The deadline for ordering the 2009 MPIBA Winter Catalog is just over a week away. If you’re not sure whether it can work for your store, consider this: last year, because of the way we featured the 2008 catalog titles in our shop (see photo below), and because we sent the catalog out in nearly 19,000 newspapers in our community, we were able to collect enough co-op to not only offset all of our expenses, but to also bring in an additional $4,500. How’d we do it?
First:
Order the books and get them out on the floor. Heaping piles of ‘em. Display them in your most prominent locations—festive holiday windows, front-of-store shelves or tables, endcaps, etc. For the past few years, we’ve dedicated every endcap to catalog books—each one featuring artwork from the catalog and language out of it—“Memorable Lives,” “History,” “Humor,” etc. Choose the books that you know match your store best—there’s no need to feel like you’re letting the publishers dictate your picks, since there are so many great titles in there.
Next:
Get the catalog in your customers’ hands. We’ve found that investing the $1,300 it cost us to stuff them into our three local newspapers more than pays for itself. Folks carry them into the shop, dog-eared and marked up, ready to holiday shop for everyone on their list. We start stuffing catalogs in bags in mid-November, send them out in newspapers right after Thanksgiving, and have stacks of them all over the store.
Finally:
Write up your co-op requests and send them out to the publishers in November, before the holiday crunch really hits. MPIBA provides a very helpful title list, divided by publisher, so you don’t have to flip through the catalog itself to figure this out. I’ve asked for $50 per title with lots of success, explaining that each title is being promoted through in-store display as well as newspaper inserts. Keep in mind that the publishers have already paid a bunch to get these titles in the catalog, so it’s wise not to ask for too much co-op per title. What you want to demonstrate is that you’re behind these books, you’re recommending them to holiday shoppers by really using the catalog to its fullest advantage.
Make It Easy:
Make the process easy on yourself—it’s a busy time of year, after all. Create one form where all you’re switching out is the titles, ISBNs, and total amount you’re claiming from each publisher. Mine is very basic and I’m happy to share it.* I would guess I spent a total of about 10-15 hours preparing our claims and following up on them for the 2009 catalog—hours that can be pretty tough to squeeze in during the holiday rush; if you do the math, though, unless you’re getting paid a whole lot more than the rest of us, that’s time well spent.
*Click the link below to download Libby's Co-op Request Form
WC08_HarperCollins_Catalog_CoopRequest.doc (31.00 kb)
Positive Results with Publishers:
We’ve had positive results collecting co-op from all the major publishers, including HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, Norton, Houghton Mifflin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. And the end-of the-year timing of the catalog means you can often use up co-op pools you haven’t depleted before they expire.
Oh, and we sold a ton of books, too.
Get into the Winter Catalog Spirit at Your Store:
One more idea to share, to get your staff into the Winter Catalog spirit. Each year, we draw numbers and place our bets on which title from the catalog might sell the best for us between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The winner receives a gift card from the local business of his or her choice. It’s an effective way to get us all really familiar with the books in the catalog, and it’s created a fun holiday tradition.
-Libby Cowles, Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado