For Publishers
FAP offers two valuable services for publishers who wish to participate in co-operative
marketing of their books:
Since 1998 we have been holding regular, highly acclaimed and very successful co-op
mailings, on a quarterly basis (March, June, September, December.) Fliers submitted
by our partners are sent by First Class mail with an attractive commemorative stamp,
four per envelope, to Acquisition Librarians by name or to Professors teaching specific
courses utilizing the best lists available. This quality approach assures the mailing
reaches the correct ordering librarian, avoiding a pre-sifting (and often disposal)
of fliers that takes place by mailroom staff when large numbers of fliers arrive
to a generic library address in one Third Class envelope. After your flier reaches
the individual who does the ordering¾your flier will have to win its battle for
orders on its own merits. We ourselves participate in every mailing.
We also offer a b/w Xeroxing service if the master copy of your flier reaches us
a fortnight before our mailing dates, as our copy shop’s .07 per click could make
it cheaper to have your job Xeroxed here especially if you have to ship heavy cartons
across the country. If interested remit the following additional charges: .07 per
side, 7% FL tax, plus $20 for two hours labor (one side, $30 if the flier is double-sided)
for the 1000-1500-page jobs, or $40 or $50 for the 3,000 flier jobs. (These jobs
are done on the default white paper; Ultrabrite paper is $12.99 per ream more; Xerox
pastel colors are $5.99 per ream, all plus tax.)
We accept Amex/Visa/MC and do not deposit checks or charge cards until a foursome
of participants (a circuit) is completed. The "prepayment" requirement is the only
mess-free way that we know of assuring circuits have a foolproof guarantee of going
out. None of us would like to hear just before a mailing that we counted upon, that
it couldn’t go out because a listmate who hadn't prepaid changes their mind. Being
a co-op effort, the total cost of a mailing is divided by four, and that is the
price of participation.
Fliers may be single or double-sided, black and white or color, on coated stock
or not, but not of heavy 100 pound stock. If in doubt on weight send us a sample
flier or a page of the stock. We will try to accommodate you as well as we can,
but remember that there are limits as to what a 41-cent stamp can carry! Ship the
fliers flat unless you can get them trifolded for free.
If you’d like some pointers on flier design, we have assembled assortments of twelve
fliers we have handled in the past that we can mail you for fifteen .41c stamps,
or twenty-four fliers for twenty stamps. If you specify the kind of flier that interests
you (e.g. fiction/non-fiction, or col/b&w) we’ll try to match your desire as best
we can.
The following are the core mailings we undertake every quarter:
- Public Libraries: the largest/richest (min. $100,000 in their non-reference
book budget & a $800,000 overall book budget). Only main library HQ’s—i.e. no branches
are included. 1125 fliers, $350 (Do NOT join this mailing if you are planning to
join the larger No. 2 below.)
- Public Libraries: the nation's largest 3,000 libraries. (Only main
library HQ’s--no branch libraries are included). 3,000 fliers, $675. Do NOT join
this one if you will be mailing to No. 1 above. This mailing offers a comprehensive
marketing to the library world.
- Senior College Libraries: all four-year universities and the 160-odd
largest junior Colleges in the nation minus specialty colleges (Bible colleges,
Dental/Medical schools etc.) 1250 fliers, $400.
- Junior College Libraries: all those with over 1,000 in student
registrations. The top 160-odd community colleges are not included here - see (3)
above. 1,500 fliers, $375.
- Canada & Overseas university/college libraries: 320 fliers, of
which 150 are mailed to Canada, the rest to most institutions in the UK, Europe,
Israel, Asia, Africa and Australasia, $200. NOTE: This mailing requires lightweight
fliers (20-24 lb. stock max.)
- Bible Colleges (500 fliers, $140.): Bible colleges are not included
in (3) above.
- Children's Book Collection Librarians (by name) in Public Libraries
3,000 fliers, $675.
- Our college Profs mailings vary slightly from quarter to quarter.
Write in for an up to date list. But we usually mail to: (a) 1000 professors teaching
American Literature (b) 1000 teaching US History (c) 1,000 teaching Parenting in
General Psychology courses (d) 1000 teaching Business Studies (e) 1000 teaching
Teacher Educatin (early Childhood) and (f) 1000 teaching American Politics. Also
(g) our biannual 650 professors in African/Africana Studies.
