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Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:00:34 -0400
From: Mary Ellen Lepionka <me.lepionka@...>
Subject: Fwd: College Stores Show Report
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:00:34 -0400
From: Mary Ellen Lepionka <me.lepionka@...>
Subject: Fwd: College Stores Show Report
To: Shel Horowitz Horowitz <shel@...>
March 9, 2007
CSNE/CSA-NYS Show Report
Twenty-nine publishers participated in this show as PMA-Academic at the Saratoga Hotel & Conference Center in Saratoga Springs, NY, with a total of 48 fine-looking books, which made for an impressive display. I am very grateful for the companionship and assistance of Weston Blelock of WoodstockArts, who came from Woodstock, NY, to help me out in the booth on the day of the exhibit.
Our booth contained a skirted 6-foot table, a 6-foot counter in the back, a carpet, 4 chairs, a wastebasket, a big sign, and a poster promoting March as Small Press Month. Whatever flyers, postcards, brochures, and testimonials I received I stacked on the counter along with the flyer describing show specials, attached, that was included in attendees' binders, and the books that had been donated as show premiums.
Many thanks to Tim Novak of Core Concepts Publishing for his donation of copies of 4 Circles of Good Business: Plain Truth and Practical Solutions for Every Business Professional, and to Bob Thomas of Miracle Press Books for his donation of copies of The Best-Kept Secret: Professional Sales. Show attendees were happy to receive complimentary copies of these titles.
I had everything set up the night before. The bookracks with display copies, show catalogs, and consolidated order forms were on the table at the front of the booth, plus a few oversized books in individual bookstands and tickets for the drawing. For the publishers who chose to participate in the drawing for free books at the end of the show, I made tickets on which store people wrote their names. At the end of the day the people then gathered to get their first choice of free books in the order tickets were drawn.
Books chosen in the drawing included products by Bick Publishing House, Business Skills Press, Evil Twins Comics, Info Tech Employment, Inspiring Teachers, Micleric Publishing, Parenting Press, Pick Me Up Books, and Research in Time Publications. During the exhibit, show attendees expressed interest in other products besides, especially self-help books for students and novice teachers.
At the end of the show, remaining books were donated to Better World Books, a recycler that partners with non-profits to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. Your books or the proceeds of their sale will go to reading programs in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, as well as the National Center for Family Literacy in the United States.
I'm sending our show specials, show catalog, and consolidated order form to you as email attachments. Please let me know it you have any trouble receiving them. I apologize in advance for any typos. (You'll notice that in many cases I had to convert your ISBN-10s to ISBN-13s. You should use the 13-digit numbers regardless of what's in your barcode, fyi.)
I'm also attaching the pre-show list of attendees. A post-show list of attendees and a list of the stores in the College Stores Association of New York State will follow in due course. I joined CSA-NYS as PMA-Academic in order to get a lower rate on the booth rental, so we are members. (PMA will reimburse me for the membership fee.) I also hope to receive a jpeg of our booth from a photographer at the show and will forward that to you as well if/when it comes.
There were no orders made at the show. Interested buyers took the catalog and order form with them, so we shall see what happens. The consolidated order form is good until March 17, and beyond that the buyers have all the information they need to order direct. I would appreciate hearing about any blips in your sales records that might be attributable to the CSNE/CSA-NYS joint show.
This joint show was not well attended, even for the merchandise vendors. Buyers for 52 college stores came and of these the majority either were not book buyers or were buying textbooks exclusively. We learned that many smaller college and college preparatory school bookstores actually do not carry books other than course-adopted textbooks. We also learned that college stores commonly are challenged in their relations with faculty members and tend not to target faculty members as customers.
Twenty-nine publishers participated in this show as PMA-Academic at the Saratoga Hotel & Conference Center in Saratoga Springs, NY, with a total of 48 fine-looking books, which made for an impressive display. I am very grateful for the companionship and assistance of Weston Blelock of WoodstockArts, who came from Woodstock, NY, to help me out in the booth on the day of the exhibit.
