Strang Author To Release Title Through Baker

Years ago, a friend put me on to regularly reading the editorials in Charisma magazine by J. Lee Grady.    I’ve rarely met a Pentecostal or Charismatic who can argue for the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the 21st century, and at the same time decry the excesses that take place in those same movements.   Lee defines the term “balanced Charismatic” for me.

So I’m glad to see that “Fire In My Bones,” the title of his weekly e-mail and monthly editorial will become Fire in My Bones, the title of his April, 2010 trade paper with Chosen Books.

But I have to ask the obvious question; ‘Why Baker Book Group, and not Strang Communications, his employer and owner of the imprint that shares the name with Charisma magazine?’

Baker will certainly take his writing to a wider, more diverse audience.   Would Strang have been able to poll larger numbers from those who already recognize the author’s name?

I really hope to review this one in the new year.    Subtitle:  Recovering the Genuine Power of the Holy Spirit in an Age of Compromise.   Forward by R. T. Kendall.

Why Everyone Is After Your Electronic Point of Sale Processing Business

You have a credit department.   Did you know that?

You have a means whereby customers can come to your store and purchase items — sometimes on impulse — and choose to make a single payment or pay the item(s) off over a period of several months.   Or longer.

Your credit department consists of your acceptance of credit cards.   When first introduced in Canada, CHARGEX (known in the U.S. as BANKAMERICARD) changed the way retail transactions are handled.   Can you imagine a world today where people only purchased if they had the money on hand?

CHARGEX later became VISA, and its counterpart, MASTER CHARGE took on the name of its U.S. parent, MASTERCARD.   At its inception, merchants were quite happy to fork over 4% or more of the total sale (including tax) to the credit card provider in exchange for the increased volume credit card acceptance was bringing to their store.   Today, 2% is considered high.

And then came debit transactions.   As the electronic banking network grew, the PLUS NETWORK and CIRRUS changed the way we do retail transactions once again.   In Canada, INTERAC was created as a non-profit organization to oversee the transaction of sales which immediately debited the customer’s bank account and credited the merchant’s.     All the convenience of credit card processing was offered for a flat rate of about 15 cents per transaction.

But have you ever bought gas in the United States and inserted your VISA or MASTERCARD only to have the machine ask you if it’s a debit card or credit card?   You may have thought, “This is needless, of course it’s a credit card, it’s VISA.”

Not so.   Years ago, VISA and MASTERCARD got into the debit card business as well, and in the U.S., that meant charging a percent instead of a flat rate.   That sounds a bit unfair, doesn’t it?  They’re not offering the customer credit or assuming the customer’s credit risk.   But remember, the U.S. is a nation where you can inert 50 cents in a postage machine and receive 34 cents worth of stamps.   Business comes before ‘fairness,’ and if the customers might pay for it, entrepreneurship will invent it.

Even if they can’t introduce VISA DEBIT and MASTERCARD DEBIT in Canada quite yet, obviously, there’s more money to be made by the banks in switching the processing end of the transaction away from the non-profit INTERAC.

That’s why you’re getting all those phone calls.  We get one almost every day.  It’s not that phone solicitors are suddenly targeting businesses because the “do not call” list prevents them from calling homes.   (Although there’s now no shortage of people willing to switch from residential to business telemarketing.) It’s that the commissions the banks are paying telemarketers are huge because of the great gains to be made.

Yes, their sales pitch is correct.   They will give you a better rate on straight VISA and MASTERCARD transactions.   But probably, at the end of the day, most of your transactions are DEBIT.    And the percentage will apply, not the flat rate you’re paying, which these days, may be as low as 8 cents per card swipe.   They don’t tell you that.

So let’s play a game of “let’s pretend.”   Let’s say a customer purchases a $19.99 CD and a $19.99 paperback at your store.    (We’ll ignore the tax for now.)   That’s a $40 sale.   If they pay VISA or MASTERCARD your cost at 2% (for simplicity) will be 80 cents.   If they pay DEBIT your cost (for simplicity) might be 10 cents.

