Best Seller Bonanza

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INTRODUCTION

A wholesaler, of course, is someone who supplies goods for shopkeepers
to sell in their shops. He might have several hundred shops throughout
the country selling his goods. However, he takes a very small profit
from each sale compared with the retailer. Because he's dealing in
such large quantities, the wholesaler needs large premises to
contain his warehouse and offices. His turnover is normally measured
in millions of pounds. You wouldn't expect a part time businessman
to be a wholesaler.

Books are much more portable than many types of goods, so a book
wholesaler doesn't have to have enormous warehouses. The unit cost
is also smaller than with many items, so the investment could be
smaller. However, the general rule applies: to be a book wholesaler
you'll need custom built storage and office facilities and a large
amount of capital to purchase opening stock.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course. In the West of England
a married couple run a wholesale business, dealing in new paperbacks,
from their own house. They buy books from publishers at half the
recommended retail price, then sell them to book shops and newsagents
for two thirds of the retail price. So a book which costs you œ4.50 in
the shops is bought from the publisher for œ2.25 and sold to the
bookseller for œ3.00. The wholesalers get 75p profit from this sale
out of which they have to pay wages, travelling and so on. They have
to sell a lot of books to make a living! Later on in this manual
we'll explain how they do it. But first we'll look at a method of
wholesale book selling which involves second hand paperbacks.

WHOLESALING SECOND HAND PAPERBACKS

I'm about to describe the easy way to become a book wholesaler. If
you're looking for a low cost business to start, this could be it.
You wouldn't need any specialised knowledge, and you wouldn't need
large premises. You could operate from a garden shed. There'd be
little travelling involved (perhaps none at all) and you wouldn't need
a great deal of money to start up. Best of all, you'd actually take a
bigger cut of the profits than the retailers you supply!

The books you'd be wholesaling would be second hand paperback books.
If you think this sounds an unlikely venture for you, I suggest you
read to the end of this section. I intend to demonstrate that this
is a business which can be run by just about anyone, and which will,
once it's achieved momentum, produce a steady flow of cash profits
throughout the year. Contact with the general public is minimal and
it's a very suitable venture to run from home, since you won't have
streams of customers walking in and out all day.

FINDING YOUR MARKET

Most wholesalers sell their goods to shops. The couple we mentioned
on the previous page drive over three counties showing samples of the
new paperbacks to shop owners and managers and taking orders. Other
wholesalers pay salesmen to call on the shops. Some rely on advertising,
or on mailing out highly coloured catalogues. All these methods
are expensive and I would not recommend that you adopt any of them
in your own business.

In fact I don't recommend that you sell your goods to shops at all.
This is partly because there are comparatively few second hand
bookshops around. Even in quite large towns you'd be hard pressed
to find more than a handful. The other reason is that second hand
booksellers work on very large profit margins and so pay only a
fraction of what a book is really worth.

No, we'll go for a quite different market. In fact we'll go for
two markets.

The first market is those booksellers who don't operate from a shop.
There are a very large number of these. Often they are part time
businessmen and women who enjoy a little profitable book dealing
at weekends. They attend book fairs and flea markets; even car
boot sales.

The second market is an even larger one: in fact it probably
includes ninety per cent of the population.

This market consists of people who are trying to raise money. They
might be trying to raise money for themselves or for some worthy
cause such as a school, a church or a charity. Such people frequently
rent a market stall or space at a boot sale or flea market. They
sell all kinds of odds and ends which they don't want, or which, in
the case of a charity, have been donated. However, there's a limit
to the number of odds and ends you can get hold of. Usually they
manage to hold one or two sales a year. If they could obtain stock
free of charge on a regular basis they'd have a lot more fund raising
sales.

You're going to provide them with what they need: something to sell
to make money for themselves or their cause which will cost them
NOTHING. They'll come to you for this service, not the other way
around. And, despite the fact that it will be effectively a free
service to them, you're going to do rather nicely out of it yourself.

So we've now identified your market. People who want books to sell
at a market stall or boot sale. Or people that want SOMETHING to sell
at these events but don't know what. Later I'll tell you how to
locate these people in your neighbourhood. First let's concentrate
on getting some stock together.