All the above are $275 each.
If you
have not marketed to Professors before, note that apart from ordering for themselves
they also do for their college library, and for class use. One class adoption can
cover your entire mailing cost, but conversely you may fail to make a single sale!
We are often asked how often one should mail to libraries. There is no set answer,
though we would argue at least two mailings at a minimum IF you have correctly identified
libraries as a prime market for your book. Based on our experience, and that of
many of our mailing partners, repeat mailings (even of backlists) trigger new sales,
and these inexpensive co-op mailings are ideal for marketing purposes. Needless
to say, not every participant’s marketing efforts will trigger a flood of library
orders and you should have realistic expectations of your book’s prospects, but
we have had members who have scored over 20% order rates in the June 2004 mailing
one member scored over 25% orders, and another reported more sales than in the past
ten years.
Foreign publishers are more than welcome. To date we have handled publishers from
England, Croatia, South Africa, Italy, Netherlands, Israel, Australia, Malaysia,
Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. (I do not consider Canadian publishers as “foreign”
J ) I’d be happy to assist anyone with personal advice about the idiosyncrasies
of US libraries, college and public.
Bookstore Mailings
In 2001 we initiated several mailings to independent bookstores (i.e. not to the
chains, such as B&N, Borders, BAM etc. that select/order books for their stores
in a different manner) and have continued them since. Penetrating bookstores is
far more difficult than selling to libraries, but with Ingram clamping down on small
publishers these mailings are one of the few options available to you. Two of our
partners attained spectacular success in our March 2004 mailing, one selling thousands
of books solely as a result of the mailing. Be aware, though, that I am sure that
many others have not placed a single title of theirs in bookstores…
The mailings are (a) to the 1,500 largest independent bookstores, and cost $375
and (b) to 150 Canadian Indies at $100, with fliers for the latter on thin stock
please. We offer the same Xeroxing facilities as with fliers aimed at the library
market.
Preregistration and Payment
If interested in participating be aware that we close registration at least a month
before the mailings are scheduled. Contact us immediately with details of the mailings
you are interested and your credit card details. Time allowing we are happy to accept
also checks.
Florida Academic Press also acts as fulfillment agent for a number of small publishers,
domestic as well as foreign. We offer an extremely economical and competitive service.
Services That We Offer
- We accommodate small (or partial) press runs of a publisher’s books in air-conditioned
facilities for purposes of filling orders. A basic axiom is never to print more
stock than one can realistically expect to sell in one year. We accommodate stock
on that principle, and ask that you send as many or as few as you expect to sell
through us in one year. If necessary, and purely as a service to our partners we
can make provision for larger press runs. Note, however, that in the latter case
we are really providing you with storage facilities, and not fulfillment services.
- We do not request exclusivity in filling orders for you. You can promote your books
as much as you wish with your company address, as well as fill orders yourself.
- We man toll-free phone lines, and accept orders via fax and E-mail from individual
buyers, libraries, on-line and brick & mortar bookstores, and wholesalers and jobbers,
and via a shopping cart from your own web site. You insert our Email and Tel/fax
numbers in your catalogs, sell-sheets, fliers, and news releases, and publicize
our toll-free numbers during signings and seminars.
- As payment for such orders we accept checks, money orders and credit cards¾Visa,
MasterCard, American Express¾and in the case of direct orders from public and college
libraries (ONLY), we also accept, and follow up, on Purchase Orders.
- In accord with our own publishing business model we do not extend credit on your
behalf (in the form of open orders), and with the sole exception mentioned above
(most libraries are prohibited by law from prepaying for purchases) we request prepayment
from all customers. Returns are only accepted in the case of defects.
- We can also ship books from the stock we hold on your behalf, at your request, as
when you have received (or will receive) payment directly from a customer, bypassing
us. Our commissions will be the same, but please note we cannot process credit card
payments for orders that we do not ship ourselves.
- All orders are expertly filled and dispatched within 24 hours, by normal surface
mail, unless the customer expressly requests, and pays for, a different mode of
delivery. Shipping is normally added to the cost of the order.
- We maintain separate, detailed ledger accounts for each partner, and issue statements
of sales made, together with payment for these sales minus commission and shipping
costs, on a monthly basis no matter how small the sum may be, six weeks in arrears.
