The My Kitchen Rules cookbook from Pacific Magazines has been a huge success for us, selling considerably more than the initial allocation and proving, once again, the power of the food category. The work we put in tactically with the title paid off in excellent impulse business.
We knew the title would be a hit and did everything possible to leverage it to the max.
Not all newsagents did this. I was talking with one newsagent who early returned the title. Their arguments were that they thought it would not sell and that space was tight. I was shocked to hear this. The TV show was a runaway success. The cookbook launch was promoted heaving during the show. The only space needed was a simple stand next to newspapers. That’s why we did and it worked a treat.
Newsagents need to have a process in place for managing early returns. Yes, we need to early return some titles which are failing or which have been oversupplied. But beore you do this, check your data. Don’t cut yourself out of business and it is only your bank balance which suffers.
One way to better manage early returns is to consider the publisher. Some publishers publish better titles than others. Some operate a model based on sales while others operate based on copies distributed. Get to know the difference.