Front and Center

Walk into one of your favorite stores and chances are you'll walk away with more than you intended to buy. Shopping is more fun when you're enticed to wander around with your senses fully engaged. And you appreciate those moments when you not only see something new but are reminded of something you meant to buy all along—or needed at just that moment. A good retailer knows browsers can be easily converted into buyers with careful selection, placement and presentation of merchandise. If you've ever spent time on the service side of the register, you know that up until the very last minute a customer might ask you, “Wait, is it too late to add this?”

There are more than 275,000 new titles published each year. Publishers, sales reps, authors and agents are all eager to see their books prominently displayed in bookstores. Not all will find a place at the table, but some will—especially when the publisher takes a partnership approach to marketing.

Considering how costly it can be to put an author on tour, or print and mail full-color promotional materials (most of which end up in the recycling bin), co-op marketing is a proven strategy that works in nearly all forms of retail, where vendors and retailers share the cost of driving demand and making the sale. But co-op has become a four-letter word for booksellers, and most publishers with co-op policies often sabotage its effectiveness.

Over the course of 17 years of training new bookstore owners and assisting current bookstore owners with marketing, my colleagues and I have seen the struggles from both perspectives. Publishers' co-op policies have largely been hijacked by corporate attorneys and accountants. Terms are described in legalese and often limit title eligibility instead of acknowledging that the retailer knows best what will sell in his or her community. Some publisher policies clearly favor corporate retailers with “buck a book” plans; those retailers play the game well, purchasing vast quantities, then returning a large percentage while pocketing the co-op as incremental revenue. Books are moving off the shelves, but out of the wrong door.

Publishers concerned about high returns should re-evaluate their often misguided co-op policies. Some of the most creative publishers with strong bookseller ties are actually some of the industry's smallest. They use co-op funds as incentives for booksellers to spend time with their catalogues, read ARCs, select titles for newsletter promotions, stock copies in coveted display spaces and hand-sell books to customers.

Independent booksellers, with average vendor return rates around 11%, prefer to buy only what they think they have a reasonable chance of selling. They will look more closely at plans that reflect a true marketing partnership with the shared goal of sell-through—and they'll be more willing to take a chance on a promising new author with some marketing support. It's an established and efficient distribution channel that has proven to create bestsellers and launch the careers of new writers.

Here are some of the best practices that offer the right incentives to improve sell-through:

Offer something. Algonquin Books offers just $75 per season, but allows the bookseller to pick the title to promote. Candlewick identifies a small group of titles each season and makes $150 available to booksellers. With booksellers dealing with huge stacks of catalogues, offer something and your catalogue will go to the top.

Allow for flexibility. Macmillan offers co-op on select titles each season, but also offers a $50 “wild card” for many imprints to allow booksellers to choose something they like and want to promote.

Get outside the box. Co-op that requires unreasonable minimum orders limits who will be interested in giving the title a try. HarperCollins requests booksellers to purchase in “displayable quantities” on any title booksellers wish to promote. For most independent booksellers, five copies of paperbacks and three copies of hardcovers can get you in a front-of-store display. Wholesaler reorders happen several times a week, and additional copies are purchased as long as they keep selling.

Shelf space is valuable, but it's limited. The only way everyone can benefit is when there's a partnership approach to marketing, where mutual efforts help convert customers who browse into more customers who buy.