Why and how to generate catalog sales, part i
Posted By Sue Collier on December 22, 2010
Chances are excellent that you can sell your book or books in catalogs. You can find a catalog for every category of interest you can imagine. And although the number of catalogs available in print-only formats is decreasing, the number of print catalogs with online editions grew from 8,675 to 8,894 in 2008, according to the 2009 National Directory of Catalogs, and the number of catalogs available in online-only formats grew from 1,868 to 2,011.
Catalogs range from those that offer expensive gifts and gadgets, such as the one Neiman Marcus puts out, to those that cover everyday fare, such as Miles Kimball, Lillian Vernon, and Walter Drake. And there are specialized catalogs for electronics, collectibles, clothing, gardening, appliances, hardware, food — you name it. If you have a book on boating, try Goldberg’s Marine catalog. Want to place your crafts title? Maybe Creative Xpress would be interested. And Brookstone, famous for its hard-to-find tools, just might cotton to your career guide on blacksmithing.
Industry statistics reveal that 56.6 percent of all adults bought from a catalog in a recent twelve-month period. In the year 2008, consumers and businesses buying through catalogs accounted for almost $128 billion in sales.
Here’s why you can’t afford to ignore this sales channel:
* Virtually all catalogs buy nonreturnable. No more risk.
* Most pay in thirty days. This is almost unheard of in the publishing industry.
* Catalogs buy over and over and over again. If your title sells well for a catalog company, it will put it in their next catalog, and their next, sometimes over a period of years.
* Catalogs rarely require exclusivity, so you have a chance to place the same book in many different catalogs.
* They usually pay the freight. This frees up some capital for more important things.
* You get exposure to hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of consumers.
* Backlist titles are welcome. Catalogs couldn’t care less if your book is two, three, or more years old—as long as the information is still fresh and of interest to their customers.
Finding the best catalogs for a particular book
There are several directories of catalogs, which typically group them according to subject matter. Because most of the directories are quite expensive, you’ll probably want to look at them in a public or university library before considering a purchase.
Here are some to investigate:
* The Directory of Mail Order Catalogs (www.greyhouse.com/marketing.htm) lists more than 11,000 catalogs
* The Directory of Overseas Catalogs (www.researchandmarkets.com) contains information on more than 2000 mail-order catalog companies around the world
* National Directory of Catalogs (www.nmoa.org/catalog/mailorderdir.htm) lists more than 12,000 mail-order catalogs.
Of course, you can also research catalogs—both paper and electronic — by typing your subject area into your favorite search engine. And you can do useful research at Web sites such as www.buyersindex.com and http://cataloglink.com which list catalogs by category.
(Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition, by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier. Writer’s Digest Books, 2010.)
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