Sell book through gift

Today's gift market is experiencing dynamic growth as consumers buy more gifts and home decorating products. These products are gaining more exposure to consumers through a wide-range of shopping venues including the national retail chains, such as Pottery Barn, Yankee Candle, Bath and Body Works, Bombay Company, Pier One, Crate and Barrel, and Kirklands, department stores, mass merchants and the Internet.

In the face of these new outlets, gift shops offer an excellent opportunity to sell more of your books. This category includes major accounts such as Hallmark Stores and Spencer Gifts. It also includes regional chains, local card and gift stores as well as hotel and hospital gift shops.

One of the major benefits to selling to gift shops is that books are sold on a non-returnable basis. Perhaps a less tangible benefit is that you are broadening your markets, reaching people where they would not normally look for books. In addition, one company can offer many opportunities for its subsidiaries. You can spend a great deal of time selling diverse products to one company. For example, if you target Hallmark as your central prospect, there are several opportunities to be found among its subsidiary companies:

Hallmark Stories sells photo storage and memory-keeping products. If your book is related to this product line, you could sell them here. Or, if your title is related to commemorating special occasions, people, and memories, contact Keepsake Ornaments, another Hallmark subsidiary.

Gift Books from Hallmark. In 1999, Hallmark began expanding from cards to books that help celebrate, commemorate, and communicate. If you have a title that warms the heart and enriches the soul, your opportunity may well lie here. You can find Gift Books from Hallmark at Hallmark Gold Crown® Stores and other selected retailers as well as on www.Hallmark.com. Gift Books from Hallmark categories also include:

Children's Classics, beautifully packaged editions of beloved children's books.

Just For Fun books, lighthearted titles such as Yelling It Like It Is by Maxine.

Comfort and Encouragement, Words to Live By, and Family and Friends, all featuring inspirational and motivational titles such as A Promise in Every Color, God Always Has a Plan B, Dear Mom: Thank You for Everything, and The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People.

Party Express from Hallmark. One of Hallmark's most important missions is to help people celebrate and honor all the special days in their lives. Therefore, Hallmark offers party ware and accessories for birthdays, holidays, and other important occasions as well as everyday and seasonal entertaining. Party Express from Hallmark could be an excellent outlet for your title on partying, since they sell their products in party, toy, discount, grocery, drug, military, and specialty card stores.

But in most cases, the gift market is highly decentralized and there are many small shops that place small orders. This increases the administrative burden, requiring you to ship and bill for many small shops.

This also represents an opportunity because you can reach the decision makers readily. A good strategy is to start locally, calling on the gift-store owners and buyers locally. Go to the hospital gift stores and talk with the volunteers there. Most are very willing to spend time with you, describing their buying practices.

A major decision criterion is the fit your title has with the store’s image and customer base, and the types of books that sell well vary by the chain’s image. For example, Hallmark generally deals in sentiment, Spencer Gifts in humor and Urban Outfitters in “hip” products for men and women. Titles that generally do not do well in gift stores are scholarly, text-driven and fiction titles.

John Hanny has been a food consultant for two presidential administrations. His title, Secrets from the White House Kitchens (Rutledge Books, Danbury, CT) offers recipes favored by the incumbents of the Oval Office from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. It was a natural selection by the White House Gift Shop as well as hotel gift shops in Washington, DC.

It is not appropriate to send galleys to gift-shop buyers since they make their decisions on the finished product. They want to see your book’s cover design, size, text and its general overall quality. People buying products in gift shops typically purchase on impulse. Therefore, price is important. Your book should be priced under $10 to penetrate the gift market. Although there is no standard size that sells best, hardcover is generally more acceptable.

Gift-store sales are seasonal in nature, and if your title is appropriate to one of the major holiday periods you stand a better chance of acceptance. Buyers at key accounts will begin looking at seasonal titles six months before the holiday. Purchasing agents at local stores may purchase your books up to one month before the event. In most cases, distributors will accept submissions at all times. Send them a sample of the finished book with a marketing plan and a summary of your sales to date.

Gift-stores also want to carry items of current interest, and can purchase quickly under the right circumstances. Checkerbee Books capitalized on this desire after the tragic death of racecar driver Dale Earnhardt. Says Checkerbee President Len Liebenhaut, “Ten days after the accident, we had a book about him on the (gift store) shelves, and sold over 400,000 copies in three months.”

The gift industry is divided into sub-segments. In 2002, the top-selling segment in the giftware industry was Home Decorative Accessories, with $14.9 billion in sales, a 13 percent increase over the previous year. During 2002 – 2003, consumers spent more money on home furnishings than they did on clothes. With this new emphasis on home decorating, consumers are not just striving to make their homes more beautiful; rather they are seeking decorative items that can positively impact the mood and emotional climate of their home. Books that have a personal, emotional link to the consumer, such as collectibles or gifts, are in demand as consumers seek to make their homes more comfortable and comforting.

Stationery, Greeting Cards, and Paper Products, the second largest segment of the giftware market, reached $13.3 billion in sales, up 10 percent over the previous year. Collectibles -- figurines and dolls – is one of the slowest growing gift segments. Seasonal Decorations is the smallest category in the giftware industry. While Christmas Decor still dominates the category, Halloween Decor was the fastest-growing segment.