According to Paul Aiken of the Authors Guild, “One wouldn’t do this sort of thing for a book where significant sales numbers were expected, but for a very low-selling book the publicity might pay off. The contract would have to be carefully written to be sure that the corporation won’t sell the copies or do anything to encourage putting the free copies into normal trade channels. It sounds as though the corporation has no need to bind the copies it makes. It should be prohibited from doing so.
“More importantly, from a legal perspective, the publisher probably does not have the right to make so many free copies available – these aren’t review copies, after all — without the author’s and artist’s permission. For such an unusual promotion, the author’s and illustrator’s permission has to be sought.” 1:2/06
I’ve checked with a wholesaler and publisher, and the consensus seems to be that you need to check with your publisher for sales numbers. There was an interesting segment done on this topic on NPR’s “On the Media” in 2001, which you can find at http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/transcripts/transcripts_081101_bookscam.html. Mostly it seems that authors check the sales rankings on Amazon to watch for changes in sales patterns. 1:2/05
The preschool market is very difficult to crack. The main problem is that the majority of schools are run independently, or as small regional chains, so there’s almost no centralized buying. There are also few review journals that serve the market and the ones that do often don’t reach the people who do most of the buying. Buying is generally done by teachers who make individual purchases at bookstores, or through school book clubs. It’s also common for preschools to ask parents to give the school books as gifts in lieu of personal gifts to teachers and in honor of special occasions, such as a child’s birthday. Unfortunately, this random approach results in many schools not having a good resource library to draw on, not staying current with new children’s books that can benefit their children, and not serving as good resource for the families they serve.
There are, however, several ways to try to reach this market. The first is through the major trade association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which is based in Washington, D.C. This group has a national publication, Young Children, which does some reviews and holds a national convention. This is the meeting publishers of preschool books are likely to attend. There are also a few national chains. The largest is Kindercare, which operates 1150 centers in 38 states and is based in Portland, Oregon. They do have a newsletter that reviews books and they do recommend books for use in a formal curriculum.
On a regional level, there are local chapters of NAEYC that hold conferences, and in some cases, publish newsletters. You may want to talk with people at your area chapter to see if they are interested in knowing about local authors. You may also want to attend their conference either as a visitor, or as an exhibitor, if booth space is reasonable enough. (You might also want to consider asking other authors or illustrators interested in reaching this market to split cost on a booth.)
At minimum, you can offer to speak at preschools in your area on parents night or at other special events. Get to know the directors and teachers at local schools to see how you can work with them. The good news is that this is an under served part of the market, and they may be very willing to introduce their students to authors and books. 2:3/98
Donne Forrest, director of subsidiary rights for Dutton and Dial, advises children’s book authors and illustrators to “write and illustrate for the U.S. market first. This is the biggest market and foreign sales, while glamorous, generally don’t amount to a lot of money.” [When talking about foreign rights and sales, it’s important to note that Canadian rights tend to be paired with U.S. rights when initial book purchases are made, so that market is different than others described here.]
When considering sales to other countries, you need to decide who should handle these rights for your book. This generally means deciding whether your literary agent or publisher should handle foreign sales. Forrest feels that, “if your agent is not very strong in foreign rights, it’s best to let your publisher handle them.” The Bologna Book Fair, which is the main selling fair for children’s books, and the Frankfurt Book Fair are the two main shows for buying and selling international rights. At these shows publishers feature both front and backlist books prominently. “We bring a huge amount of backlist to these shows,” says Forrest. “Buyers will come into our booth looking for a specific story or art style, and we want to have as many books as possible there to show them one that fits their needs. If we don’t have a specific title with us that we think they’d like, we’ll send a copy of the book to them as soon as we return home from the show.”
While authors and illustrators shouldn’t change their writing or art just to appeal to foreign markets, it is good to be aware of what might help or hurt your books overseas. “In picture books, buyers look for a universal theme such as sibling rivalry or friendship stories,” says Forrest. “However, stories set in schools don’t sell well because there are too many differences between their schools and ours. They also tend to view picture books as for a younger audience (up to age 6), so our older picture books won’t sell. Young adult books are quite popular overseas, much more so than in our country. Series books and contemporary books also do well, as does humor, which is always appreciated if the story is generic enough.
There are also regional patterns. For example, the Germans, Scandinavians and Dutch are very interested in Native American books. The Japanese, contrary to most other countries, are particularly interested in books depicting American customs and situations. The U.K., for example, will turn down a book if it looks too American. Sometimes we can make changes, such as moving a car’s steering wheel to the other side, or changing ‘elevator’ to ‘lift’, other times we can’t.” Australia, according to Forrest, is currently the market most receptive to U.S. books.
To find out more about the kinds of books foreign publishers are looking for, Forrest suggests authors and illustrators use the Internet to browse the children’s book listings in stores like Waterstones, a big chain in the U.K, or check the Candlewick Press catalog, which features a lot of titles from the U.K. Another very good company to know about is Kane Miller Book Publishers, which specializes in publishing foreign books in the U.S. 11:12/98
Selling large quantities of books at a specially negotiated price is called Special Sales. Large publishing houses have Special Sales departments. Smaller houses may handle it through their marketing department.
