Sell Your Book in Airport Bookstores

Do you dream of seeing your book in the airport bookstores? We've had several clients at Book Launchers make that dream a reality, and one has done it so well. My entire team has asked him to school us on how to make it happen for others. I thought you'd love to know Robert Workman, author of Hired Gun 2's secret to getting cross country distribution in major airports like Los Angeles and Dallas. So if you want to get your book into airport bookstores, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad. I'm an Amazon Overall Number 1 Best Selling Author and the founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers. Our superpower is caring more about you and your book than anybody else as we help you write, publish and sell a nonfiction book that will boost your brand and make you money. In just a moment, I'm going to introduce you to one of our favorite clients, Mr. Bob Workman, more formally called Robert Workman. He's become an in house favorite because he's someone who has had a successful career as an author and he's still willing and even happy to hear our feedback. And he's also willing and happy to share his secrets to success. He's kind, friendly, and always goes an extra mile. Of course, he also sends us gifts like cookies, which never hurts. One of his secrets to success is how he got his first book, Hired Gun, into airport bookstores. And now 20 years later, how he's doing it again. What he is doing is something you can do too, if you're willing. Which is why I asked him to share his secrets and his process with you today. Robert's book is called Hired Gun 2 and it is for anybody in sales. The reality is that if you're in sales and you're good, you're at risk of getting fired, which kind of seems crazy. But when a great salesperson starts getting paid more than the CEO, the CEO doesn't like it in many cases. And sometimes egos will prevail and a salesperson can get fired. So Robert's book walks you through the politics and protecting your your job while still being that top gun and getting paid well. It's a really, really great resource. So Robert, how'd you first get the idea to get your book into bookstores? Let's hear it from you.

Hi, Hired Gunn here. Coming at you again, another answer to another question. That's a well put question because I think this is something unique and that is how I go about getting my books handled by airport bookstores. I discovered it By I guess, discovery process, maybe you can call it an accident. But I was walking through airports on sales trips, having written the manuscript and was trying to figure out what to do to get it sold and started walking into airport bookstores and cold calling on them and getting the manager's name and the phone number, getting them on the phone. And one thing led to another and then that manager talked to another one when the book sold well and it rippled out. But the way I'm doing it right now, this is 20 years later. Everything is different. Everything is different. I was fortunate back then to do that successfully in a few stores and get it sold and then have the central buyer for maybe 15 different airport bookstores find out about it, expand it out within his area, and then on conference calls with his colleagues who each had about 10 or 15 airports under them across the country, share the information. Hey, I got this book, by the way, it's selling really well. You might want to order it for your stores. And they would. And I sold hundreds and thousands. We sold out basically 10. I think I got about 200, just rough count. I think about 200 left out of 10,000 books that we sold by that Stonehenge technology back then.

If your book is targeted at people like you, think about where you go on a daily basis or a monthly basis for your work. There are bookselling opportunities everywhere and walking around with your eyes open like Bob did is brilliant. It's simple, but something we often don't even think about. But now you're wondering how do you get the folks buying books for LAX or Dallas Fort Worth or the other major airports to look at your self published book when so much of the airport bookstore space is actually for sale to the highest bidder and there's so little space to go over. Well, brace yourself. What Bob did, you can do too. But so few people will actually go to this effort, which is what makes Bob special and opens the door to other people willing to go an extra mile. Here's what Bob did.

But now to be able to call them and have a really professionally done media kit, a really professionally done cover design and a track record that I of endorsement quotes that are part of that media kit, I have something really substantive to be able to send them. So I just go on the Internet and I do a Google search for Boston, Logan airport bookstores. I write down all the phone numbers that I find for all of them, whether they're Hudson or Compass or Paradis or HMS Host or all these chains, and I call and that one's disconnected and this one's disconnected and this other one is not in service. And this other one rings busy 24 hours a day, three days in a row. And finally I might get one that somebody actually picks up at and they're running the cash register and they have people standing in line and somehow I'm able to get them to share the information with me about who is the book buyer. And a phone number, maybe an email address if I have the good fortune and they have the time. And then I try to get that person on the phone. And that might take a week of phone calls to get that person actually on the phone. It just boils down to basic good old in the street selling, prospecting, calling, sending the information by email with a media kit attached in a couple of cases, because it's a big chain and the only way that any individual manager will buy is if the big chain headquarters ships it to them. They cannot make their independent buying decision in those cases. In that case, I package up a book, Federal Express, wrap it in really nice tissue paper, put it in a box with a half a dozen cookies in a Mrs. Fields tin, attach my business card so they know from whence the cookies came, and a cover letter with the media kit printed on really high gloss heavy stock. And at least that's a representative professional package that they can't not like when they open it. So, and then I call and follow up on that. And that's the process I'm doing right now. And it is working. I am in airports. I have buy orders from Miami, Love Field in Dallas, Omaha, Epley Airfield, Mosquito Books in Anchorage, Alaska. So literally we're from Miami to Anchorage again. But I'm working with people all through the whole nation at chains and small chains and large chains and independent airport bookstores to get them put in. Because my book really appeals to business people and salespeople who travel. And there they are traveling as a semi captive audience to my airport bookstores. That's probably more than you wanted to know about that, but that's about all the news fit to print. Thank you.

And if you're wondering what should be in your professional media kit, I did a video on that, which you can check out right here, and I'll link to it at the end. The media kits we do for our clients are some of the best I've seen, and they certainly outshine most of the media kits we've seen from traditionally published authors. So that really helps our authors stand out from the crowd. But how you package yourself up book Cover media kit, cover letter. These are things that really matter. And the cookies Bob sent, well, that's probably going to help too. And since he shot this video for us, I know he's added LAX and San Francisco and probably by the time you're watching this, he he's in the airport near you. Robert, you're a rockstar and we're so proud to work with you at book Launchers. All right, did you like this video? What do you think of the approach to get your book into airport bookstores? Let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet noteboringbookswag like this fabulous mug or this oh so soft journal. Smash that thumbs up button to thank Robert and tell me you you want more author spotlight interviews like this. And make sure you've subscribed to the channel because I have another video with Robert on why he changed his cover on Hired Gun 2. There are some great cover lessons in that video. It has been so lovely spending time with you. I'd love to keep hanging out. Perhaps we could do that on this really awesome video about creating a killer author media kit. I put some great examples in there and Roberts was one of them. Or if you want the latest and greatest that is right here. Either way, click one of these videos and let's keep hanging out. Yahoo. You can take the girl out of Alberta, Canada, but you can't take the Alberta, Canada out of the girl.