American Express, Merchant Accounts Court Very Small Businesses

By Sheyna Galyan, Yaldah Publishing

If you sell books directly to your customers, which generally is considered a Good Idea, you probably have a merchant account. And if you don’t yet have one, getting one can make the difference between making a sale and accumulating inventory. Let’s face it, we live in a world of credit, and credit cards are the payment of choice for most buyers.

How you get one and from whom, though, is a whole different story. PMA: The Independent Book Publishers Association offers an attractive merchant account through a partner bank, provided you make enough sales each month. If you use Quick Books or Quicken for your accounting, Intuit also offers a competitive merchant account, and when I compared the two, based on my projected sales, Intuit actually came out ahead. But ahead still wasn’t great, because I had monthly sales minimums to meet and when your business is as small as mine is, the fees can hurt.

Pro Pay

Enter ProPay, an online merchant account made just for the very small business. No monthly fees, no minimums and you can accept Visa, M/C, Amex and Discover. There’s an annual fee of $59 for a Premium Account, which averages out to $5/month, a big improvement over the standard $20+ for other merchant accounts. The catch is that you have processing limits, $500 for a single transaction, $3000 for a single calendar month. For a higher annual fee, you can choose an account with higher ceilings.

The transaction fees are slightly higher, compatible with PayPal, though with ProPay you can process via the Internet by keying in cards or process by telephone. I invested in a Bartizan 4850 credit card imprinter ($20 with s/h on eBay) and a custom imprinter name plate ($4 on eBay) and take that to shows, fairs, or other places where I can sell direct. Cards are imprinted on sales slips that came with my imprinter and I key them into ProPay when I get home. That’s not a feature PayPal allows.

For more information on ProPay, visit http://www.propay.com/.

American Express

But then I had a problem with American Express. Although I could accept Amex through ProPay, Amex added its own charge, a flat fee of nearly $6 per month for the honor of allowing customers to pay with their card. Transaction fees were included, but that doesn’t help when one had no Amex charges each month. This applied to every business making less than $5000 in Amex card sales in the previous twelve months.

For some businesses that may be pocket change, but when you’re a very small indie, every expense better prove its worth. This one did not, considering that in eleven months, I’d only had one customer choose to use an Amex card. When I called to have them cancel my account, they told me about a new program just for very small businesses.

It’s called American Express Micro and it works like this. As long as you make less than $2000 in Amex card sales within the previous twelve months, American Express Micro charges no fees at all other than a 1% processing fee per transaction. That’s it. If you go eleven months with no Amex sales and then a customer uses an Amex card for a $300 purchase, Amex takes $3 and you get the rest. Period.

Should you go over $2000 in Amex card sales in a year, they’ll change your account to the Flat Fee, and should you maintain more than $5000 in Amex card sales in a year, you can bypass the flat fee and pay only the regular discount percentage.

Since American Express developed Micro to attract and keep very small businesses as merchants, despite the fact that they may actually lose money on this deal, they don’t advertise it. You have to call them and ask for American Express Micro. For me, it’s well worth saving $6 each month and still offering Amex to my customers. And for businesses who don’t yet accept Amex because of the high costs involved, this might be the answer.

News From Our Members, August 2007

• Lutheran University Press, Leonard Flachman, owner and publisher, recently published the “Study Document of the Lutheran­ Roman Catholic Commission on Unity.” Titled The Apostolicity of the Church, the book is published under the auspices of the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In late June, Leonard received an acknowledgment of the book from His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.
  

• Lutheran University Press also just published the book And Grace Will Lead Me Home about Jerry Evenrud's Prodigal Son art collection. The collection, with pieces dating from the 1500s to 2005, is said to the be world's largest on the Prodigal Son. More than 100 pieces are reproduced in the book.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a full page review on Saturday, June 23. The Lutheran, a 600,000+ circulation denominational periodical, ran a 2/3 page review in its July issue. The Lutheran usually reviews one book and one video on 1/3 page. The New York Gallery, Museum of Biblical Art, will open a five month exhibit of some of the pieces in Jerry's collection beginning with a reception on October 3. There will be another New York reception in the Trump Towers on Saturday, October 6. Lutheran University Press is an imprint of Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis.