Our booth contained a skirted 6-foot table, a 6-foot counter in the back, a carpet, 4 chairs, a wastebasket, a big sign, and a poster promoting March as Small Press Month. Whatever flyers, postcards, brochures, and testimonials I received I stacked on the counter along with the flyer describing show specials, attached, that was included in attendees' binders, and the books that had been donated as show premiums.
Many thanks to Tim Novak of Core Concepts Publishing for his donation of copies of 4 Circles of Good Business: Plain Truth and Practical Solutions for Every Business Professional, and to Bob Thomas of Miracle Press Books for his donation of copies of The Best-Kept Secret: Professional Sales. Show attendees were happy to receive complimentary copies of these titles.
I had everything set up the night before. The bookracks with display copies, show catalogs, and consolidated order forms were on the table at the front of the booth, plus a few oversized books in individual bookstands and tickets for the drawing. For the publishers who chose to participate in the drawing for free books at the end of the show, I made tickets on which store people wrote their names. At the end of the day the people then gathered to get their first choice of free books in the order tickets were drawn.
Books chosen in the drawing included products by Bick Publishing House, Business Skills Press, Evil Twins Comics, Info Tech Employment, Inspiring Teachers, Micleric Publishing, Parenting Press, Pick Me Up Books, and Research in Time Publications. During the exhibit, show attendees expressed interest in other products besides, especially self-help books for students and novice teachers.
At the end of the show, remaining books were donated to Better World Books, a recycler that partners with non-profits to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. Your books or the proceeds of their sale will go to reading programs in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, as well as the National Center for Family Literacy in the United States.
I'm sending our show specials, show catalog, and consolidated order form to you as email attachments. Please let me know it you have any trouble receiving them. I apologize in advance for any typos. (You'll notice that in many cases I had to convert your ISBN-10s to ISBN-13s. You should use the 13-digit numbers regardless of what's in your barcode, fyi.)
I'm also attaching the pre-show list of attendees. A post-show list of attendees and a list of the stores in the College Stores Association of New York State will follow in due course. I joined CSA-NYS as PMA-Academic in order to get a lower rate on the booth rental, so we are members. (PMA will reimburse me for the membership fee.) I also hope to receive a jpeg of our booth from a photographer at the show and will forward that to you as well if/when it comes.
There were no orders made at the show. Interested buyers took the catalog and order form with them, so we shall see what happens. The consolidated order form is good until March 17, and beyond that the buyers have all the information they need to order direct. I would appreciate hearing about any blips in your sales records that might be attributable to the CSNE/CSA-NYS joint show.
This joint show was not well attended, even for the merchandise vendors. Buyers for 52 college stores came and of these the majority either were not book buyers or were buying textbooks exclusively. We learned that many smaller college and college preparatory school bookstores actually do not carry books other than course-adopted textbooks. We also learned that college stores commonly are challenged in their relations with faculty members and tend not to target faculty members as customers.
Other publishers exhibiting this year were new and used textbook publishers, plus textbook wholesalers, distributors, and recyclers, such as Nebraska Book Company, Follett Higher Education, Houghton Mifflin, JA Majors (Baker & Taylor), Matthews, Merriam-Webster, Rittenhouse, South Eastern, Thomson Learning, Budgetext, Tichenor, and Wiley. Last year's super regional show was about twice the size and had more publishers, including trade book publishers.
This year's national show for college stores (CAMEX by NACS) is in Orlando, FL, at the end of March, and it is likely that buyers who did not come to New York will go to Florida instead. Should we attempt this again I recommend sticking with super regional shows or the national one. The next super regional buying show for college stores is at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ, March 25-28, 2008. (I'm afraid that's too far for me to go on our present terms. Perhaps someone in that area would care to organize a co-operative exhibit there?)
Book buyers who left their cards at our booth and expressed special interest in acquiring unique products from independent publishers and small presses included the following:
Christopher Henry, Manager
The College Store, Schenectady County Community College
78 Washington Ave., Schenectady, NY 12305
www.sunysccc.edu henrycg@...