Services That We Do Not Offer
-
We do not offer manned 7/24-phone service and unlimited lines (highly unnecessary,
and that by itself increases the cost of fulfillment by over 50%). Our operating
hours are 09:00-18:00 EST weekdays, and 09:00-noon Saturdays. After hours orders
are handled via voice mail that is monitored and processed every few hours. Orders
arriving after hours or on weekends are STILL filled by the first weekday.
- We do
not accept orders that are not accompanied by prepayment, except in the case of
libraries and their Purchase Orders, or by special requests from publishers who
have made direct sales on their own. Normal commissions and postage accrue in these
cases.
- We prefer not to accept print runs over 1,000 unless a publisher reasonably
expects to sell at least half of this stock within the following 12 months.
- In case
of larger deliveries we need a longer lead-time to arrange for the placement of
your books, and it is possible that our facilities may be full, so contact us a.s.a.p.
- Should you need primarily storage space (for a larger run than you can expect to
sell expeditiously) let us know of this openly since we are able to secure alternate
and cheaper facilities for you (also air conditioned and insured) though storage
costs would have to be paid quarterly and in advance.
Our Fees
- We have a one-time set-up fee of $125 to cover all the phone, stationary, ledger,
printing and other changes involved when a new Press joins our fulfillment operations.
(This set-up fee is per publisher, irrespective the number of books or titles you
place with us.) Apart from this fee we have absolutely none of the small nuisance
extras, such as pallet charges, monthly fees, restocking or warehousing extras etc.
that easily build up into a hefty monthly charge with other fulfillment agencies.
The only other charge is the fulfillment commission.
-
Our commission on all books that we ship out of our facilities (whether on orders
received by us, or at the request of the publisher) is only 20% of list price per
book, with a minimum of $4.50 in case of books priced less than $19.95. In the case
of very expensive books (over $50.00) we have a sliding scale commission.
Additional Conditions
-
The shipping and handling charges are $3.75 per book (paperback or hardcover), with
$1.75 for every subsequent copy. These charges should be listed in your marketing
materials, and will be invoiced in all orders received.
- In case of publishers who
wish to extend to customers free shipping, the fore-mentioned shipping and handling
charges will have to deducted from the publisher’s accounts receivable.
- We know
the limitations that many publishers face in marketing their titles, and hence do
not impose any monthly “inactivity” charges. However, since our fixed costs are
the same irrespective the number of orders placed for a title, and to prevent our
services from becoming purely warehousing ones:
-
We require a minimum level of sales per month to cover our costs through the commissions
we levy. The minimum number of orders required of all accounts is a truly low 20
copies per month. To accommodate spikes and lulls in sales we are happy to average
out orders over two months.
-
Publishers who do not attain this level of orders (40 copies every two months) will
have to be assessed monthly storage charges for their stock, to be deducted from
our monthly payments for their sales. (The fee depends upon the size of the print
run we are holding for you, the larger the stock, the higher the fee.) Truly slow-moving
stock may well trigger payment requests on our part rather than payments from us
to you.
-
This condition does not apply to press runs we accept as “storage accounts” since
stock is held in a different facility. Your only charges here would be the monthly
storage fee to which credits would be applied as sales accrue.
-
A publisher whose sales are lagging might wish to spark additional sales by participating
in one of our quarterly (March, June, September, December) co-op mailings to public
and college libraries, or to Indie bookstores and professors. New Fulfillment customers
benefit from a 20% discount on our popular mailing to 3,000 public libraries if
they register for the next mailing immediately upon joining our Fulfillment Services.
How to Join
Should you wish to utilize our fulfillment services, send us a letter/fax or Email.
Include such data as your full contact address, and details about your books, list
price, trim size, if they are paperback or hardcover, approximate weight and the
date you are thinking of having stock transferred to us. We will then contact you
and suggest a time for a phone discussion so that all your queries can be addressed.
Prior to shipping your books to us we would appreciate receiving four copies of
your book for insertion in the staff catalog our fulfillment people refer to whenever
a customer requires additional information about any title that we carry, and for
customizing our padded shipping envelopes. The books should be shipped together
with the set-up fee, if possible two weeks before the main shipment arrives.
The agreement to have us as your Fulfillment agents can be freely terminated at
ten days notice, except in the case of “storage” customers who may need to provide
90 days notice on their 3-month storage contracts.