BUILDING UP YOUR STOCK

The hardest part of the venture will be getting a stock of decent
second hand books together. I suggest you concentrate on paperbacks:
they're popular with stall holders because they stack easily in
boxes, they're (comparatively) cheap and they look nice and colourful.

You'll need somewhere to put them. A spare room in your house
would be ideal if you're lucky enough to have one. Do remember
that your customers will have to enter the room from time to time.
You my prefer to use a shed in the garden - make sure it's dry and
weather proof! If you don't have a room or shed to spare, then
this venture is not for you. You'll need to store several thousand
books and they won't fit in the cupboard under the stairs.

You could, of course, cover your living room wall with shelves.
I know at least one book dealer who has done so. But this might
make you unpopular in some quarters. And it should be remembered
that people will eventually be visiting you to inspect your stock.

Fit your room or shed with shelving. Do this as cheaply as
possible - use what you've already got rather than spending money.
Don't worry if it looks rough and ready - unless, of course, you've
actually used the wall of your living room! As long as it's strong
enough to hold the books it'll do fine.

Now to get hold of the stock. The only way to start building up
a stock of second hand books is to advertise. You'll need to place
ads in your local paper: "Cash Paid for Paperbacks, Please
'phone _____" would work and shouldn't be too expensive. However,
our own experience suggests that you should run the ad for several
weeks: 4 - 6 at least. It seems to take this length of time before
the ad actually registers in readers' minds and stirs them into action.
This ad will be your first major expense, costing perhaps œ10 or œ12
for a six week run in a local free newspaper. However, one six week
run should, with luck, bring in enough stock to get you started.
After that you'll probably find that no further advertising is
necessary; people with books to sell will contact you directly.

When I have an ad running, I keep a notebook by the 'phone specially
for calls from people with books to sell. When they ring, I find
out what they have to sell and make an appointment to call and see
them. You may prefer to have them bring the books to you, but this
has two disadvantages: first, many people can't be bothered to do
this, and you'll lose the chance of getting those books and secondly,
it will result in people calling frequently - a source of great
interest to your neighbours (if you're working from home) which
could prove a nuisance.

You'll probably find it a bit embarrassing when you make your first
call to buy stock: most people are nervous of haggling and bartering
unless they're used to it. In fact, I suggest that you don't haggle
at all. Inspect the stock and access its value to you. Then make a
firm cash offer. If this is declined, politely thank the seller and
leave. However, you should find, if you follow the guide-lines
below, that your offer is accepted four times out of five.

GO FOR QUALITY

It's very important to be selective when you are buying books.
A clean copy of a book by a popular author will sell for œ1, while
a tatty paperback by someone you've never heard of can't be given
away (that's literally true: I've tried to). So you'll only be
interested in obtaining clean books by popular authors (CBPAs).
Time spent on this selection procedure now will pay dividends later.

If you're not a great reader of paperback fiction yourself, you may
be unsure about who is a popular author. Our manual "Big Profits
From Second Hand Books" includes a section on this. Alternatively,
you can do a little research yourself. Get a Sunday paper which
lists the top ten paperbacks and note the authors. Visit W H Smiths
or John Menzies and see which books they've selected for their
paperback sections. Ask your friends what kind of books they like
to read. See which TV series have been adapted from books.
Gradually you'll build up a list of the authors who really do sell.

When you have a potential seller's books in front of you, sort them
into two categories: CBPAs and others. Now decide how much the CBPAs
would be individually priced at. For reasons which will become clear
later, I suggest you have just three price categories: œ2, œ1 and 50p.
How do you decide which of these prices to take? A useful guide is
the new price which will be printed on the back cover of the book.
If the book was published in the last ten years and the book is in
spanking condition: almost good as new, then you price it as near to
half the new price as you can get. For example, a Stephen King horror
blockbuster, originally priced at œ3.99 could be marked at œ2 and so on.

If the book is not pristine but clean and sound, work on a selling
price which is as near to one third of the original price as your
three price categories allow. An Agatha Christie which was new for
œ2.50 would be œ1 for example.

Again I must emphasise that if the book is not clean and likely
to sell easily then you value it at nothing.

Naturally, you're doing all this calculating silently in your head.
The prices you're working out are the SELLING prices, not the price
you're going to pay for them. When you've added up all the selling
prices, divide by four. That's what you'll offer for the books.