518-377-1606 Fx: 518-346-0379
Phyllis Gaerte, director
Houghton College Campus Store
Reinhold Campus Center, Houghton, NY 14744
585-567-9620 Fx: 585-567-9577
phyllis.gaerte@...
Brian Cockett, book buyer
The College Store, Hobart & William Smith Colleges
51 St. Clair St., Geneva, NY 14456
315-781-3449 Fx: 315-781-3450
cockett@... www.hws.edu
Director: Lucille Smart: smart@...
Dirk Fecho, Division Manager
University of Connecticut Cooperative Corporation
2075 Hillside Road Unit 1019
Storrs, CT 06269-1019
860-486-6995 Fx: 860-486-6997
dirk.fecho@... www.bookstore.uconn.edu
Rebecca Lovett, Asst. Manager
Bates College Store
56 Campus Ave., Lewiston, ME 04240
207-786-8213 Fx: 207-786-6119
rlovett@...
Connie Brant, Textbook Manager
Mansfield University Campus Bookstore
Mansfield, PA 16933
570-662-4916 Fx: 570-662-4330
cbrant@... www.mansfieldbookstore.com
Gift buyer: Nancy Furlong
nfurlong@... 570-662-4922
Michael McDermott. Bookstore director
Rensselaer Union Bookstore
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
119 8th St., Troy, NY 12180-3590
518-276-8603 Fx: 518-276-6507
mcderm@... www.bookstore.rpi.edu
Gary Swisher, book buyer
The Cornell Store
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4070 Fx: 607-254-4577
www.store.cornell.edu
Sales associates: Peggy Darling (pi10@...), Leslie Grossman (lag64@...), Kelley Foster (kafs@...)
Chris Bergen, book buyer
Boston College Bookstore
140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-552-0976 Fx: 617-552-2808
chris.bergin@...
Director: Tom McKenna
617-552-3520 Fx: 617-552-2808
thomas.mckenna@...
Robert (Bob) Carlton, trade book buyer
The Skidmore Shop, Skidmore College
815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
518-580-5490 Fx: 518-580-5496
rcarlton@...
Barbara Heron, Director bheron@...
Someone advised that we should have a web site for PMA-Academic (interesting idea)! Other advice we got at the show came from Skidmore's Bob Carlton. He said we should research online who the trade book buyers are for college stores and cold call them directly with a proposal to send them a comprehensive marketing piece, an examination copy, or a URL, as buyers increasingly look for unique products online. (Bob says he does not buy the usual books that any bookstore would carry and ignores the New York Times bestseller lists!)
In any case, in our contacts we should specify terms and conditions and these should reflect standard practice. Bob said that one of the reasons stores shy away from small presses is that they often are idiosyncratic or ignorant of industry standards, have inappropriate pricing, have unrealistic expectations, or have overly complicated terms. Examples: not offering a standard discount large enough for them to undersell competitors and still have a profit margin (typically 40%), requiring minimum quantities for initial orders, not accepting returns, insisting on net 30-day payment, not packing and shipping properly, and running out of stock and not being able to supply reorders in a timely fashion. I think terms and conditions for college store buyers would be a good topic of discussion and debate on the Academic-Education and Self-Publish listservs.
It was a privilege to represent you and your books. I hope the experience proves useful to you one way or another. Thanks again to Weston Blelock for his much-appreciated help. I wish everyone all the best.
Mary Ellen Lepionka
Atlantic Path Publishing
www.atlanticpathpublishing.com
me.lepionka@...
978-283-1531
Independent Publishers of New England www.ipne.org
PMA-Academic
--
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Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel@...
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_________________________________________________
Shel Horowitz - 413-586-2388/800-683-WORD shel@...
-->Join the Business Ethics Pledge - Ten Years to Change the World,
One Signature at a Time (please tell your friends)
<http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org>
Marketing consulting * copywriting * publishing assistance * speaking
How to market ethically/effectively: http://www.frugalmarketing.com
Ethics Blog: http://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/
Books: http://www.frugalmarketing.com/shop.html
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