Now there are some different ways you might look at it:

1. You may say, “Heck, it’s only 80 cents.”
2. You might say, “It’s eight times larger, but it’s still a good deal.”
3. You might say, “I was prepared to sell the book and CD anyway, regardless of the customer’s form of payment.”

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Say that at the end of the year you’re looking at a 7% gross profit on sales after expenses.   Do you really want to take what’s presently a 10 cent charge on your most dominant form of payment and change that to 2%?   That could mean your bottom line changes from 7% to 5% which, if you’re a larger store,  is huge.  (Which is also why those “extra 2%” offers from publishers become significant, also.)
   
2. What happens when that sale is actually an $95 Bible?  Or a church using a debit card to make a $550 account payment?    It does start to add up.

So you need to make sure that if you’re changing processing equipment, you’re not changing the default processing of DEBIT cards from INTERAC to the VISA network.   Once you switch, you’re often locked in a contract for a long, long time and the penalties for switching back to INTERAC are high.

Better to stick with your old machine until it breaks down.   True, you may not be able to accept chip cards, but until you’re forced to, you should be in no hurry to make changes.

Oh, and those telemarketers?   I just tell them our store works on a barter system and most customers pay us in eggs or chickens or apples.    Some days, I really wish that were true.

Again, thanks to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for keeping us aware of all these issues.   If your store isn’t a CFIB member, consider joining.  Coincidentally enough, you’ll get an affinity rate on all your electronic transactions!

Benefits of CMC/Cook Merger Evaporate

A week ago in this space I was gushing over the efficiencies of the new trade-only website at David C. Cook Canada.    But just when one problem is solved, Cook has found a way to create a new one.

I’m referring to the recent practice of shipping types of merchandise in separate boxes.   So instead of getting our shipments in one tidy box, we get four little ones, each labeled with little round stickers identifying the different product types in each, in case we should open a single box and not be able to tell the difference.

On a recent music order, I included ONE book title, only to discover that this sent the warehouse scrambling for a small box — or worse a jet pack — in which to cast this lone title onto the shipping waters.    If it’s a jet pack or bubble pack, the book probably won’t arrive without severe damage.

What an absolute waste of money.

I’m guessing this came about because some larger store somewhere noted that it would be nice to know to which departments certain boxes should be directed.   In larger stores, different departments often do their own receiving and pricing, even though much larger retailers have always bought into the concept of central receiving and what’s called central marking (i.e. price marking.)

As far as that goes, it probably made perfect sense to put in the request.   But wait a minute, doesn’t this totally eliminate the whole point of the merger?   Haven’t all the efficiencies evaporated — at both ends — the minute you start shipping things in smaller shipments and smaller boxes with many more invoices?

The answer is no.   This is actually worse.   Instead of getting one box for “music and media” and one box for books, I’m also getting separate boxes for greeting cards and whatever commodity it was that generated a fourth box last week.

I wonder if Burger King still lets you have it your way?

Should I have ordered that single book title from STL and saved everyone a lot of trouble?

USAToday Charts Best Indicator of National Airplay

A few months ago I commented on the value of keeping an eye — and an ear — to what it is your  local Christian radio station is playing, which is in indicator of what people are listening to, and likely to be asking for in the weeks ahead.   For example, my local Christian station — Life 100.3 in Barrie — is currently noting these audience favorites on their mid-day (adult) programs and their evening (youth) programs:

But for big-picture trends, you might want to be aware of the Christian music airplay charts that appear online at USAToday every Monday and contained in the print version of the newspaper every Tuesday, as compiled by Mediabase.   Here’s this week’s edition:

Genesis in Comic Book Format

Time Magazine joins a host of media who have noted the publication of The Book of Genesis by 66-year old American comic book  illustrator R. Crumb.  In a November 1 online story, the magazine said:

Crumb’s manuscript is — for a man who has said he doesn’t believe Genesis is God’s word — oddly reminiscent of those produced by monks before printing presses: a faithful, verse for verse copy, painstakingly rendered. He hardly needed to change a thing; Genesis offers a smorgasbord of the kind of behavior Crumb is given to portraying: the persistent, colorful, depressing failure of humans to not give in to their baser desires. It’s sufficiently literal that cultural conservatives could hardly be offended, but it has more than enough supernatural events, betrayals and epic storylines to satisfy the comic book reader.

