ENGAGING YOUR COMMUNITY WITH COMIC BOOK CLUBS Tips and Best Practices for Retailers
As statewide shutdown orders become more widespread, retailers forced to close their shops are faced with serious challenges in maintaining their businesses. One way to overcome some of those challenges is to engage with existing comic book clubs as they go remote — or start a new one! While some remote book clubs are completely digital, including the reading material, many readers prefer to read physical books, giving you an opportunity to move product and expand your community.
Art by Tony Shasteen
For retailers, a comic book club can strengthen your ties to the community and bring in new customers. Even if you don’t run the book club yourself, you can partner with your local library and schools to provide books and help them transition to remote meetings. Here are some tips for making the most of comic book clubs.
Choose a Book that Works Best for Your Business » You can pick a new release. This makes your book club timely, promotes new stock, and helps excite customers as it is more likely to be new to them. Since a book club can function as a promotional tool, it might help you secure additional support from the publisher and creative team. » Or you could choose a book that you have a lot of in stock. Now’s the time to promote your backstock. Promoting a book you already have through a book club is a good way to help move excess copies out of your inventory. » Check publishers’ liquidation lists, and choose a book you can purchase with an extra discount. This helps you generate extra profit. You can also pass some of the discount down to book club members purchasing the book to encourage participation and repeat business.
Host Your Book Club Regularly » Choose a specific time of the month for your book club meetings, and stick to that schedule. This allows your customers to plan for your book club, increases participation, and helps you keep track of when orders are due. » Send out a monthly email to your customers to let them know when their orders are due. For example: This month’s book club selection is [TITLE]! Ensure you get your book in time by submitting a request by [DATE], for our monthly book club on [DATE]! Engaging Your Community with Comic Book Clubs: A CBLDF Resource
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