Get Your Books Ready for the Biggest Book Buying Season of the Year!
- The Holiday Season begins in mid-November
- Despite intentions, most gift-givers put off shopping until after Thanksgiving, which leads to our third point
- Holiday shoppers spend more than 31 billion dollars on gift cards (National Retail Foundation survey)
- Today’s holiday buying season has extended all the way through the month of January, as recipients of gift cards begin shopping on December 26th
In our first article of this four part series we went over: Online Sales Point of Sale Marketing Tips
Now let’s move on to:
Brick and Mortar Stores – Point of Sale Book Marketing Tips
It is a known fact among booksellers that any little thing that sets a book apart from the other books on the shelf will increase that book’s sales dramatically.
How will you make your books stand out when you are not there to promote them in person?
Book Cover Swag
Award Stickers
If your book has won awards. Be sure that your books are displayed with stickers that catch potential readers’ eyes–like our Chanticleer Award Stickers given to the winners of our writing contests. There are other types of stickers that can help your book stand out such as “Autographed by the Author” stickers.
To help you make the most of your Chanticleer Review:
Has your book received an editorial review from Chanticleer? If so, make sure that it is displayed with a spine sticker and/or sticker on the front or back cover that makes it clear that the work has been vetted by an editorial review.
Here are Chanticleer Reviews stickers for 4 and 5 starred reviews. (Book stickers are not available for books reviewed by Chanticleer that have received less than 4 stars.)
(Image is larger than actual stickers – actual stickers are .75 of an inch in diameter)
Don’t forget to incorporate it into your design
Book covers should, when possible, incorporate awards, book review blurbs, and peer reviews. Notice how gracefully this is done above the author name on Robert L. Slater’s award winning All Is Silence dystopian YA Science Fiction novel below. Reviews or blurbs from reviews can also be incorporated into your book covers. Even if the book has been published, with today’s ebook and print on demand nature of the book industry, it isn’t difficult to add these elements after the fact. Make sure you talk to your cover designer about it.
Got Shelf Talkers?
Shelf Talkers are an indispensable point-of-sale tool. If you have ever 
purchased a bottle of wine, you have seen these hard working promotional tools. They are placed immediately below the wine bottle with a rating, description, what the wine goes best with. Shelf-talkers help the wine purchaser–or book purchaser–make a buying decision. Clyde Curley, author of the Detective Touissant series, swears by them. He says that wherever his books are offered with shelf talkers that they do very well in the sales.
Start Implementing these Point of Sale tools, and boost your book sales now!
It is usually up to the author and/or publisher to supply the shelf-talkers and to apply the stickers to their books. Book stores will love you if you bring them things like stickers, book marks and shelf talkers for your books; they will almost always make full use of them, because they sell more books.
In marketing terms, using these point of sales tools “reduces friction.” It is up to the author/publisher to help the book seller sell her books and that means providing the necessary point-of-sale tools to attract and catch the customer’s eye.
Point-of-Sale Tools also aid in keeping TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness) and reinforces your book with visual images and affirmations.
Even if your books are already on the shelves, it is not too late to start implementing these point-of-sale tools:
- Local bookstores/retail stores – stop by and apply your stickers and shelf talkers to your books and shelves. NOTE: Be sure to use “Magic Tape” for shelf talkers (or ask the store what they use) so you don’t gum up the display shelves.
- If the booksellers are not local, ask your relatives, friends, and/or “Street Team” if they would stop by and ask permission (with a letter from you) to place stickers and shelf-talkers on your books.
- Mail shelf-talkers directly to the stores that offer your books for sale and ask the bookshop staff if they would mind placing the shelf-talkers with your books. Most retailers would be glad to place them because they know that shelf-talkers increase sales, but they do not have time or the budget to create them. Again, help the bookseller sell your books!
Handy Links for Chanticleer Reviews Point of Sale Tools
Chanticleer Grand Prize Awards Stickers refills 220 gold foil stickers for $35.00 U.S.D. plus shipping
First Place Category Award Stickers refills 220 gold foil stickers for $35.00 U.S.D. plus shipping
Silver Foil Reviewed by Chanticleer Reviews Stickers Each CBR Review Silver Foil Stickers will come with a Chanticleer Shelf Talker Template that features an excerpt from the title’s CBR Editorial Review! 220 silver foil stickers for $35.00 U.S.D. plus shipping
We are including special expedited services for the same low price to get your book stickers to you within two weeks of ordering up to Dec. 20th, 2015.
Don’t delay order your stickers today! Remember that book sales that use gift cards continues all the way through January!
The third article in this four-part series will be about:
How to Use Point-of-Sale Tools at Holiday Gift Fairs, Book Fairs, and Temporary Markets.
Happy Holidays and Wishing YOU Awesome Book Sales!
Point of Sale Marketing – Are Your Books Ready for the Holiday Season’s Annual Sales Spike?
“Long goes far beyond the simplistic notion of the Civil War as told in American history texts to accurately portray the daily challenges faced by homesteading families, freed slaves, American Indians robbed of their ancestral lands, and ex-soldiers who face the disrespect of the Union army. Heart-warming and at times hilarious adventures are juxtaposed with gritty and emotionally wrenching moments such as Custer’s 1868 attack on Chief Black Kettle’s Cheyenne camp at Washita… Author McKendree Long displays a natural gift for storytelling.” 
“It is when Kelly accepts an open invitation to spend some time in Guzman’s drug palace in Northern Mexico that his code of “trusting friends first” will force him to face not only the dilemma of a loyalty to be divided between Guzman and Dave Holt, but also of being thrust into a senseless and bloody border war that has more than a few parallels to the Vietnam conflict. As such, Gilliam’s novel stands not only as a complex and intriguing “band of brothers” romp, but also as a reflection on the evils of unquestioned authority and corruption.” 
Remember that your talent and connections are your contributions to forming a strong team. Be a member of a responsive network of professionals, able to produce a product while participating as a team, rather than an individual in a large group. Success in any endeavor is often due to the broader team and is much harder to capture as a lone wolf.
Analyze the people that you know, or have known in the past. What contributions can they add, and what are their needs? Reach out to refresh old connections, and maintain those that are interested in supporting you in developing your craft. Find new ways to contribute to their endeavors and make connections relevant. Everyone has a contribution to make.
Among a supportive network, you should be able to share each other’s pitfalls, successes, and joys, as well as enhance each other’s skills and insights. In this way you may become stronger as a writer and as a person.
Next, I will show how to enlarge the magazine pages for easy reading. Just scroll down to the next graphic of the ISSUU toolbar.
The JOURNEY Awards writing competition recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Narrative Non-fiction. The Journey Awards is a division of the Chanticleer Awards International Writing Competitions.