Marketing

The death of actor Christopher Reeve on October 10 adds extra poignancy to the Book Sense and A&E Network partnership that seeks to raise funds for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF). Booksellers were sent a special donation box created by A&E exclusively for Book Sense stores to collect money for CRPF in September's White Box.

A statement on the CRPF Web site, www.ChristopherReeve.org, notes that Reeve's family has requested that donations be made in his honor to the Foundation.

A marketing calendar is an integral part of a successful marketing plan, and a savvy retailer won't wait until after the holidays to create a marketing calendar for the new year. Pre-holiday rush is a good time to start formulating new plans as well as to assess which of the past year's marketing efforts worked and bear repeating.

The November 10 opening of Warner Brothers' animated adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's classic Christmas tale, The Polar Express (Houghton Mifflin), starring Tom Hanks, is just over a month away.

A new crop of films based on books -- and books based on films -- provides booksellers with plenty of opportunities for cross promotions now and in the coming months.

The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg's Caldecott Medal-winning children's book, will hit the big screen this November 10 in an animated adaptation from Warner Bros., starring Tom Hanks.

Chris Van Allsburg's Caldecott Medal-winning The Polar Express (Houghton Mifflin) will come to the big screen this November 10 in an animated adaptation from Warner Bros., starring Tom Hanks.

The downloadable PDF flier of October "We Also Recommend" titles, which includes bibliographic information, jacket images, and booksellers' quotations, is now available on BookWeb.org. (To download, click here).

The September Marketing Action Kit includes:

Hardcover History, the partnership of Book Sense and The History Channel promoting programming and reading combinations, is returning after a short hiatus.

In the July White Box, bookstores with Book Sense were sent promotional materials for "The Best Books of the First Five Years of Book Sense" and were encouraged to create a "Best Books" summer display.

This article is part of a series on the Guerrilla Marketing Web site and is reprinted here with the permission of Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the bestselling series Guerrilla Marketing and co-founder of Guerrilla Marketing International, Inc.

By Debra Kahn Schofield

The August White Box is one of the richest so far this year! Just some of the "goodies" in store for you:

Galleys, ARCs and finished books:

The July issue of Building Blocks, the newsletter of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), presented a column entitled "Pannell Best Ideas in Children's Bookselling." The column featured tips for booksellers by the winners of, and nominees for, the 2004 Lucile Micheels Pannell Awards, which are presented annually by the Women's National Book Association (WNBA) to recognize one general bookstore and one children's specialty store that have excelled at creatively bringing books and children together and inspiring children's interest in books and read

The Children's Book Council (CBC), an association of trade book publishers and producers of related literary materials for young people, has been steadily expanding its Web site with CBC Online at www.cbcbooks.org. The site, which is an amalgam of components for an audience of librarians, educators, booksellers, writers, illustrators, parents, and member publishers, offers many resources for the public.

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the bestselling marketing series, Guerrilla Marketing. This article, which originally appeared on the Guerrilla Marketing Web site, provides seven tips for small retailers to get the most out of their marketing efforts.

By Jay Conrad Levinson