What's smaller than a paperback, priced like a high-end greeting card and gaining a growing share of the impulse-buy market? The answer is Sourcebooks' paperback coupon books. Measuring 53/4"×33/4", each little book offers tear-out coupons that allow a child to present mom with "Instant silence!" at a time of her choosing or a lover to act out a fantasy.
At $5.95 each, coupon books may not pose much of a threat to similarly priced miniature books, but they are gaining momentum, especially around the holidays. "The new Sourcebooks coupons were a great hit at Valentine's Day and Mother's Day," said Waldenbooks spokesperson Ann Binkley, who added that the chain took an aggressive stand on the coupons and found "they were the fastest-selling items in the display." At Barnes & Noble, the Naughty or Nice coupons were among the top five sellers in self-improvement during the week of Valentine's Day. Coupon books are also working at smaller independents like Calistoga Bookstore in Calistoga, Calif. (pop. 5,000), which sells them throughout the year. "They go up or down depending on the holiday," said owner Reece Baswell.
Introduced in 1996, when Sourcebooks acquired Casablanca Press, the first coupon books were created as a free add-on for booksellers ordering a promotional display for Gregory Godek's 1001 Ways to Be Romantic. That book sold well—171,000 copies—and so did Godek's Love Coupons, which has sold 231,000 copies to date.
It wasn't until last year, when combined sales of all the titles reached 750,000 copies, that the publisher decided to set up a specific program. This spring, Sourcebooks introduced its Coupon Collection. Currently, there are about 20 books in five thematic categories, such as celebrating friends and family, life in the country and inspiration, said Deborah Werksman, editorial manager for gift books.
For the retailer, the books fit "between the book and gift market, very much like the miniatures," said Sourcebooks president and publisher Dominique Raccah. And, in fact, some stores do market the two together. At Joseph-Beth Booksellers, which has stores in Ohio and Kentucky, coupon books were featured with other "great little grabbables"—miniature books, The Worst Case Scenario and The Little Prince Gift Edition—near a larger gift book display, according to communications director Michele Sulka.
Although miniature book sales have been flat at Joseph-Beth, and Walden's Binkley refers to them as "a mature business," Carlo Devito, publisher of Running Press's Miniature Editions, maintains that they are still a force to be reckoned with. "In the last five years, we went from 28 million miniature units worldwide to 45 million, including miniature kits." Though most sales are through nonbook channels, the house has "found real successes in the book arena," he told PW, singling out strong sellers like Burt's Bees Facial Kit and licensed versions of Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and Antiquing for Dummies by Ron Zoglin and Deborah Shouse.
Andrews McMeel, however, has cut back on its minibooks, according to editor Jennifer Fox. "We've published them so heavily for years; we have an enormous backlist. We're doing whatever we can to keep things fresh. We pretty much don't publish new titles unless they have bells and whistles, whether it's foil [on the jacket] or a charm, or a sound chip."
Both miniature books and coupon books are "a fashion-oriented market, not a backlist market," Raccah acknowledged. "The books have a three- to five-year lifespan, and then the market is on to something else." For now, coupon books are on the rise. But they will have to keep growing and changing if Sourcebooks is to come close to matching gift book leaders, Running Press and Andrews McMeel.
