![]() ![]() The big bookstore chains get millions to spread around, while independent booksellers get a fraction of that for all of the publisher’s new titles. It’s a percentage of the prior year’s total sales. The publisher has the biggest influence because they pay the store a placement allowance. Who decides if a book is placed on a front table or other prominent spot? Travel narrative is hot now, so we’ll emphasize that to the publisher. One of my authors, for example, is writing a book that could be positioned either as a travel narrative or political history. It can be an important strategic decision. That code determines where a book is shelved in the store. The publisher assigns every book a section code. What determines the category where a title is shelved? What if, for example, a particular book could be interpreted as either a memoir or self-help? Here’s more from my conversation with Andy Ross, who is now, incidentally, a literary agent whose authors benefit from his unique perspective and expertise as a former bookseller. It’s impossible to locate, even if a customer requests the book and the store shows it’s in inventory. Even worse and most frustrating of all, is if a store clerk misshelves the book to begin with. Sales will suffer, on the other hand, if – horrors – a book is shelved away in Sociology – a catchall section for ambiguous titles, and the kiss of death for book sales. It’s usually a factor of how many copies are on the shelf if there are more than a few, there’s a better chance the stack will be turned face-out. What author wouldn’t rather have their book turned face-out, with the cover visible to bookstore browsers? That placement decision, it turns out, is up to the store staffer who shelves the books. Other coveted placements to increase visibility and sales include the end caps of bookshelves and book posts with all the titles facing out. That’s bookseller lingo for building those towering monoliths of stacked bestsellers you see near the entrances of the biggest bookstores. Sales can also surge if a title has an enthusiastic hand-written staff recommendation tacked to the shelf. Nowadays, people read books in a variety of ways, with quite a lot now being made available online and through some of the best torrenting sites 2022 for those who want exclusively read online, however, bookstores are still an important part of the fabric of society and they are a place for people to go to for their physical copies.Īnd where a book sits can incite bitter shelf wars among authors, publishers, sales reps, and retailers, leading to frequent incidents of guerrilla merchandising, with the interested parties surreptitiously rearranging the stock for their own benefit.Ĭan the right book placement produce a bestseller? Probably not, but sales can jump if a book is displayed face-out near the cash register – considered the absolute best spot in the store. However, the appeal for physical books and bookstores seems to be on the decline of late. ![]() Who does not love a bookstore which has a serene atmosphere, the perfect books in stock, and maybe a commercial HVAC system to provide the perfect reading ambience? Brick and mortar bookstores account for more than 60 percent of all book sales, so we publishers agonize over where our books are placed, and struggle to get higher visibility, title-by-title, for the books we love. That anecdote comes from veteran bookseller Andy Ross, who for 30 years owned the venerable Cody’s Books in Berkeley (when bookstores still carried back stock.) So he slips into the storeroom, grabs his books from the back stock and heads straight for the store’s most exclusive patch of real estate – the front table – where he elbows aside the bestsellers and drops his own books down in their place. Picture this: An irate local author can’t find his latest title on the neighborhood bookstore shelf. ![]()
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