Don’t Wait for Demand—Create It!
We all know that demand drives prices in out-of-print books and drives sales of new books, too, but how many of us realize that we can work to create demand? Let me take my example from my own bookstore.
Dog Ears Books in Northport, Michigan, has a small but concentrated selection of books on agriculture, both new and used. Farming might seem a strange specialty for a bookstore that survives year to year on the seasonal influx vacationers, but while it’s true that many more people walk into the store looking for summer beach reading, farming is near and dear to my heart, and I want to have a part in promoting sustainable agricultural practices. If this seems far-out and irrelevant to your store, think of your own favorite category, which might be easier to boost than mine. The question is still, how to do it?
It’s been a quiet afternoon with the last two hours completely to myself, the sky is turning an ominous grey-black colour, the small hand is moving closer to the five, and I start busying myself with pack-up. Switch off the music, the heating, pack my mobile in my pocket, and the front door swings open. In come a woman, a man, two small children, and a request, “Can we bring our dog in? He’ll bark if we leave him outside.” Wondering what they do at the supermarket, I agree that it’s okay if he stays on his lead, and I sit back down, glance discretely at my watch, and surreptitiously flick the heating back on. The kids run to the children’s section and start going through the toy-box, the dad sits down and opens his paper, and the mum disappears with the dog down the fiction aisle.