jargon, in its place is a blog that lifts the curtain, a podcast that shares some additional insight, and a Web site that screams personality. If your Web site is blah, your sales will reflect this. Get spunky if it’s appropriate to your topic, but by all means, get personal. Don’t have a blog yet? I want you to stop reading this immediately and go to www.wordpress.org and start one.
Be Helpful or Be Gone. Have you ever noticed that the sites you keep coming back to are the ones that offer help, insight, encouragement, or important advice you simply can’t be without? Well your site should do the same. Be helpful until it hurts. Why? Because anyone can get one visitor to their site, getting them to come back is an entirely different thing altogether. Give them a reason to return by offering them something they want. For some markets, it might even be giving them humor. If humor’s what they want, then by all means that’s what you should do.
Content Rules. In the world of Web 2.0 and all things Internet, content is really king. By “content” I mean don’t have a site that’s flat or doesn’t give potential buyers a reason to poke around. Get a blog, podcast, and include a section on your site that offers the opportunity for readers to look through your articles (you can also post these on your blog). If you have a book video add that to your site as well. And speaking of Web sites…is yours easy to navigate? If it’s not, all the content in the world won’t help you. This isn’t a trip to Oz, people actually want to find their way back and unless there’s a helpful scarecrow along the way to show them how find what they need, it’s likely they’ll end up on someone else’s site instead.
Marcella's Magic
By Marcella Smith, Small Press Business Manager, Barnes & NobleAs an author, you spend a lot of time by yourself. You think of yourself as a writer, and writers don't have to sell their work. But a big part of your job as a writer is going out and selling yourself, and that means walking into a bookstore feeling confident and saying, "I'm the author of such and such and I hope you carry my book."
The Very Idea
Cutting your price to sell more books does not always work. Buyers still want value for their money spent. For example, if a company were to sell ballpoint pen sharpeners, how many would you buy? Probably none. What if the company cut the cost and made it easy to order them online? Now how many would you buy? Still probably none, because you do not need a ballpoint pen sharpener. Yet metaphorically, this is exactly what publishers do when they publish a book before they find out if there is a market for it, and then discount the price to clean out their garage.
May 29–June 1, 2008
BookExpo America, Los Angeles, California
www.bookexpoamerica.comJune 13–16, 2008
BookExpo Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
www.bookexpo.caOctober 15–19, 2008
Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany
www.book-fair.comThis calendar was up-to-date and accurate as of April 17, 2008. Information was culled from a number of sources. BookMasters cannot be held liable for the accuracy of the information within. Please visit the listed Web sites for more information.
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