How To Sell Tons of Books
To The Premium Market

by Al Galasso

One of the most exciting and profitable areas for a publisher, with the right kind of title to sell, is the premium market. Associations, corporations, government agencies, foundations, and even network marketing organizations buy hundreds of thousands of books a year for use as premiums, incentives or for sales promotions.

Non-fiction paperback books make great premiums. Subjects include cooking, health, self-help, motivation, how-to, sports, children’s titles, travel, humor, diet, games and inspiration, just to name a few. The book that is selected usually has a close tie with the company product and the customer’s needs. For instance, a large appliance manufacturer sold over 800,000 copies of a microwave
cookbook from an independent publisher. In another case, a beer manufacturer purchased 200,000 copies of a job search manual as a giveaway to graduating students. A health-related publisher made his book into four smaller booklets and they were given away to health insurance policy holders. A small press sold an abridged version of their addiction recovery book to the U.S. Government for use by the Department of Health. These are some of the ways books are used.

Books have a high perceived value both in their physical presentation and in their use as a communication device. They are easy to describe and customers read them for information, curiosity, or for entertainment. In the case of large orders, the book itself can be customized. A company logo can be added and the book might even contain a page or two with a marketing message inside. According to Incentive Magazine, books have a 6% share of the $1.5 billion dollar incentive market. The selling period is long. It can be for a year or more. But the reward is great when one company purchases tens of thousands of nonreturnable books.

There are a number of ways to target this segment. One, would be to search online for the names of companies that might purchase your books. Another way is to get a copy of “The Encyclopedia of Associations” from your library. It has a comprehensive list of 144,000 organizations from all over the world. 

But, luckily this year publishers have one more choice. They can place their book in our NABE Book Showcase Exhibit at the largest premium incentive show in the nation, The Incentive Show, which takes place from May 3rd to the 4th, 2006 in New York. Instead of paying up to $3000 for a booth, publishers can exhibit their books for a few hundred dollars at our booth and receive the names and addresses of all the buyers who visit us. It is a great low cost way
to get your book seen and possibly used as a premium by a large corporation. But, space is limited to 100 books so you should reserve your spot as early as you can.

Remember, books have traditionally made popular premiums and you can really boost your sales and name recognition value when a company selects your book as a premium. 

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For more information on placing your book in this year's Incentive Show, and other great book and library shows, please visit:
http://www.bookmarketingprofits.com/TradeShows.html