Almost certainly there'll be a lot of books you don't want and if
the seller doesn't like your price you can tell him this. However,
the chances are that he'll accept your offer but will want you to
take everything. If this is the case, take the lot and give the waste
to a jumble sale, or to a charity organisation which collects waste
paper.

After a few weeks you should have a few thousand paperbacks in your
spare room or shed. It's important that they're not just plonked on
the shelves in a haphazard fashion. You must have some system of
classification. The following plan will ensure that you can identify
the price and category of any book at a glance.

ORGANISING YOUR STOCK

First you'll need lots of cardboard boxes. See if a local
supermarket can oblige - but make sure you get boxes which have
been used to pack 'dry' goods. Cut the boxes so that they're
slightly deeper than the width of a paperback. The idea is that
the paperbacks will be stacked in the boxes spine uppermost and will
pack tightly into the boxes.

You'll also need several packets of little coloured discs. They
come in sheets and can be obtained in various sizes from most
stationers. Get three different colours and get the smallest size.
While you're in the stationers, get a notebook.

Now arrange the books into categories. You'll have your own ideas
about this, of course, but the following seem to work well: Detective,
Thriller, General Fiction, Saga, Historical, Science Fiction,
Children's. Non fiction can also be categorised into classes like
Cookery, Health, Countryside and so on, but at first you'll probably
have too few non fiction books to do this. just pile them up in a
"Non Fiction" heap.

Some categories can be sub divided. If you've got a lot of Mills &
Boon romances these could have their own box for example, or you
could have a box of Agatha Christie novels.

This is a good time to give the books a dust, maybe even a wipe with
a slightly damp cloth to remove any grubby marks.

Now you put the books into boxes, so that each box contains books in
the same category. As you do this, you price the books. You do this
in THREE ways. First, pencil the selling price inside the book - on
the first page after the cover. Next mark the price in code in
the BACK of the book. I'll leave you to work out your own code:
something along the lines of A = 50p; B = œ1 and C = œ2, would
work well enough. Finally, you stick a little coloured disc on
the spine of the book. The colour will indicate the price: e.g.
Red = 50p, green = œ1 and blue = œ2.

When you've filled the box up, stick a large notice on it indicating
the category: Science Fiction, Romance ....... whatever. You can do
this effectively with a black felt tip pen and coloured paper.
You'll also fix a smaller piece o paper to the box indicating the
value of the contents: e.g. 12 @ 50p, 15 @ œ1, 7 @ œ2. Total
value œ35. Finally give the box a number. Record this number in
the notebook as follows:

BOX VALUE
1. œ35.00

Leave plenty of room on the line so you can cross out the value and
replace it with a new one as books are sold and replaced.

This stage of the venture will be time consuming and tedious but it's
essential to do this if you're wholesaling operation is to run
smoothly. The idea is to have all books neatly stacked in boxes
on your shelves, arranged according to category and with the prices
clearly seen at a glance.

When you've done this, it's time for some paperwork. First you'll
need to prepare some booking out sheets. These will record the books
taken by your customers together with their value. A sheet of plain
A4 paper would do for each slip, or, if you prefer, you could have a
hard-back exercise book and make each page a booking out sheet. A
sample booking out sheet is shown on the next page, filled in with
some imaginary figures and names.

:BOOKINGOUT
BOOKING OUT SHEET

I acknowledge receipt of the following quantities of paperback books,
supplied by Mr F Smith on 20-10-90:

BOX NUMBER VALUE

1 œ 35.00
2 œ 9.50
7 œ 45.50
12 œ 60.00
14 œ 112.50
19 œ 53.00
20 œ 75.00
22 œ 8.00
23 œ 84.50
24 œ 93.00

TOTAL VALUE œ 576.00

Customers Signature: J Jones
Customers Address: 1 High Street, Mytown

You'll also need some booking in sheets. These will be used to
record the books returned by you by customers. A sample booking
in sheet follows.