Despite the above, the book is not selling through comic book stores, Crumb’s traditional core market.

The story also links to a review by the more Evangelical Ben Witherington III, who writes at Beliefnet:

…This super-lapsed Catholic has decided to depict scenes from all 50 chapters of Genesis, with the emphasis on verbatim. Those of us who knew a bit about his snarky past were holding our collective breath… The kudos for this book are also coming in from other quarters–Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and chronicler of pop culture thinks Crumb is successfully translating the Bible into a new medium… In the end Crumb after long debating how to depict God (as a bright light???) fell back on the old stand by— God as the old white guy with the long white beard.  I wonder what the Mormons would say about this Genesis.,

The book is published through Wm. Norton at $24.99 US.  At that price, I probably wouldn’t carry it, but neither would I refuse orders.   (Though a deposit might be in order.)

Community Involvement: Visiting Other Churches

Part of the challenge of staying connected with the broader Christian community where you live is the challenge of being physically present in a variety of worship settings when most of your Sundays involve being present in your home church.

In order to maximize your visits to other churches, and in keeping with the spirit of the day (Halloween), here is the first in a series (maybe) of instructional videos to help you know what to do.   We begin with Pentecostal or Charismatic worship.

And also one for Anglican or Episcopal worship:

Fifth Title from Windblown Media

In a world where we often speak of “brands” in Christian publishing, it’s unusual to see a publishing imprint where many different voices seem to speaking to one central mission or sharing one common voice.

Windblown Media has managed to do just that, pushing a giant “pause” button on some of our nearest and dearest views on both the Godhead; and our views on the church — us — the way we interact together as the body or even within our families or marriages.

As with He Loves Me, The Shack, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Bo’s Café, and now The Misunderstood God by Darin Hufford, readers are treated to a fresh perspective, one that is sure to bring about some agitation by those who would have us follow a God that is not a kindler, gentler deity.

When I first flipped through the pages of The Misunderstood God, I was expecting something similar to the first half of Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips. I came to that book about a dozen years ago for the first time, and was astounded by how much my own God perspective was informed more by comparisons to other authority figures than informed by scripture itself.

While some people might see books like this as a giant piece of chalk (or marker) about to write on the giant blackboard (or whiteboard) everything one needs to know in terms of their doctrine of God, I prefer to see this kind of book as a giant eraser, cleaning off all those false doctrines and wrong views we’ve collected over the years in order to make a fresh start. Sometimes, such an eraser has to scrub a little bit harder to get some of those off the board so we can start fresh.

In fact, the first half of Your God Is Too Small by Phillips does just that type of deconstruction — in only about 60 pages of this rather small book — before reconstructing in the second half; but it’s the first half of the book that really packs the greatest punch.

But a few chapters into The Misunderstood God I finally figured out that the deconstruction and reconstruction takes place here on a chapter-by-chapter basis, using as its motif, I Corinthians 13. I’ve heard people speak before on how the “Love is patient, love is kind…” passage can, if it’s true that ‘God is love,’ be read as, “God is patient, God is kind…” I had just never seen it before as the key to healing misunderstandings we have about the nature of God.

For a fuller version of this book review, click on my personal blog, here.  The book is available in the US and Canada through Hachette Book Group.   In Canada, the CBA market is also served on all Windblown titles through Crown Video in Edmonton.

