Marketing

BookSense.com has begun a marketing program designed to encourage booksellers who may not have evaluated the program since its commercial launch in November 2000 to look again. Len Vlahos, BookSense.com director, told BTW that since BookSense.com first went online in the summer of 2000 in a live beta test "the product has experienced so much growth and development -- we really want stores to take another look."

Booksellers know that the Book Sense 76 is a great marketing tool. But now booksellers are finding out that adding their store's logo on the front of the flyer makes it an even better marketing tool.

The Book Sense Gift Certificate program continues to grow and gain national acceptance. Indeed, more gift certificates were sold on BookSense.com Web sites in December thancolo in the previous 11 months combined.

Some publishers send shelf-talkers to you in the monthly white box. The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association very generously sends out shelf-talkers for the Top Ten picks to any interested store in the country; let me know if you're interested! And, we have a blank Book Sense shelf-talker, downloadable from BookWeb.org, for you to write on or, literally, to cut and paste the quote from the 76 flier: Here's the link.

For many booksellers, publisher co-operative promotions are an essential and cost-effective tool. As Dave Kaverman, co-owner of the Little Professor Book Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, explained in a previous BTW piece last fall, utilizing publisher co-op allowances can help a store fulfill several goals at once: increasing a store's marketing exposure while also adding money to the bottom line.

I know you can barely bear to think about 2002 right now, but I do hope you can take one moment in this hectic holiday season and get a little re-energized by the thought of a lot of gems coming first thing in the New Year! Great midlist for us to sell! In fact, it's the highest number of books I can recall coming out in the first two weeks of the 76 time span in question, and I apologize in advance. I kept them to a minimum, AND a few publishers moved up shipping schedules for us to get them out earlier. -Carl

The January issue of The Atlantic will feature four Book Sense ads. Titles to be featured are: The Jazz Bird by Craig Holden (Simon & Schuster, 0743212967); Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years by Barbara Leaming (Free Press, 0684862093); Death at the Priory: Sex, Love, and Murder in Victorian England by James Ruddick (Atlantic Monthly Press, 0871138328); and Looking for Alaska by Peter Jenkins (St. Martin's Press, 0312261780). One of the ads will specifically promote BookSense. com to consumers.

The current series of Book Sense spots on the National Public Radio (NPR) shows All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition wraps up this week.

A PDF format "Booked for the Holidays" flier that you can print (in color or B&W) to post in your bookstore or use as a bag stuffer can be downloaded here. The flier features titles highlighted in the December 10 issue of The New Yorker. Room is provided at the bottom of the flier to add your bookstore logo with a stamp or a sticker.  

Book Sense spots on the National Public Radio (NPR) shows All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition continue this week and next. Air dates, title information, and times-where available-are provided below. Air times are Eastern time and are approximate. Programming information will be updated as more times become available online at here.