NCIBA Fall Catalog
Our “Holiday Showcase” features adult and children’s titles in a beautifully designed full color format. This holiday book catalog, with a print run of 1 million, is inserted in key media throughout the region and available to member bookstores in bulk quantities, with every store receiving a minimum of 100 free copies. The books appearing in the catalog represent titles of interest to customers of independent bookstores. As such, the “Holiday Catalog” has proved to be very popular with customers and an effective sales tool for our members.
For Booksellers
Opportunities for Publishers
For Booksellers
Opportunities for Publishers
Title selection for 2016 NCIBA catalog
Download the list here.
Does our catalog work? Booksellers say "Yes"!
GREEN APPLE BOOKS, San Francisco
A few years ago, we started giving it away in store, and we were pleasantly surprised how many people used it. In fact, we were caught not stocking a few of the titles therein. But we learned, and in 2013, we inserted 5,000 copies in the SF Chronicle. Again, we had customers bringing it in with circled titles and sold some of the books that we brought in ONLY because of the catalog, plus more of what we already had in stock. With a new store in 2014, we doubled our insertion to 10,000, and it was worth it again. This catalog is just one more effective way to bring readers into our stores and to put books into more readers hands.
GALLERY BOOKS, Mendocino
Here's what happens in our store because of the catalog:
1. We increase our frontlist buy right off the bat, starting with at least double the amount we'd otherwise buy and bringing in things we'd otherwise skip.
2. Every title gets face-out table display from Thanksgiving through Christmas.
3. We insert the catalog in our local newspaper and customers always come in the door, catalog in hand, looking for the books. It makes a huge difference in our store for those books.
BOOKS INC. LAUREL VILLAGE, San Francisco
We absolutely have people coming in with clipped pages from the catalog, and oRen from people we don’t recognize as regular customers...For us, the real value is for the non-regulars. For them, the catalog offers books as a viable and desirable git option, narrows down the choices for a person otherwise unfamiliar with what’s available (and potentially overwhelmed), and gives a concrete option of where to easily get them.
PEGASUS BOOKS, Berkeley/Oakland (three stores)
This was our second year of fully supporting the catalog titles, and we once again agree that it was really worth it. We picked up several titles we might not otherwise have carried and they sold well - and since we insert in the local weekly, we got lots of people coming in with them marked up. We will be in next year!
MOUNTAIN BOOKSHOP, Sonora
We see people walking into the store with it. They have marked books they want and ask the staff to get them for them. We know to order additional quantities of books in the catalog because we will sell them. Two years ago we did something accidentally that worked out well. We had extra copies of the catalog from our first insert just before Thanksgiving, so we did a second insert in the local paper about two weeks before Christmas. People came in thanking us saying they had either lost their original insert or they were just starting their shopping. It worked so well, we did it again this year on purpose. Same response and a bump in sales, particularly catalog books.
THE AVID READER, Davis
For starters, when a sales rep tells me a book will be in the catalog, I routinely order additional copies, anticipating additional sales. Its design is always classy. I like that there is the opportunity to imprint it with my store's logo and customize it with my personal message, giving the appearance that the selections are those of the store, providing extra credibility to us and the books that has a lasting impact beyond the holiday season.
We add to the catalogs' influence by having the titles centralized in the store alongside a stack of extra copies of the catalog for the taking. I've had one customer who routinely did all her holiday shopping through my store with the catalog. In short, it's the best single advertising vehicle of the year for my store.
BOOKS INC., Alameda
I'm certain I'm not alone in saying that I have customers each year who bring the catalog into the store in the heat of the shopping season and use it as a shopping list. It's oRen marked up (For John, For Melody, For Dad) and handed to us with the ques;on, "Do you have these in stock?"
I think the catalog is very effective - it's handy, it's pretty, it's convenient. All things our customers love!
A few years ago, we started giving it away in store, and we were pleasantly surprised how many people used it. In fact, we were caught not stocking a few of the titles therein. But we learned, and in 2013, we inserted 5,000 copies in the SF Chronicle. Again, we had customers bringing it in with circled titles and sold some of the books that we brought in ONLY because of the catalog, plus more of what we already had in stock. With a new store in 2014, we doubled our insertion to 10,000, and it was worth it again. This catalog is just one more effective way to bring readers into our stores and to put books into more readers hands.
GALLERY BOOKS, Mendocino
Here's what happens in our store because of the catalog:
1. We increase our frontlist buy right off the bat, starting with at least double the amount we'd otherwise buy and bringing in things we'd otherwise skip.
2. Every title gets face-out table display from Thanksgiving through Christmas.
3. We insert the catalog in our local newspaper and customers always come in the door, catalog in hand, looking for the books. It makes a huge difference in our store for those books.
BOOKS INC. LAUREL VILLAGE, San Francisco
We absolutely have people coming in with clipped pages from the catalog, and oRen from people we don’t recognize as regular customers...For us, the real value is for the non-regulars. For them, the catalog offers books as a viable and desirable git option, narrows down the choices for a person otherwise unfamiliar with what’s available (and potentially overwhelmed), and gives a concrete option of where to easily get them.
PEGASUS BOOKS, Berkeley/Oakland (three stores)
This was our second year of fully supporting the catalog titles, and we once again agree that it was really worth it. We picked up several titles we might not otherwise have carried and they sold well - and since we insert in the local weekly, we got lots of people coming in with them marked up. We will be in next year!
MOUNTAIN BOOKSHOP, Sonora
We see people walking into the store with it. They have marked books they want and ask the staff to get them for them. We know to order additional quantities of books in the catalog because we will sell them. Two years ago we did something accidentally that worked out well. We had extra copies of the catalog from our first insert just before Thanksgiving, so we did a second insert in the local paper about two weeks before Christmas. People came in thanking us saying they had either lost their original insert or they were just starting their shopping. It worked so well, we did it again this year on purpose. Same response and a bump in sales, particularly catalog books.
THE AVID READER, Davis
For starters, when a sales rep tells me a book will be in the catalog, I routinely order additional copies, anticipating additional sales. Its design is always classy. I like that there is the opportunity to imprint it with my store's logo and customize it with my personal message, giving the appearance that the selections are those of the store, providing extra credibility to us and the books that has a lasting impact beyond the holiday season.
We add to the catalogs' influence by having the titles centralized in the store alongside a stack of extra copies of the catalog for the taking. I've had one customer who routinely did all her holiday shopping through my store with the catalog. In short, it's the best single advertising vehicle of the year for my store.
BOOKS INC., Alameda
I'm certain I'm not alone in saying that I have customers each year who bring the catalog into the store in the heat of the shopping season and use it as a shopping list. It's oRen marked up (For John, For Melody, For Dad) and handed to us with the ques;on, "Do you have these in stock?"
I think the catalog is very effective - it's handy, it's pretty, it's convenient. All things our customers love!
