[Bookstoprisoners] Book sale procedures

[Susan Porter Bruce]

After the last sale I wrote up a guide to doing sales. Sandra  
suggested I send it around again. It's long, but I've bolded things  
that might be useful reminders to those helping this time. Attached  
is the more complete document, which will need updating after this  
sale is finished. (Sandra, if you want to scribble on this after the  
sale, I'll re-do for the next person.)


Planning a Sale

Schedule.  Most of the work is in setting up and taking down. A book  
sale for one week, including two weekends (Saturday-Saturday), would  
be more successful. Hours on weekdays could be shorter (10-4.) The  
sale needs to be set when students are in town, and when there is no  
conflict with the library sales.

Staffing. 1-2 people could easily handle weekdays. At least 4 are  
needed on Saturdays for 3-hour shifts.

Publicity
PSA’s-The University Y has a very convenient fax machine programmed  
to send a PSA to 25 media outlets with one button. It takes 5 minutes  
and anyone in the office can help.
Newspaper-Getting a photograph of the sale set-up in the N-G and the  
free papers would be invaluable. Melissa Merli might do a profile of  
our younger volunteers.

Flyers posted around town one week in advance.

Signs the day of the sale directing traffic to the sale.

Eye-catching huge cardboard figures helped in May.

Prominent signs taped to ground around the Farmers Market.

Advice from Holley: In the future, you would get a lot of free  
advertising by putting an ad in the booksalefinder.com  a month ahead  
of time so people can plan who travel around to book sales.  They  
email everyone on their list automatically and it is free.

Space. Doing a sale in the IMC would require working with the Space  
Committee well in advance. There may be opportunities for joint  
projects.

Moving books upstairs will take much person-power. We had  
approximately 15 volunteers over two evenings running a chain up and  
out in May.

Arranging books. In May we had about 350 boxes of books. It took 4  
people approximately two full days to set these out. We had about 30  
tables. Extra boxes were stored under the tables.

Each table had a sign on a paint-stirring stick. Bring extras. Good  
signage entices people to explore.

Pricing. Simplicity is good. We charged $1 for hard-covers and $.50  
for soft-covers, with special pricing for quantities. This may not be  
necessary.

Children’s books were $1 for special books, $.25 for most, and $.10  
for baby books. We had and sold many, but this varies. They do bring  
parents and teachers in.

Cashiers need to be coached in friendly ways to ask for donations.

Supplies. Signs, extra paper and tape, scissors, markers. Jar for  
donations. Clipboard for volunteer sign-ups. Bags. Cash box and  
starting bank with change. 10-12 price lists for posting. Bookends.

During the Sale. Volunteers keep the tables tidy and move books  
along. In busy times 2 people are needed at the sale table. A  
“senior” volunteer is needed all day Saturday. Volunteers need to  
be firmed up 2 weeks in advance, and then reminded via email.

Using the sale for BtP Promotion. We could do much more of this.  
Bullhorn promos. Sample write-a-letter stations. (These didn’t get  
much attention in May, but with planning we could do better. It  
wasn’t clear to people that they didn’t have to buy books.) Could  
we find some sample exemplary letters and enlarge them on signs?

After the Sale

We will always need to dispose of some books after a sale. In May  
2006 we donated about 15 boxes of mass-market fiction to the Humane  
Society Garage Sale. We also looked into an organization that sends  
books abroad. It is essential to contact them long before the sale to  
determine if sending books to them would work.

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Programs/Bookstore.aspx

Later we learned they sell books, so we may need to look for another,  
or find someone who will buy all remembers for a small flat fee?  
Alternatively, we might find someone on the Freecycle web site who is  
willing to take remainders.

ABC waste haulers can be contacted to haul away recycled books. It  
will be necessary to schedule a dumpster well in advance or get a  
pick-up truck to haul away boxes.
  
-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/mixed