:BOOKINGIN
BOOKING IN SHEET

Books returned by Mr J Jones, 22-10-90

Box NO. At œ2 At œ1 At 50p Value
1 3 10 10 œ 21.00
2 0 0 8 œ 4.00
7 3 9 7 œ 18.50
12 8 12 20 œ 38.00
14 12 25 20 œ 59.00
19 6 16 30 œ 43.00
20 0 30 11 œ 35.50
22 0 0 4 œ 2.00
23 20 15 3 œ 56.50
24 22 20 18 œ 73.00

TOTAL: œ 350.50

Signed: J Jones
F Smith

Don't concern yourself with the figures for the time being.
We'll look at them in detail in the next section.

Now you have the stock and the necessary paperwork is completed.
It's time to find some customers.

FINDING CUSTOMERS

You must first decide exactly who your customers will be. I suggest
that you start by concentrating on the amateur boot saler who wants
to make some spare time cash. When you've ploughed back your initial
profits into buying more stock you can then look at professional
market traders and, perhaps, bookshops. But I think you'll find that
amateur traders will bring in a very satisfactory income.

Now you must decide on your principal selling points: those features
of your business which will persuade customers to use your service.
In this case you will have one extremely powerful feature - a unique
selling proposition as it's called by the pundits. It is this:
the customer cannot possibly lose. This is because you will not be
selling the books to your customers. You will be hiring them out
on a sale or return basis. Hence the reason for the booking out and
booking in slips. The customer only pays for the books he has sold.
And, of course, he keeps a fair bit of the profit for himself.

Now you must get hold of amateur traders and deliver your unique
selling proposition to them. There are a number of ways to do this.
The easiest is to visit boot sales and talk to the traders.
Alternatively, you could summarise your services on a printed leaflet
and distribute them to boot salers.

A less taxing but more expensive method would be to advertise your
service in a local newspaper. Don't tell them all about it in the
ad: this would cost a lot of money. Simply state that you have a no
risk line of goods available to boot sale and small market traders
on a sale or return basis, and give your telephone number. Explain
it to them when they 'phone, or send them a hand-out.

A good businessman often creates his own market. Don't forget that
many people who have never attended a boot sale in their lives might
be tempted to do so with the right incentive. For example clubs and
charities wanting to raise money could make excellent use of your
services. Why not prepare a special handbill for them? You could
use the business opportunities section of your local paper to attract
people who are looking for a spare time income. Many individuals
would jump at the chance of earning cash at boot sales and markets
if only they could find something to sell. Well, you're offering
just that. And they only pay when they've sold! Who could resist
such an opportunity.

Hopefully, a good many people will resist the opportunity, otherwise
you wouldn't be able to cope. What you're looking for initially is
just a handful of regular, reliable customers.

DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS

Your customers will nearly all want to pick up stock on a Saturday,
so that they can sell it on a Sunday boot sale. It's an ideal
weekend enterprise. When a customer arrives, allow him to select
his own books but don't let him interfere with the contents until
you've filled in the booking out slip.

It will, no doubt, have crossed your mind that it's possible for a
customer to take the books and disappear into the wide blue yonder
for ever. You'll need to take a few precautions against this
possibility. Make sure you have the customer's name and address.
If it's a local person, so much the better. Make sure he or she
signs for the goods.

You may wish to take a deposit, at least for the first dealing you
have with a particular customer. It would not be realistic to take
the retail value of the books but you should have some safeguard
against a crooked customer departing with unsold books and your
share of the takings. Somewhere between œ20 and œ30 would be
appropriate, depending on the value and amount of stock taken.
The deposit should be taken in cash and you should give a receipt
for it.

When the books are returned, book them in as shown in the sample
booking-in sheet. The system we advocating for "at a glance"
valuation should make this a quick and relatively painless task.
Take the difference between the value of the books taken and the
value of the books returned. This is the value of books sold.
Incidentally, it should be explained to customers BEFORE they
take books that any book not returned in saleable condition will
be assumed to be sold. They are entirely responsible for loss
due to theft or accidental damage. You may even wish to get them
to sign an agreement to this effect.

How much does the customer keep? I suggest 40% of takings.
This compares very favourably with the profit most shopkeepers make
on the goods they sell. (Bookshops only keep 35% of their takings,
out of which they have to pay overheads). So you should be paid 60%
of the takings.

