You’d need determination to find a copy of “A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up” at the Borders book store in Columbia. There are no aisles dedicated to Grooming. And the book is not on the tables of best sellers and new releases that greet shoppers at the entrance.
Instead, Borders sells the tome back in the Health and Diet section.
But down the road at Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, the book is showcased with colorful silk ties next to the cash register — just where men thinking about dressing well are likely to see it.
Sometimes a bookstore isn’t the best place to sell a book. And publishers are increasingly taking note.
“You’re going to start finding books where you wouldn’t have expected to before,” said Damon Goude, a publicist with publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. in Nashville.
Retailer Jos. A. Bank has purchased more than 8,000 copies of “A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up,” according to publishing house Thomas Nelson, and Brooks Brothers has bought at least 15,000 copies of a leather-bound edition of the book.
In comparison, traditional bookstores nationwide have only sold 4,000 of the same title since it was published in 2003, according to Nielsen BookScan.
An assistant manager at Jos. A. Bank says the book and others from the Gentleman series sell well during the holidays and as gifts. One customer bought each groomsman in his wedding party a copy of “How to Be a Gentleman.”
“If we relied on [traditional book] stores to carry it, it wouldn’t be alive anymore,” said David Leach, a national account manager for special sales at Thomas Nelson. Jos. A. Bank also sells a book on grilling, a collection of Sudoku puzzles, a tome of quotes from sports legend Yogi Berra and several books of advice for fathers.
Men’s clothing chains aren’t alone in selling books to their customers.
Starbucks began selling novels last year. At home design shop Calico Corners in Fulton, you can pick up a book on decorating tips.
The Vitamin Shoppe hosts a lending library in stores and sells books, too. The health supplement chain has bought at least 125,000 copies of “Prescription for Natural Cures” for its stores, according to the book’s publisher, John Wiley & Sons Inc.
And, of course, there are even more stores selling books these days, from craft stores to home improvement centers. Williams-Sonoma has been selling books for years. But now they also sell their own books, featuring kitchenware in the store.
The “Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast, Slow Cooker” title retails for $17.95. They also sell the All-Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker for $249.95.
“There truly is a customer for everything. You just have to make the match,” said Kim Hendrickson, associate director of special sales at Wiley.
Most major publishers have long had personnel dedicated to placing books outside of the traditional market of colleges, libraries, bookstores and online booksellers such as Amazon.com.
Beyond retail deals, the departments focus on selling books at traveling book fairs, gift stores, trade associations and even online via e-books.
Not all sales to retailers involve thousands of copies of books like the ones at The Vitamin Shoppe and Jos. A. Bank. Still, the potential for growth has caught the eye of upper management, especially as book sales have lagged.
Consumers bought 1 percent fewer books at bookstores in January 2007 than the previous January, according to the American Booksellers Association. January marked the seventh consecutive month that bookstore sales had lagged sales from the previous year.
“The bookstore market is flat,” Leach said. “We have to find another way to get the books out.”
The sales are still small compared to traditional bookstores. Leach of Thomas Nelson said traditional booksellers bring in three times more revenue than non-traditional shops.
But non-traditional booksellers have given life to titles that would once be collecting dust. Most of the special sales at publishing houses involve books that are more than a year old that might not be getting big marketing pushes anymore. While bookstores snap up new titles, non-traditional booksellers often want a title they can already see, touch and feel that might ring in good sales for the season.
Leach said Thomas Nelson would likely have stopped selling the Gentleman books by now if Brooks Brothers hadn’t kept buying them and requesting the publisher to put out new titles in the series.
At publishing house John Wiley & Sons, one of the best selling special sales books now is a title on making margaritas.
“[Non-traditional booksellers] are marketing to their demographic, who might not necessarily know about the book but are looking for the book,” said Francesca Minerva, director of special sales at New York-based publisher Rodale Inc.