Alibris Promoting "Alibris Basics for Publishers"

By Leonard Flachman, Kirkhouse Publishers

Alibris is promoting a new marketing program to publishers. On the surface it sounds pretty good. The initial registration fee of $19.95 allows you to list 1000 books. Alibris takes $1.00 and 15% for each book sold. On a $10.00 book that is 25%, which is better than the bookstore or Amazon discounts. The order is forwarded to the publisher (seller) who fills it. They say they will forward money to the publisher monthly.

So far, so good. But, it is not quite what it appears.

The term "seller" is the key word. I searched for one of my titles on Alibris. It is listed 15 times from 15 different sellers. If I list that title with Alibris Basics program, I will be the 16th seller to list that title. Only if someone chooses to order from my listing will the order be forwarded to me. If they click on the book listed by another of the 15 sellers, the order will be forwarded to that seller.

If you want to explore, enter Sturgis Stories under title on Alibris’ website, http://www.alibris.com/. That is one of my titles. Scroll down. Look at the seller identification for each entry or listing. Each is different. Each of those sellers has listed my title there; I did not. Look at the great price variation for a book with a retail price of $24.95.

If you have three or four titles that are not listed on Alibris by another seller, it is a relatively inexpensive way to get broader catalog exposure. That will be especially true if Alibris is going to do some promotion after adding new titles through this program. But if your title is already listed by a dozen other sellers, I don't know what the response will be to your specific seller entry.

When this notice from Alibris came, I had some questions and sent them an email. I received specific answers to my questions almost immediately, and they followed up with a telephone call. In the world of book marketers, this is unusual.

Explore the Alibris program; it might be right for you.

Remembering Jan Nathan

By Pat Bell, Cats-paw Press

Jan Nathan has left us. It’s hard for me to believe that she’s gone. I was dimly aware of her name back in 1988 when I first became a PMA member. I had a little contact with her over the next couple of years as I reported to PMA on our MIPA membership.

But it was 1994 when I actually met her. She and then-PMA president Jerry Marino came here to present a MIPA program. We had dinner and I transported them to the meeting. I was impressed with her warmth and energy at that time.

That was when I also learned of the online community that PMA had with its mailing list. It was a big list, lively and informative, and Jan was a frequent contributor, friendly and informative. I began to get a sense of what PMA was trying to do for its members.

I discovered that PMA’s Publishing University, always held just before the annual huge book convention, known then as the American Booksellers Association Trade Show and later as BookExpo America, was in reality a must-do event in the life of a neophyte publisher. I attended Publishing University (Jan was most insistent that it NOT be known as P-U) for several years, continuing my education as a small publisher.

Those events are commonly attended by several hundred people and I was frequently astonished by how many of the attendees, the presenters and the vendors Jan knew. And those she hadn’t met she treated with the same warmth of old friends. I was always fascinated with the range of experts and adepts who came to share their experience and expertise with attendees. She was warm and accessible if you needed help.

One of the things that struck me in the old days of the PMA-L mailing list was that it was really a community, albeit most had never met one another. Yet the culture of the list was that of people with common interests, with the suspicion and wariness that seems to come in industries where competition is sometimes fiercely intense. But I didn’t see that competitiveness there, nor in the lists that arose out of it.

MIPA and Minnesota have had a connection with her, too, for nearly 20 years, from about 1992 when a MIPA member, Vince Spadaccini, became a PMA board member. In 1996, Don Tubesing went onto the board, served his four years (and later returned for a two-year term as President). When Don’s term ended in 2000, I went on for four years, and in 2005, Carlene Sippola took my spot.

But Jan’s value to the small press/independent press world became vividly apparent to me during my term on the board. There I truly came to appreciate her incredible connections throughout the publishing world – and not only the U.S. I’m sure she had a major hand in selecting candidates for each new board term, and the people tapped all had particular skills, connections and expertise that contributed toward the growth of PMA. (Consider that in 1980, its parent was a small organization in California much like MIPA. Now its membership numbers over 4,000 and can be found in Canada and the United Kingdom as well. That simply doesn’t happen without somebody’s guiding insights and energy.)

Jan was a person of diverse interests. She was an excellent bridge player and I recall one time she spoke of playing bridge online with Warren Buffett.