In the example above, you can see that the difference between the
value of books which Mr Jones took away from Mr Smith and the value
of those returned was œ225.50. (Mr Jones had a good day: typical
takings would be between œ25 and œ100, but it is perfectly possible
to make much more at a really busy boot sale). Hence Mr Smith,
the proprietor takes œ135.30 and Mr Jones keeps œ90.20. Since Mr
Jones has had to find only the entry fee to the market - anything
between three and eight pound - he should be happy. And Mr Smith
is certainly happy. He's made some money and someone else has done
the work!

Not true, of course. Mr Smith has done quite a lot of work in
setting up and organising the operation. And it doesn't stop when
he pockets his cash. He must now re-sort the returned books.
Fill gaps made by the books which sold and record the new value
of each box. If he's got four or five customers over a weekend
then he'll probably spend a couple of evenings getting everything
shipshape for the next weekend. And he must still keep up the
perpetual hunt for fresh stock.

It's certainly not money for doing nothing. On the other hand the
rewards could be considerable. Just think what it would mean if
every market, boot sale and flea market within a twenty mile radius
had someone selling your books!

HOW TO WHOLESALE NEW PAPERBACKS

In the introduction to this guide I told you about the couple who
run a wholesale book business from their home in the West of
England - we'll call them Joan and Peter. This is a perfectly viable
business proposition (Joan and Peter have been doing this for close
on twenty years) ..... provided you have three essential ingredients:
capital, know-how and the capacity to work very hard indeed. Most
of this section will deal with the know-how part. The hard work is
up to you. But first a word about capital.

RAISING THE CAPITAL

A new book wholesale business is quite different from the low cost
operation described in the first section of this manual. You cannot
start on a 'shoestring'.

One thing you should definitely NOT do is borrow all the money you
need to start business. This is a recipe for ruin. However, with
a new paperback operation, you'll almost certainly need to borrow a
proportion of your opening capital. Most bank managers will listen
sympathetically to a loan request if you can match them pound for
pound. So if you need œ50,000 to start, you'll be expected to have
œ25,000 tucked away yourself.

How do you raise œ25,000? One approach would be to operate the
first business described in this manual for a few years and save
every penny of profit. It takes iron will and determination to
resist the temptation of spending your hard won profits on the things
which make life bearable, but this you must do if you want to raise
capital. And you'll be amazed how fast the money grows if you salt
away every penny in a savings account paying a reasonable rate of
interest.

If you have possessions you could sell, then this would speed up
the capital raising stage. But do be cautious about this. If you
later decide that a new paperback business is not for you, you'll
regret parting with your antique table, your cherished car or your
collection of rare records!

The idea of using a small business to pay for a larger one is by far
the best approach. It makes the fund-raising period enjoyable and
gives you valuable experience of running a business. And if you
operate the second hand paperback business described in Part One,
you'll gain useful knowledge about popular reading tastes which will
stand you in good stead when you move into the big time.

FINDING PREMISES

A garden shed or a spare room is not adequate for your new paperback
wholesale business. You'll need proper warehousing.

The first requirement of any storage building is that it must be
bone dry. A damp atmosphere will ruin books in a very short time.
It should not be too hot: paperback covers curl up at the edges if
they get warm. Preferably your building will include a separate
office which can be heated to a comfortable working temperature,
leaving the actual storage space cool (but not cold).

You'll need good access for vehicles. Most books will arrive by
carrier service and their large vans will have to pull up and unload.
You'll want to easily load and unload your own car or van.

Small factory units such as can be found on industrial estates are
ideal, but not always cheap. If this type of location appeals to
you and you don't mind which area you'll be running your business
in, you could always consider moving to a development area where
there are price incentives for new businesses renting industrial
premises.

Another possibility would be to build a suitable storage shed on
your own land: you'd need to consult with the local council, of
course. If you live in a residential area it's unlikely that they
would sanction the erection of a large brick warehouse on your lawn.
A reasonably-sized garage would be very suitable, provided it was
dry.

If you spend some time combing through the business property section
of your local papers, you should be able to make a shortlist of
suitable premises.

When making your decision, remember that the premises are only used
for storage. You won't be a retail shop, so there's no advantage
to be gained by renting or buying a property in the main shopping
area of a town. You'd not only be paying through the nose for the
location - you'd also have problems with restrictions on deliveries.
Choose a property on the outskirts of town, or even in a rural
location.