For a quotation from the book, link back to this post at my personal blog  a few days ago.

For He Loves Me, here’s my review from December 16, 2008, a remix review from May 3rd.

For So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore, here’s my review from April 19, 2008.

For Bo’s Café, here’s my recent review from September 14, 2009.

Pictured: book cover, Darin Hufford, the Windblown Media family of titles.

Cheryl Dunn’s Album a Worthy Addition to Your Country and Christmas Departments

Recording artist Cheryl Dunn dropped by my store this morning.   Considering that she lives just one town away, this may not seem significant; but given her intense touring schedule, I’m always surprised that she takes time out to both expand her library and support our store.

Therefore, I thought I’d return the favour.

CMC is currently stocking Cheryl’s third album, a Christmas title called Emmanuel: White Christmas.   As the title suggests, this album is a healthy blend of music for those who come to the holiday season with more secular expectations, and those who want to see the sacred meaning of the season expresed in music.    In other words, the perfect album to have on the CD-player when family or co-workers drop by.

Cheryl’s musical style is probably most influenced by Nashville, but she’s also at home doing worship songs.  If you live in one of the few places in Canada where Cheryl hasn’t played, check out her website at www.cheryldunn.com where you’ll find her biography, a concert schedule (including forthcoming dates in Trinidad and Texas), and information on all three CDs.

And consider stocking the CD in your store.   Where else are you going to get Jingle Bell Rock and Winter Wonderland on the same album as O Holy Night and Gentle Shepherd?    You’ll also be supporting a Canadian artist who has an active ministry here, in the U.S. and in the third world.   [CMC order # 320372; 17.99]

You’ll also find a cut from Cheryl’s Christmas album on the new Various Artists title, Sea to Sea Christmas.  [332902]

Spring Arbor Where Art Thou?

Every three months I get a magazine in the mail called Bridges.  It’s a publication of Ingram International and serves as a quarterly reminder that technically, I’m an Ingram International customer and not a Spring Arbor customer, even though 99% of my purchasing is Christian titles.

It’s the only time I ever receive anything in the mail from the company.   I apparently am not on any lists for any marketing packages, they don’t sell my name to Christian publishers for direct mailings, and as for phone calls or e-mails, you can forget that also, with the exception of a monthly e-mail highlighting Catholic products, which I am considering unsubscribing from.

I asked once if they still do marketing packets, and they sent me one — about four years ago — but for all I know they don’t do that anymore.   Even getting a monthly backorder report seems like pulling teeth.

In contrast, I had an in-store, personal visit this month from STL Distribution.   Considering I’m not a huge account, I was truly impressed that they cared enough to fly someone up here to the frozen north, and have that person try to get to at least five stores per day over the course of a week.

Anyway, my copy of Bridges arrived yesterday, and now I think I may need to have a talk with my mail carrier to explain a thing or two.   The back page of Bridges was an advert for two titles on running your own marijuana grow-op.   Of course, this could be a sign that I need to start a fringe department, but at $29.95 US, Marijuana Horticulture seems a bit pricey.   Perhaps I could start of with Marijuana Grow Basics at only $21.95 US; but again, I think my sales to people at the Baptist Church would be quite limited.

The front cover of Bridges is advertising, and one of the titles was Reflections on The Shack: A Topical Discussion by Women From Different Walks of Life; part of a book series called “Powder Room.”     I clicked on my iPage and looked it up, only to discover it’s another attempt by Christian publisher Destiny Image (DI) to capitalize on another publisher’s hot title.    In fact, this is their second title to feature Shack cover imagery on their own cover.  (The other is The Love Shack by Don Nori.   There’s a difference between serious academics like Randall Rauser and Roger Olson debating Shacks’s doctrines and these titles, plus it’s got to be especially embarrassing for a publisher to have to wade into the same waters twice to try to come up with some sales.)  Another DI book showed up in the Bermuda listings.

