Books Nearby Books Nearby proposal update 10.9.18 A | Seite 5

Marketing & Sales Details
Creative marketing and sales will generate early revenue
• Advertising within the book
• Advance bulk sales
• Internet site to support per copy sales & generate its own income
Advertising within books
Many readers that feel books for sale to the public, unlike subscription publications, newspapers and
magazines, are not a place for advertisements or printed promotions. Historically, book publishers
haven’t felt that constraint. Books published in the 19 th century, for example, often included pages of
advertisements, usually at the end of the book. For a time in the 1970s, some mass-market paperback
publishers included full-page ads, even in new literary works, for items including cigarettes and
clothing.
Aesthetics and personal tastes aside, the question of whether to include ads or paid promotions boils
down to this: would it depress sales? I can find no studies or other evidence of that. Ads in a
publication aren’t considered a hindrance to selling magazines, directories, catalogs, or guidebooks.
If the book has material readers want, then an ad placed discreetly in the end pages, maybe on inside
covers, shouldn’t deter buyers.
That’s not to say ads would be placed in every copy of a book published by Books Nearby. But for the
appropriate fee, one that’s profitable for Books Nearby and agreeable with the advertiser, a portion of
a print run, from hundreds to thousands of copies, could include ads. Those might be custom-printed,
promotional copies that a retail business, hospitality company, or a real estate firm could then
distribution to their customers, guests, renters, and buyers.
This will require more thought and research to determine how an ad might be included, where it
would be located in the book, and what would be the appropriate rate. Most of us in the Books
Nearby project have extensive experience with advertising sales and production in magazines, so we
know the general way forward on this.
Advance bulk sales
We would also market and take orders on books well in advance of publication, as is practiced
commonly today in publishing.
Larger Nantucket real estate companies, for example, welcome hundreds of renters throughout the
extended season. They prepare “hospitality” bags to distribute when renters arrive. Those bags
typically include maps, local magazines, passes to local tourist attractions, and events. I foresee
procuring orders for dozens of copies of our books to be distributed in those bags. The same concept
would apply to attendees at conferences, wedding parties, and business customers (a local company
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