With suitable premises found and a lease negotiated, you can now
think about fitting out your warehouse. The main requirement will
be shelving. Metal 'angle iron' is the best system. It's cheap
and easy to erect, and, while it's not much to look at, allows a
very large number o books to be stored in a comparatively small
space. This type of shelving can often be picked up cheaply at
auctions of bankrupt stock or army surplus equipment. Check
'Exchange & Mart' where such auctions are usually advertised.

Very little other equipment will be needed. You could, if you
wished, spend money on word processors, computers, photocopiers
and so on. But there's absolutely no need for all this. Joan and
Peter write their letter and invoices by hand with a biro and never
seem to need a photocopier.

I do, however, recommend that you obtain a decent electric
typewriter (you'll see why shortly). You should be able to pick
one up quite cheaply second hand, since most people are trading
in their machines for word processors. A second hand filing cabinet
would be useful, as would an old table or desk for you to work at.
A larger table or bench for sorting, packing and unpacking books
is absolutely essential.

Don't spend more than a few pounds on office equipment. Forget
what it looks like. You don't need to impress anyone. Your capital
is earmarked for one thing and one thing only: STOCK. Let's see
how you set about getting hold of it.

FINDING STOCK

You're looking for books and books are produced by publishers.
So your next step is to contact publishers. There are very few
paperback publishers in this country. Most of them are subsidiaries
of the large hardback publishers and mergers and take-overs are
common. To make it more complicated, most publishers have different
imprints for their various types of paperback. For example Penguin
Books call their children's paperbacks "Puffin Books" and some of
their non fiction "Pelican Books". Imprints are continually
changing as well. However, at the time of writing, the following
are the major imprints used by British Paperback Publishers:

Penguin (Puffin and Pelican), Pan, Grafton, Corgi, Methuen, NEL
(New English Library), Arrow, Sphere, Futura, Coronet, Headline,
Granada.

No addresses have been given for the reasons given above. To find
their addresses you refer to a publication called "British Books
in Print". This is available on microfiche at the larger Public
Library Departments. "BBIP" includes a list of all UK Publishers,
together with the address and telephone number of their trade
departments.

You will almost certainly find that several firms have the same
address or the trade department. This might be because they have
a common ownership or two separate firms might use the same
distribution and warehousing company. The book world is a complex
organism.

Having located your potential suppliers, you need to contact
them. This should be done via a neatly typed letter (hence the
electric typewriter) on your own quality printed letterhead.

It's essential to convey a professional image to your suppliers,
so spend money on some really good business stationery.

It would be wise to register for VAT before ordering your
stationery. A successful wholesale business will easily turn
over the œ22,500 minimum for VAT registration, and you'll need
to do it eventually. If you can put your VAT number on your
stationery at the outset it will add that touch of professionalism
to your correspondence. Readers will be reassured that they're
dealing with a bona fide businessman.

Spend some time planning your letter to the publishers. It is
not enough to simply state your intention to wholesale books and
ask for maximum discount. Publishers will want to be convinced
that you have a really viable business plan before supplying you
with goods on credit. They'll want to know about your proposed
market, your likely turnover, your credit worthiness and so on.
They'll want trade references, bank references, accountant
s references .....none of which you'll have at the outset.

You will have studied your proposed market, of course. The next
section of the guide deals with that in detail. Your likely
turnover will be a guess until you start to trade. Your credit
worthiness can only be established by actually proving you are
worthy of credit by paying bills on the nail. On the face of it,
it would seem that you have very little to offer.

Fortunately, one feature of your letter will make the publishers
warm to your proposition. This will be the bit where you state
that you are prepared to pay cash in advance for books, until your
market and turnover are more predictable. This is why you need
so much opening capital, of course. Without this you are unlikely
to get any publisher to take any notice of you. You can offer
bankers references and character references to support your
application, but it will be the payment in advance which wins
the day!

Finish the letter by asking what wholesale trade terms can be
obtained, and say that you would welcome a visit from their
representative.

There are several possible responses to your letter. One is that
the publisher may not wish to deal with you. There's very little
you can do about this. And it's not absolutely essential to carry
all publishers books. Furthermore, once you've established yourself,
the chances are that the publishers who turn you down in the first
place will be eager to trade.

