NPL Publishing Consultants

Apparently a whole lot of people.

And the real question, that we’ll address in a minute, is what you could have done INSTEAD.

According to one BEA sponsored press release, roughly 12,000 attended, including exhibitors. Assuming a 20% decrease in exhbitor attendance from 2007, then roughly 7,200 held exhibitor badges… another 1,800 held miscellaneous badges… and maybe 3,000 were actual book buyers? While I have read offhand reports of anywhere from 10% to 30% decreased book buyer attendance, my quick count would suggest closer to 40%. But, I have been wrong before.

Does it matter? You spent close to $10,000 to rent a booth, promote your attendance, ship goods in and out, travel, eat, and work in a strange environment for four days. Does every last one of the 3,000 or 4,000 buyers stop at your booth, speak with you, or pick up your catalog, free books, or whatever you’re giving away? Half, maybe? Oh, you only spent $7,000 all told to attend… ok.

Let’s do the math (and you know I LOVE to do the math). Let’s be generous and say you actually had 2,000 buyers pass your booth and stop. If that was the case, I want to see the promotion you used to make 2,000 people stop by, but let’s be kind and assume 2,000 stopped at your booth. Assuming you never left the booth, no breaks, no bathroom, no food, no headaches… and the traffic was kind to you and they came one at a time, every minute, … you spoke for a maximum of one minute to each of the 2,000 people, taking up every second of the show’s hours… and you may never speak to a human being again.

Now, here’s the kicker… you SPENT $3.50 to make that one minute speech. It was rushed, you may not have gotten much more than ‘Hi’ out of your mouth for some… who knows how many actually listened or wanted that free book? Truth be told you more likely spent $7 or $14 to actually say more than five words to a book buyer.

Aha… here comes the ‘what you could have done INSTEAD’ part…

For that kind of money… or far less… you could have produced a ‘You Tube’ (registered trademark) quality presentation, had 2,000 DVD dups made of it, mailed them to your 2,000 leads with a letter and catalog… and gotten maybe 5 to 15 minutes of your buyer’s attention. EVERYONE wants to watch a DVD of something interesting… so you don’t get the whole 15 minutes… they watch five, uninterrupted, in their office, with a reasonably clear head, and then make a few more clicks on their computer and order your books… and move on their next project.

By the way, you now also have a DVD for book reviewers, news feature folks, interviewers, wholesalers, your current distributor and specialty distributors and wholesalers, your current bookstore customers… so the real cost of this exercise is spread among a half dozen promotional projects and sales efforts. Oh, and you can post it to You Tube as well… why not? And tell your customers, the retail customers… to come have a look at your link.

Why not just send everyone to the link… cheap, almost free… seems like the real answer?

NO. And we’re back to BEA for the answer to that…

The world loves gifts, presents, and freebies. BEA was founded on mountains of free books, autographed books, pens, pads, boxes of chocolates, flowers, knick knacks, (as my late mother used to say… chuzzerai) and other assorted trash. Why else would normally sane people carry TWO shopping bags full of it up and down aisles hour after hour searching for more, looking much like gorillas stalking their prey? So, taking the time to make this DVD, sending it out, with light sales letter (no catalog or ad sheet) and links to your website or distributor order page, would work? Yes, certainly better than trying to deal with people who are being bombarded by 500 other vendors simultaneously.

And the content… better make it interesting… your call… but consider short two minute interviews with three or four interesting authors of new titles… or strong backlist… or whomever you want to promote. Talk, yourself, about the promo on each upcoming title… why stores should BUY your books, and when, and how many they will sell, and maybe even tips for the indie store or chain on ways for them to promote it and make money.

You have to give value to get sales. Offer your author, just interviewed on the DVD, for their store within a 200 mile radius of the author’s home. Offer to underwrite an activity related to some other title. Help your buyers sell your books. Two minute interview and a one minute publisher speaks on each title… max of five or six new titles… ok if you have ten do ten… They become two minute separate pieces on You Tube. How about in your cover letter you tell your buyer that there is one very special cash offer on top of all the other offers on the DVD…

I don’t care what you have to do… it can’t possibly cost you more than $7 per person to get it done. And I am confident it will yield more than one very sore throat and the bewilderment of ‘what happened?’ as you pack up your booth and suitcase and go home and sleep it off for a day or two. YOU are in control of when you do it, how you do it, and you don’t have to fight 500 other people for the buyer’s attention at that moment. Notwithstanding all the peripheral uses and benefits of such a program.

Thomas Nelson figured it out… Random and some of the other big boys and girls have it half figured out… If you want to become one of the big boys and girls… you have to act like one. Next year, buy a day pass for $40, say hello to all your friends, have a drink or two after, and go home. Total cost maybe $500… no muss no fuss… and do what will make you real money… go SELL to your customers!

Keep your powder dry and your stick on the ice.