She was the mother of six sons, including a set of twins, which probably explains her skill in keeping track of things and thinking ahead.

Her vision extended to her company, which was the formal manager for PMA. For several years, her son Terry has been her second-in-command and he stepped up to the job when Jan became ill last fall. Because he is Jan’s son and because she trained him well, I feel good that he is now Executive Director.

Was Jan Nathan somebody special? You bet she was! I’ll always remember her kindnesses to me, her warmth, her intelligence, her amazing memory, and her energy. Our publishing world owes much to her.

Jan, we miss you. As Douglas Adams said, “Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.”

Is There a Smarter Way to Publish?

Rudy Shur of Square One Press thinks so, as do Robert Rosenwald of Poisoned Pen Press, travel writer and marketing expert Pam Swarz, and a growing number of other publishers.

The old publishing style is the one with which we’re all familiar: sign a great manuscript, pour everything you can into national pre- and postpublication marketing, announce a huge release, watch the book hopefully fly off bookstore shelves and out of Internet store warehouses for a few months, give it a few more months to a year to die a quiet death, and relegate it to remainders or out of print (OOP) status within 24 months.

But unless you happen to be sitting on top of the eighth Harry Potter book, this approach just isn’t costeffective—or very smart, according to Shur—for most independent publishers.

So what is the smarter way to publish?

There are two types of publishers, Shur explains. The old publishing style is the frontlist publisher, focusing only on the new releases. Backlist books, if not taken out of print, are stuck in small print in the back of the catalog. The smart publishing style is the backlist publisher.

The backlist publisher is focused not only on new releases, but also on backlist titles continuing to sell well over years. Certain types of books, such as children’s titles, fiction, history, biography, and memoir among others, rarely become obsolete. They will always be new to someone, to children growing into the target reading age or to adults discovering interests in your subject matter. The backlist publisher doesn’t relegate backlist titles; the backlist publisher re-energizes them and continues to sell them successfully for years.

But how? There are four basic areas to consider:

Catalog

First, don’t put older books in the back. Provide a photo of the cover and author, the author’s bio, all of the information you’d provide for a newer release except the pub date. The point is to not draw attention to how old the book is, but to present it in a new way, to attract the interest of people who haven’t seen it before. It’s a new book to those people.

Second, consider a series of similar type books or related topics. Or create a mini catalog tailored to a specific holiday, time of year, topic, or other niche and send it out to your regular mailing list, promoting all books in the mini catalog equally, no matter how old or new.

Marketing

It’s most important to get creative. Use non-selling books as promos. Create a book of the month club for your readers and use older books interspersed with newer ones. Consider from the onset of publication how you might market that book years from now, including a revision and update schedule. Develop strategic partners.

Use technology. This can mean having the author submit articles on a related topic in both online and print journals and magazines. Help your author(s) build a platform, including increasing their credibility and speaking opportunities. Build an optimized website. Write a blog and offer spots for guest writers or interview other authors. Write book reviews.

Take advantage of secondary markets such as book fairs, conventions, excerpts in related magazines, and well-placed advertising.

Readers

The first rule is to know your audience. Build a base of readers, not only of your books but also of your website and/or blog. Attend conventions that your readers attend. Offer promotions such as bundling older books with newer ones, especially in a series or from the same author. What can you give your readers that will have them coming back? Nurture those relationships;
they may wind up helping you in the future.

Editions

Sometimes the book is just old. Outdated, obsolete. In that case, depending on what is appropriate, consider a new cover. If it was published in hardcover, release it as softcover or vice versa. When you first go to print, anticipate these possibilities by writing the copyright page to include hardcover, softcover, perhaps even ebook or audio ISBNs. This way you don’t have to reprint the copyright page or the entire book.

Use newer technology such as digital printing to maintain stock between print runs, or to keep a slower-selling book in print. And if the content itself is old, release a new edition.

The bottom line is to continually find new and creative ways to offer older books to your always-changing readers. Just because the titles are old to you does not mean they’re necessarily old to everyone. And think long-term. Start small and work on growing your business, growing your readership, and aiming for a backlist that will support your company even as you prepare for newer frontlist releases.