A more likely response is that your offer to pay cash in advance
is accepted and trade terms are offered subject to a minimum order.
This might simply be expressed bas a total retail value, or it might
include a requirement to buy a minimum number of each title. The
publishers trade list will be included and an order form. You can
start ordering your opening stock.

Another possibility is that you will receive a telephone call from
the publisher's representative, asking for an appointment. This
is the best option since reps are usually keen to move stock, and
will often arrange credit for you from the word go.

A word about credit terms. If you are fortunate enough to be
granted these right from the start, you'll have a chance to sell
some of your stock before you need to pay the bills. Monthly
credit is normal in the book trade, which means that a bill dated
in, say, September, will be payable on or before 31st October.
If the timing is right you can get almost two months free credit.

It's vital for your good name, to pay your bills promptly. On
the other hand, don't pay them before the due date. It won't
improve your standing, and will keep your money in your own account
for as long as possible.

If you are not awarded credit terms right away, then it would be
reasonable to ask for them after trading on a cash in advance
basis for a couple of months.

Back to the books. What kind of books should you order. Before
answering this question, you should have a very clear idea of
your proposed market. What kinds of shops will you be selling
your books to? Will they be newsagents requiring a few best sellers,
or bookshops looking for a wider range of stock? In the months
of planning this project, you should take time touring your proposed
area and investigating likely markets. Spend time browsing in
shops and noting their stock, see what the customer's are asking
for, watch out for the dog-eared titles that have clearly been in
the shop for a long time.

Your final choice may be divided into three classes.

First will be the standard titles. These are books which always
sell, year after year. They include authors such as Agatha
Christie, Catherine Cookson, Frederick Forsyth, Dick Francis,
Stephen King, James Herbert, James Herriot, Miss Read ...... the
list is a long one, and new names are added as time goes by.
You'll need plenty of standard titles whatever your proposed
market.

Second will be current best sellers. These can be found by
inspecting the top ten charts in the Sunday newspapers. They
are continually changing and you'll need to be continually abreast
of them. Incidentally, the publishers you deal with will work
hard to convince you that all their new titles are destined for
the top ten charts. You might be swayed by their arguments to the
extent of ordering several hundred copies of a new and untested
book. Don't! Let others do the experimenting. Stick to the top
ten, or top twenty best selling paperbacks and you'll be alright.

Third class is the more specialist type of book, which is selected
to appeal to particular shops in your chosen market. For example,
if you wish to supply book shops, you'll need a broader range of
titles, and these should include the classics (Dickens, Hards,
Thackery, Austen, Brontes and so on), modern classics ( H E Bates,
Evelyn Waugh etc.), quality modern fiction in the 'classier'
imprints, non fiction (biography, politics, science, travel etc.).
You may decide to sell books to health food shops, where a
selection of books on organic food, vegetarian cookery and health
topics would be appropriate.

What quantities should you order? Before deciding this matter
you should make sure that you get 'see safe' terms. 'See safe'
is the book trade term for 'sale or return'. It usually applies
only to credit account customers, so the sooner you can get an
account the better. It works like this. You order load of books
and pay for them by the due date. After a couple of months you
decide that certain ones of these books will never sell. Box them
up and send them back to the publisher - or give them to the rep
when he calls. The value of the returned books will be deducted
from your next invoice.

There's usually a limit to the amount of books you are allowed to
return, perhaps five or ten per cent. But it's a great help and
does encourage you to be a little more adventurous when ordering.
If you can't get 'see safe' right away, you'll probably be all
right when you become a credit account customer: in which case the
books which you ordered originally and couldn't sell can then be
returned.

The number of books your order will depend on the number of shops
you'll be selling to. Of course this will be an unknown quantity
when you place your first orders. You will, however, have made a
list of likely customers in your chosen area. You have to start
somewhere, so assume that one shop out of five agrees to deal with
you from the start. Naturally, you'll hoe for more shops to join
your customer list as times goes by and your reputation grows, but
start by being pessimistic. Pessimism is a useful attribute in
business!