With this issue of Bridges coming in at scant 12 pages, I thought they’d leave out the international bestseller charts, but they showed up on pages 10 and 11.   Ingram gives us a peek into the top 15 titles it ships out to various countries.     Usually there’s a Christian title or two, but the only one this time around was The Joy of Knowing Christ by Pope Benedict XVI, which turned up on the Italy top 15.   Isn’t shipping books by the Pope back to Italy somewhat akin to taking coal to Newcastle?    I suppose there’s a good reason this expensive ($35 US) Kaplan Publishing edition is wanted there.

A Publisher Responds to U.S. Hardcover Price War

We all know how we feel about it.    But how do the publishers — the very people who have key staff people assigned to massage the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon — feel about the current price war these companies are staging in the United States?

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt gives you a publisher’s perspective on his blog post today.   Here’s a preview:

…This focus on driving down the price of the best our industry has to offer will hurt everyone, even the mass retailers who started it. When publishers are forced to further reduce titles, or new authors just don’t have the same incentive to succeed, the pipeline of new book titles will dry up. Where will the next crop of new authors come from? Who will be the bestsellers of tomorrow? The mass retailers have had the luxury of being able to skim the cream off the publishing milk pail without investing in the process that creates the milk in the first place. In my opinion, they are about to kill the cow.

Click here to read the whole article.

Thanks for Reading

The graph below is the actual stats for Christian Book Shop Talk.   With peak readings of about 100 people daily — not counting the 400 daily the week of the RGM bankruptcy — and minimum readings of 40; this blog is much larger than my personal blog was when I started this one on the side.   I figured we’d get about ten readers daily, so I’m not complaining.

29% of readers are “regular” accounting for 51% of all visits.   On average 54% of readers are American, even though this was originally launched as a Canadian service with some posts having little applicability to U.S. bookstores.

I’d like to get more comments going back and forth, and more of you using the guest book and the product search page.    I’m also open to more guest posts.  Got a topic?   You’d be surprised just who reads this thing!  Use the contact page to submit an idea.    Thanks for reading!

Tim Keller on Counterfeit Gods

From the author who brought us The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, Redeemer (New York City) pastor Tim Keller explains the motivation for his new title, Counterfeit Gods (Dutton, 2009). This title is available to Canadian retailers through Pearson Canada (Penguin Books)

David C. Cook Wholesale Website Debuts Online

Finally!    Every frustration I’ve ever had in dealing with one of Canada’s largest book suppliers vanished several weeks ago with the simple click of a computer mouse.   No more phoning for information.    It’s all there, all of it, and then some!

After several weeks of being allowed to preview and use the new Business-to-Business (B2B) website at David C. Cook Canada, the site is now open to every dealer who wishes to create a login and password.   Any dealer who hasn’t or doesn’t is missing out, big time.

Two things are striking about this site right away.   The first thing you notice is the speed of the server.   The second thing you notice is that search criteria don’t have to be qualified.   You can be looking for a title by its first word, keyword, or key phrase; or you can know the author’s name; or you can have the ISBN or CMC music product number.   Doesn’t matter.   You just start typing in a single search window and the program figures out what you’re up to.

If your search is too broad, rather than display the results, it will tell you that there are, for example, 61 products found.   In other words, do you really want to display those, or do you want to refine your search with different criteria?   It doesn’t really matter, since those 61 items will be on your screen in a split second if that’s what you opt for.   (You can also save time by leaving out words like “the,” “and” as well as worrying about whether a word is plural or singular — just type the singular.)

If your 61 choices actually yield three or four items you’d like to add to your store inventory, you simply enter the quantity, toggle the ‘check’ box next to that quantity, and then, at the bottom  of the page, indicate you want to add all your checked boxes.   (However, if you’re only given one choice, you still have to remember to do all three — quantity, check box, add request — or the item will not make it into your cart.)