Unless you or your agent have contracted to retain rights for you to sell to a specific market, you should start by talking with the person in charge of special sales at your publishing house.
If the idea you have is to sell to a cataloger, corporation, association, specialty store, or other outlet the publisher already deals with, the publisher may ask you to provide them with information you have that would help make a sale. If you want to pursue a lead in areas the publisher does not cover, you can discuss who should make the contact and how far you should take negotiations.
Bantam Doubleday Dell is very aggressive about Special Sales. BDD’s Director of Sales for Special Markets Janet Cooke, who heads the 10-person department, recommends authors start by writing to the special sales manager at their publishing house and outlining marketing ideas. These can be the names and addresses of contacts you’d like the publisher to consider making, or ways that you would like to supplement the publisher’s special sales activities.
If you don’t get a response, wait a few weeks, then recontact the publisher to find out if they plan to act on your ideas. If not, ask what you can do.
The publisher may ask you to contact the vendor to see if there’s interest, then turn over negotiations to the Special Sales Department, or you may be told other ways to proceed. Bantam Doubleday Dell has arranged for a number of children’s book authors to be set up as distributors. They buy their books at a wholesaler’s discount and then resell the books in bulk at a profit. “This has been an excellent arrangement for both Bantam Doubleday Dell and the authors,” Ms. Cooke said. “We profit from having experts on the subject selling quantities of the books, and the authors get more money than they would have received through royalties.”
Authors should know, however, that in this kind of an arrangement they are subject to the same rules as any distributor. They must pass a credit check, adhere to a payment schedule, and handle returns. BDD does outline the process for authors who do want to set up a distributorship. This is also an idea that is not widespread, so other publishers may not be able to work in this way.
This is not an area where books will sell themselves with a good storyline or attractive art. You must identify an aspect of the book that is uniquely targeted to a specific market. One author made inroads selling horse stories to stores at racetracks, another sold a book on AIDS to Planned Parenthood. Cookbooks can be sold to gourmet stores and food companies who might use them in special promotions. Gardening books can be sold to catalogue companies, nurseries, or could be of interest for packaging with children’s garden tools.
With the right angle, you may find an opportunity to carve out a niche market. 8:9/93
The advantages of doing bookstore appearances generally outweigh the disadvantages. These include helping to sell more books in the local community and gaining additional publicity. The most important reason for doing store appearances, according to Hannah Schwartz, owner of Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pennsylvania, “is to develop strong relationships with store owners and employees who are in a position to recommend your books –not only to consumers, but to teachers, librarians, and bookfair buyers.”
Many authors who have done bookstore appearances will tell you that the down-side is that you can never tell how many people will show up. With that in mind, authors should make sure to help stores draw crowds.
One way is to go beyond a basic autograph session and develop a special program. If you have a Halloween book, do a pumpkin-carving workshop. If you have a book about relationships, ask the bookstore owner, a reading specialist, and a guidance counselor to join you in conducting a program for parents about selecting related children’s books. You may also want to help your area bookstore coordinate a local authors night. These are much more likely to attract the public than a two-hour autograph session.
Be sure to give the store enough advance notice to list your event in their newsletter and to send out promotional flyers. Ask people you know to come to the event and to spread the word. Find out what publicity the store plans to do. If necessary, supplement the store’s efforts by sending announcements to local newspapers and radio stations to get listed on event calendars. If the event is newsworthy, call editors to offer to do press interviews. You or the store should also notify area librarians and reading teachers, who may bring groups to the event.
If store owners realize you are willing to help make the event a success, they are more likely to have you back in the future and the relationship may have longterm benefits for you both. 10:11/93
I agree that bringing your own sign might have seemed like a criticism or an imposition, particularly if you did so without notice on the day of the signing. It would be better to find a way to collaborate with the store in advance.
Even though it’s more work for you, I would suggest creating a “promotion package” that stores could borrow from you to announce your store visits. The promotion package can be done inexpensively and can include items that are reusable, so you can change the date and time listed for each occasion. This could be offered on loan to stores when you agree to do the signing and could be tied to a discussion of what they do for author events. You can also ask if there are other ways for you to help promote the signing.
The promotion package could include special signs for the window and front of the store, a box containing window display materials appropriate to the subject of the book (ie. Christmas decorations, or gift-wrapped boxes for last year’s book), and one or more easel-backed signs to set up at the register or on tables. You could also enclose a list of your previous books, biographical material, and a professional photo for publicity use.