If you have located 200 likely looking shops in your area, you
will therefore imagine 40 customers. For standard titles get one
copy per shop. Paperbacks usually come "shrink wrapped" in tens,
twenties or fifties. With really popular standard authors like
Agatha Christie, you can often buy a shrink wrapped pack containing
ten or twenty mixed titles.

For current best sellers increase to two or three per shop. If
this sounds a little conservative, let me assure you that people
do not queue up in hundreds to buy a book, however popular. Any
shopkeeper would rather sell three and be asked for another than
sell three and have one left over. In any case, you'll be paying
frequent visits to your customers so they can always be topped up.

The quantity of specialist stock to buy will be a matter for your
own judgement. However, the rules of thumb proposed above will
probably work reasonably well in this case as well.

Having placed your initial order, you'll probably have to wait two
or three weeks for the books to arrive. When they do there's one
small job to do before going out to sell them. Place a discrete
pencil mark inside the back cover of each book. The mark could be
your initials, or some other mark which has meaning to you. This
will serve to identify the book as having been supplied by you.

This done, it's time to go out and sell.

ON THE ROAD

It's now just a matter of loading your books into the car or van,
and driving from town to town finding customers. This is the stage
where a thick skin will be required, since many potential customers
will refuse to deal with you - politely or otherwise. This is a
reaction which, salesmen quickly become used to : they know only
to well they will get nine 'nos' for every one 'yes'.

As you walk around the towns keep an eye open for new shops opening.
New businesses are often looking for suppliers, and if you catch them
at the right time, you may be able to attract a large opening-stock
order.

The only way to get a customer is to walk into the shop and ask.
It's a waste of time writing or telephoning. You must meet your
client face to face. Pick a time when the shop isn't too busy, and
the manager or proprietor has time to speak to you. Tell him that
you're a wholesaler of books. You give standard discount (one third)
and offer see-safe terms. Would he like to give you a try? Quickly
point out that you're not seeking to usurp his regular suppliers,
merely to offer a "top up" service. The chances are that he's out
of a few best sellers, or wouldn't mind a bare shelf filled with
popular standards.

If he says no, that's the end of it. For the time being at least.
Thank him for his time, shake his hand, smile and depart. In a
couple of months you'll go back and try again. Then again.
Eventually he'll be so impressed with your persistence that he'll give
you an order.

If he says yes, then bring in your books. Now there are two ways of
doing this, both of which are used quite successfully by wholesalers.
You can either show a large selection of your stock and leave the
books your customer selects together with the invoice. Or you can
bring just one copy of ech book you are selling, and take an order,
returning later in the week with the actual books.

giveeachProbably you'll favour the second method, since this provides
your customer with an instant supply of stock: this may be the
very reason he agreed to deal with you.

Having supplied the books, you'll need to make out an invoice (bill).
This is how you do it. Place the books in piles according to their
retail price. Then take out your invoice book, which is a duplicate
book available from any stationer. The pages are numbered, so you
can readily identify each invoice.

Let's assume that you've sold six books with a face value of œ3.50,
ten with a value of œ2.99, three at œ4.99 and ten at œ4.50. Your
invoice would look like this:
:INVOICE
DATE

TO: (Customers name and address)
FROM: ( Your name and address)
SUPPLY OF BOOKS:

6 @ 3.50 21.00
10 @ 2.99 29.90
3 @ 4.99 14.97
10 @ 4.50 45.00

SUB TOTAL 110.87
LESS DISCOUNT 33.33% 36.96

FINAL TOTAL 73.91

Payment will fall due at the end of the following month. However,
you may prefer to operate a credit system whereby you collect the
money due to you during one of your regular visits. You may, fo
r example, call once every two weeks, and on the second visit in a
month, collect payment for supplies made during the previous month.

You will, of course, be expected to take returns. Before accepting
a return you'll glance at the back of the book to see that your mark
is there. If it isn't don't reject the book out of hand. You might
be able to place it with one of your other customers, or you might be
able to include it with your own returns to that publisher. If there
is any way at all you can dispose of the book without cost to
yourself, accept it. This will build up your goodwill considerably.

You will sometimes have problems getting your money, usually because
the shop is going through a sticky patch. The way you deal with this
is very much a personal matter between you and your customer, so no
advice will be offered here.

That's about it. May you be successful in your chosen enterprise.