This could be a challenge for some people.   You don’t see your cart each time you add items.   If you need to, you can click on ‘current cart’ to see how you’re doing.   Otherwise, you’re good to input the next item.    You can also build multiple carts.  (If you know all your stock number or ISBNs, you can also use the Express Order feature to input several diverse items at once.)

The search results show your discount.   This is an item for another discussion, but currently Cook customers get varying rates of discount on books, curriculum and music.   So the discount you see may not be the same as another dealer gets doing the same search.

Requests for your everyday Dayspring card pockets can be added in the message section at the bottom, along with requests for CMC Music demos, but be sure to hit update/refresh when you’re finished writing comments or the request or comment is lost.   The comments will appear on the printed invoices of subsequent backorder releases from that cart, but the demos and cards will only ship once.

If an item is out of stock, you’ll know because you’re shown the warehouse quantities in real time.   If it is, the system will tell you how many other units of that item are committed to other accounts, and also give you an expected arrival date.    For example if you want 5 copies of the new Robin Mark album, and the system shows there are MINUS 70 on hand, but 120 on order, you know that your copies will be shipped after the arrival date shown.   (If it shows there are MINUS 140 on hand and only 120 on order, you know this title is really taking off; maybe you should order more than the 5 you planned!  By the time it arrives, you’ll have even more pent up demand in your local area.)

Clicking on the product number of an item will yield additional information, product descriptions, page counts and product images.   There are actually sound clips for a number of music titles.

The accounting side of the site allows you to see all your past backorders, all your past orders, and see a full statement.   Every item in all three screens is a link allowing you to view and print each invoice or report; and every item on each list is also a link allowing you to view some additional product data as mentioned above.    Invoices can be sorted by invoice number, order number or your purchase order number.

You can request a minimum threshold for backorder releases, although time-sensitive new music titles are currently complicating this aspect of the system.  Not being a Cook curriculum dealer, I can’t comment on how dated, quarterly curriculum is ordered.

The system does log you out if you’re not actively working with it.   That probably helps the system run quickly and efficiently at Cook’s end; and logging back in only takes a split second.   Shopping carts last indefinitely and don’t need to be revisited to keep them current.   (Of course, instock levels are subject to change from the time you first added items to the cart.)

The system doesn’t advise you if an item backordering has previously been placed on backorder for you.   This and the aforementioned card and demo ordering are the only features available by telephone that you can’t get online; but these and other ideas are on the ‘wish list’ for 2010.   They are also working on adding ‘forms’ so that if, for example, you’re doing the Foundation 72-hour sale, you could order the Cook items at your special discount online.   The forms may end up being used for other online promotions and specials, too.    In this tight economy, those special offers can’t happen soon enough.   And of course, you will still have to go through your sales rep for prepub offers on new titles you’re buying in quantity.

Also — and this is a big plus — if there’s something in the descriptions that is not to your liking, Cook’s IT wizard, Russ Koning, will do whatever is necessary to improve how products are either listed or tagged in the system.

Comparisons to the old R. G. Mitchell site will be many, and this site matches RGM Eworks feature-for-feature as well as improving on it greatly.   If you’re already up and running with the site, feel free to add your comments here.

As a wholesale customer who has expectations that are often considered too idealistic, I find absolutely nothing here to criticize.   This website is an unexpected early Christmas gift to retailers in Canada; and unlike other Christmas gifts I’ve been given, this one fits perfectly.

The Season Known As Christmas Is Already in Progress

While some stores do rather strategic planning in the late summer, others are continuing to ‘ramp up’ their inventory position in anticipation of a busy Christmas season.

Those busy days will come, but in many ways, they’ve already started; in fact, for some customers, Christmas shopping is already a done deal.

The tendency is to forget that there are only so many days left in the year and you can only realistically sell so many copies of any given title between now and Dec 24th.