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This is the first in the "What I Learned at PMA-U/BEA" series by Sheyna Galyan of Yaldah Publishing. Stay tuned for future entries in this series, which will run through spring 2008.

It's a Mystery to Me: Book Category Clues and Solutions

by Sheyna Galyan

I had no idea when the April 2007 MIPA meeting began that it would change my life as an author.

The meeting focused on cataloging, on determining a book’s category so that booksellers and librarians and others know where to place a book on the shelf.

The evening began with a panel of four: Dorothy Molstad, publicist for Voyageur Press; David Unowsky of Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Scarletta Press; Susan Henry, cataloging
librarian for the Saint Paul Public Library system; and Connie Anderson, reviewer for Armchair Interviews.

All four agreed that choosing the right category and printing it on the back of a book is an important part of a book’s marketing and success. While many publishers print the category in the upper left corner, the best place is actually the lower left corner, with no more than three categories listed.

For a reviewer, one of the first questions is “What sort of book is this?” For awards submissions, the book must be entered in a category. For librarians, the category determines how the book is cataloged and shelved. And for retailers, the category determines where on the store shelf customers can find it.

And that was where my ears perked up. I had agonized over the correct category for my first publication, a novel titled Destined to Choose. I was pleased that my method for choosing the category—going to the Book Industry Study Group website (http://www.bisg.org/) and clicking on the BISAC Subject Headings—was what all four recommended. I settled on Fiction / Judaica. At the time (2003) there was no category for Fiction / Jewish (there is as of 2006).

However, I did not print it on the back of the book. Big mistake. Amazon.com, in their infinite wisdom, looked at the subtitle (A Rabbi David Cohen Novel) and promptly categorized it as Christian Fiction. Barnes & Noble placed it in their Religious Fiction section, a small number of shelves teeming with 99.99% Christian fiction. Though I had chosen the category to help Jewish
readers, hoping it would not get buried in the popular fiction section, my efforts backfired and would-be readers complained about not being able to find it.

Libraries had no problem with it, though. As Susan Henry explained, libraries don’t use BISAC cataloging. They get their category headings from the Library of Congress or by shared cataloging with other libraries. In the case of fiction, only mystery, western, and science fiction are typically broken out. Everything else that’s fiction is shelved as popular fiction.

As the speakers continued to talk about the importance of categorization, I started feeling very concerned. I was the author and publisher of this book, and I didn’t know where to categorize it. This thought was really driven home when Connie said there are “books rejected by big publishers because they don’t know where to put it. If you [the author] don’t know what genre it’s in, imagine what it’s like for us.”

One of the best ways to get buzz going is through hand selling by independent booksellers. I knew this from experience. One of my biggest supporters is a bookstore owner who knows her customers well and would often grab my book off the shelf, place it in their hands and say, “You have got to read this book!” I can’t buy that kind of support.

In fact, 14% of all new books are sold by independents, but they have to know the book’s category in order to place it in the store, as well as answer customer questions like “What is this book about?” Is Finding Buddha While Biking Through Bermuda (a made-up title) a book about cycling? Traveling through Bermuda? Or Buddhism?

The answer to this troubling question of categorization provided me with some relief. Pick the brains of librarians and booksellers, they said. Take them to lunch once in a while and ask what they think about a book. Buy them a cup of coffee. But make an appointment first, because showing up on your timetable and not theirs won’t win any points.

“Most booksellers are happy to help out,” said David Unowsky. “We’re all about making better books and letting people know about them.”

So at the end of the meeting I took their advice, handed them a copy of Destined to Choose and asked for their opinion. They looked it over, read the cover copy, looked through the inside, asked me a bunch of questions about the novel’s structure, role of characters, and so forth. They agreed that categorizing it as Jewish fiction was a mistake, partly because of where it would be shelved and partly because it was of just as much interest to non-Jewish readers.

Would it be general fiction, then? I asked. No, they unanimously agreed. It’s not general fiction. It’s a mystery, or more specifically, Fiction / Suspense. I was shocked. Who knew? Apparently everyone but me. And yet it was the best piece of information, because now the category makes the marketing of the series much, much easier.

It identifies a specific target audience. It opens doors to events and organizations and genre-specific book clubs. It will help sell more books. And SOLD is a category I like to see.