The idea is to offer a service in advance rather than just trying to fill a gap at the last minute. In this way, you can help make the bookseller enthusiastic about your visit and let them know you are anxious to work together. You can’t guarantee that everyone will take you up on your offer, but those who do will probably get a better response and will remember you when you offer to come back. 12/93:1/94
You should decide in advance what you would like to charge for a two hour visit, a one day event, or an overnight stay and establish an honorarium rate. This amount varies depending on how well known an author or illustrator is and how willing they are to spend time on the road doing appearances. The best way to get an idea of the rates you can charge is to talk with other authors and illustrators on the school and library circuit. Once you’ve decided on a rate structure, you should specify that up front when you are asked to do an appearance. If there are travel and lodging costs involved with a particular engagement, you should ask for reimbursement for your out-of-pocket expenses. These costs can be tallied and submitted after you return home, but it is advisable to ask that the honorarium be paid with a check at the end of your visit.
You should also think in advance about the kinds of presentations you are willing to do. Will you speak in front of a large audience? Are you equally comfortable talking with children and adults? Do you prefer that the teacher stay in the room while you speak? (This is usually a good idea, or you may find yourself acting like a substitute teacher trying to discipline a class, rather than like a special guest). What type of equipment do you need to do your presentation? How much time do you need between sessions to prepare for a new group?
Consider the preparation you would like to have the coordinator do to prepare for your visit. Ask that the class or group read at least one of your books in advance. Suggest that they prepare questions. Advise the coordinator on how to order books from the publisher for resale, or suggest that they contact a local bookstore to arrange for books to be sold. Talk with the event coordinator about all these issues before you agree to make the visit to find out what their expectations and to explain what you are willing to do.
Finally, draw up a contract with the specifics of your agreement with spaces for you and the coordinator to sign. Send one copy for the host to sign and return one copy to confirm your agreement. 6:7/94
School policies vary on when and how products can be sold. If a school seems reticent about selling your books, or if you’re not sure if they are following through, you can try getting a local bookstore involved.
If the bookstore is notified a month or more in advance of your school visit, they can contact the school and offer to handle the book sale. The advantage to the schools is that they don’t need to do extra paperwork to place the order, get budget approval, worry about returns of unsold books, or handle money. The store may also be willing to run the sale as a “mini bookfair” and offer to give the school a percentage of the proceeds. This kind of cooperation can benefit both the school and the bookstore. It also means that the bookstore will know to have your books in stock before and after the visit.
Please note that this is different from contacting a local bookstore to try to coordinate a visit at the store while you are in town. A school that pays transportation cost for your visit will not want you to arrange appearances elsewhere unless the other organization is willing to share in the cost of your visit. 10:11/94
An author can expect that a hardcover edition of a novel is intended for sale to libraries. Not much can usually be done to change the market potential for such a book. In the case of a novel, it would be wiser to wait to do promotion until the book was published in paperback because then it would be available widely in bookstores and sold to schools as well. A picture book is different because the hardcover is likely to be the primary edition. Often picture books are not put into paperback at all, except if they are reprinted for bookclub editions, or if the book does well enough to warrent a less expensive paperback version for the consumer market. For this reason, a picture book author should expect to promote a hardcover.
The impact of the author’s promotional efforts will vary depending on the subject of the book and on the author’s resources. An author should ask herself: “Is there something unique about the book that will lend itself to promotion?” Do I have the time and inclination to arrange appearances at bookstores and schools, handle publicity, or look for ways to tap into new markets?”
In general, it’s better to view time spent on promotion as part of a long-term investment in a career, rather than to trying to quantify the impact of promotion on one book. Specifically, according to Anne Mau, director of marketing and subsidiary rights at Orchard Books, “the number of units of a book that would have to be sold by an author before being noticeable to a publisher depends on the house’s expectations for that book.” These expectations are based on previous sales of the author’s titles and how similar books by other authors have sold in the past. Barbara Fisch, senior publicist at Harcourt Brace said that, “for a newer author’s book, the sale of 50-100 copies at one or two author events would be an impressive number.”
The best strategy, though, is for authors and illustrators to find out what kind of promotion they are good at and then incorporate time for those activities into their work schedules. 2:3/95
Each person has their own preferences, but in general schools and bookstores should be prepared with the following supplies: a chair and sturdy table that’s comfortable to write at; pens that won’t score or soak through the page (many authors and illustrators bring their own pens); sticky notes for customers, or students to print the name of the person to whom the book should be autographed; and a glass of water. There should also be bookseller, teacher, or another person in attendance to assist you, particularly if there is a long line. For crowds, the person in charge should also specify how many books each person can have autographed; if non-book items will be signed; and how long the autographing will last. 8:9/95
According to Linda Magram, Marketing Director at Little Brown & Company, sales of 20,000 for a softcover picture book published by a small press, seems quite good, although it would be helpful to know how long the book has been out and how it’s been selling year-to-year. Marjorie Naughton, Marketing Director at Clarion Books, gave a range saying that for one year 20,000 would be considered excellent, over five years, it might be considered average. Your publisher should be able to give you an idea of how your book has done compared with other books they’ve published. You may also want to check back issues of Publishers Weekly to see how your sales have compared with other books on the same subject. 10:11/95