After today, there are 64 calendar days left to shop.   However, in our industry, most of us are closed Sundays, which leaves only 55.   With suppliers closed on Saturdays, that means there are only 46 working days for the people who provide you with goods, and in the case of Ontario-based suppliers,  most don’t ship the last 2 days (Ontario and Quebec) or 3 days (Manitoba and Maritime provinces) or 4 days (Western provinces).     That means that if it’s going to happen at the wholesale level, it’s only going to happen within as few as 42 working days.

Here’s some advice from someone who’s been at this a number of years:

1. Buy aggressively only in cases where supply may become a problem towards the end for whatever reason.
2. Buy carefully, even conservatively, but keeping a close watch on monitoring inventory; closer than you would the rest of the year.
3. Watch for areas you might be going out of stock on categories as well as individual titles.   If everything suitable for a particular demographic runs out at once, you’re in trouble!
   
4. Increase inventory of higher quality leather Bibles towards December 1st, then let stock slide back to January levels.    You want to make the Christmas sale to that discriminating customer, but you don’t want to have too much capital invested in this department at year-end.
5. On the other hand, remember that the January customer deserves a decent selection of goods, too.   You’ve got to have, at the very, very minimum, a copy of each of your top 250 books always available for purchase after January1st.  (500 in larger stores.)
   
6. If it hasn’t sold by December 12th, reduce the price then.   Don’t expect you’ll have enough traffic in January to catch your post-Christmas reductions.
7. In Canada, rules like these need to be tempered by a close watch on the dollar situation; at least with books.   If the Canadian dollar starts to fall (and cost prices start to rise) be thankful you got the deals you did, and move on.   Make sure your pricing allows for flexibility if your payment is going to be made a later date, and therefore a later exchange rate.
8. Staff are busy with extra volume and hours at the store and additional seasonal church and home activities.   Why not have your annual staff party in January?   (We did this last year!)  If the cost is something you want to expense in 2009, find a restaurant that will allow you to prepay the event.  (Without locking in a date if weather’s a concern.)
9. Looking for bargain books for that January event?   Look no further than your own inventory.   Use the date codes on price tags to note inventory that didn’t move and reduce accordingly.   If you decide to reduce things below cost then do so in December so the lower price is reflected in your inventory.    If they’re really past their sell-by date, consider applying a write-off code to them before inventory also.
10. You may not have to lay off staff after Christmas.   Ask all your existing staff what their expectations, need-for-a-break status, and holiday plans are.   Some staff may be willing to pare down their hours allowing you to keep people you’ve invested hours in training.

Bestsellers… But Where?

The number six and number nine books in the CBA top ten this week are the Standard Lesson Commentaries.   But I’ve never, ever been asked for this in my store, let alone actually sold one.

Who uses them?   Is this another example of U.S. charts not reflecting Canadian realities, or do some of us in Canada sell these?

How do the bestseller charts reflect what’s going on in your store?

Do you have a chart of your own that reflects what your customers are interested in? If you send it, and we can cut/paste it in, we’ll include it here.

(Here’s ours:)

Short Discount Not Intended on Individual Copies

Despite what’s happening at your local church, some people still have an interest in hymnbooks.   Hymnbooks are produced in quantity and sold to churches in bulk.   Usually a short discount applies, in some cases as low as 10% or 12%, but usually never better than 24%.

However, when an individual comes to your store and wants to buy a single copy — either to have a home copy that matches what’s used in their local congregation, or to simply enjoy a trip down memory lane — you probably shouldn’t be even mentioning the MSRP that you find online or in your store’s database.  Not if you want to stay in business, anyway.

Rather, that should be treated as a “net” price, and you should price the book incorporating at least a 40% markup.   (That’s not the same as the items you get a 40% discount on; to do that you multiply times 1.67 or a 67% markup.)   Of course, if you want to make the normal margin as you would on a regular book, then you would use a 67% markup.   (You can then be seen to be giving a good discount when First Church asks you for a price on 200 copies.)

How does your store treat individual sales of hymnbooks (and some publishers’ pew Bibles)??