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Writing and Publishing, Part 42:
Becoming your own publisher:
Marketing:
The Catalog:
Why do you need a catalog? One good answer is, if you intend to
market directly to booksellers, a catalog will show them what
you have to offer. These people are running a store. They cannot
take the time to find out who you are and where you are. They
will not search for your website. You must let them know that
you exist. Even if some big distributor like Ingram is handling
your books, they will not market them for you. You must do that
yourself.
Pure and simple, your catalog is a marketing tool. You can send it to anyone who is a potential customer. That will be booksellers, specialty stores, and gift shops for sure. You can also sent them to any other merchants and retailers who seem to be likely outlets for your stuff. You may also want to include libraries in your list of potential customers. Depending on your budget, you will probably limit this list at first. Then you will need to winnow it and expand it according to the responses you receive.
Now, here is a fair question. What do you do when you receive an unsolicited catalog? The truth is, most of us throw most of the catalogs we receive in a pile. Some time later we will clean house. Then we will usually discard those catalogs without ever looking at them. These are the hard facts of life in the commercial world. This leads to the question, how do you get people to look at your catalog?
It is not enough to put the product advertising in the catalog. It is necessary but not sufficient. If you want people to look past the cover, you must give them another reason to do it. In short, you must entertain them. So your catalog is not only a catalog, it is a journal containing samples of what you want to sell. It becomes, in fact, a magazine. You hope that people will receive it with delight.
What you include will be a matter of your own personality and philosophy. In the Wesoomi catalog, I like to reprint the best of the essays from our website. In addition I always include one new story by Markus Thyme in each new issue. It will be a story that you will not find anywhere else. I also have a centerfold. That's a provocative word, but my centerfold is different. I insert a copy of some important historical document. I hope that some folks will want to pull it out, frame, and display it. The Monroe Doctrine and The bill of Rights, are examples of documents which I consider to be important.
Here is the table of contents from my most recent catalog.
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About Wesoomi Contact / Staff Information About Mr. Snooper and Ms. Casspaw Willie Gaffer The Future of Medicine Willie Gaffer About my Theories, Part 1 Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda About my Theories, Part 2 Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda About my Theories, Part 3 Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda Cherry Blossom Carpet Markus Thyme Mathematics Math 1 William E. Steinman It's All Just Counting Math 2 William E. Steinman Another Visit with Ms. Casspaw Willie Gaffer Red and the Simpleton Willie Gaffer Dr. Moe Tovation Willie Gaffer Clarifying Surrender Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda The Monroe Doctrine President James Monroe Forgiveness and Trust Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda About Gardening Willie Gaffer Plant Propagation William E. Steinman Like as a Child Madam Evelina Maria Bellenda The Female Peril Willie Gaffer Relationships and Closure Willie Gaffer The Wesoomi Marketplace Geoffrey Motley Willie Gaffer The Anatomy of a PC Supreme Commander George The Siege of Acheron The Gaffer's Shorts The Wesoomi Gardening Journal Upcoming Publications Our publishing Philosophy Prices and Ordering Information Order Form |
Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Center Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 28 Page 29 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 |
As you look at this, you may get the idea that a catalog can be a significant cost of doing business. I assure you that it is. Using good bright white paper and a tabloid inkjet printer, my catalog costs me about $4.00 each to produce. Clearly, I cannot send these out in mass mailings, like K-Mart does. So far, my procedure has been to send a number of catalogs to a selected market segment. If I get no response, I select another target. So far, I have had very poor response from all of my targets. Just the same, I will continue until I cannot think of any other targets.
Perhaps you only have one or two books. Because of cost, you may want to consider just sending our a 2 page brochure to your potential customers. I tried that on my first two books. I made hundreds of dollars worth of mailings. I got absolutely no response. I suspect that people who got the brochures did the same thing I do with them. They go to the circular file. At least with the catalog, I feel sure that it is being read.
What about the layout and the mechanics of creating the catalog? As I indicated previously, I use a tabloid printer. That allows me to print 11" x 17" pages. When I fold these in half, I get an 8&1/2" X 11" magazine. With the printer I have I must do the duplexing manually by turning the pages over and printing the second side. I print my pages on 24 lb. bright white paper. The cover is done on 32 lb. bright white paper. To put the catalog together, I have a special stapler which can span the 8&1/2 inches.
Internally, I lay the pages out in three columns, much like some magazines. I use color to accent my headlines and lead paragraphs. Of course, all graphics are in color. If you think about it a moment, you will realize that the layout is a bit tricky because the pages are folded. For example, pages 1 and 32 are on the same sheet, opposite each other. Page one is on the right half and page 32 is on the left half. It takes some getting used to. Of course, I use PageMaker for this task.
To keep from distressing the folks at my local post office, I package and mail these out in groups of 12. I don't actually do the mailing, my wife does it for me. This is a very good place to make a point about getting help. Without my wife's help, I could not do this. That is a simple fact. Perhaps a young vigorous person could, but it is sure great to have a partner who cares enough to pitch in.
Another thing your catalog can do is make people aware of your website. I have got into this before, but it bears repeating. You can't just put your website out there and think that it's going to be found. There are millions of sites out there. So, any piece of literature you put out, must have your website address and what it's about. Every letter, business card, brochure and catalog must have instructions about your website.
Also remember, it is not just your website that you want to show to the world. You want to tell everyone you can about you and your business. You want the world to find you and admire you. Thus, as a minimum, each piece of paper or set of papers you put out must have you company ID, logo, what you are about, your mailing address, your email address, and your website URL.
Next time I will get into a discussion of book reviewers. Remember,
we are still in marketing. That can involve book reviewers.
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