Is
a monopoly the only way for a company to succeed at selling its product?
I
was at the airport recently. I wanted to buy gum and to my dismay I found there
was only one brand available. All the stores sold the same gum. It wasn’t a
brand I even recognized. No competition yields no choice. Worse, no competition
left them to charge what they wanted -- which was twice the price gum normally
goes for. I paid over $3.50 for nine chiclet-sized pieces of no-name gum.
Of
course I had the choice of not buying but that wasn’t really an option, given
my breath demanded mint gum and my ears for the plane required gum-chewing jaw
movement. So I bought it, but I felt angry that an entire airport created a
monopoly that doesn’t exist in the real world.
So
maybe book publishers and authors need to find such monopolistic situations and
exploit them. Where can you be a favored or preferred vendor? How can you get
your title sold while the retailer doesn’t offer your competition for sale?
The
closest thing to a monopoly in publishing is Amazon but in this case, the
process works against authors. Instead of Amazon charging above or at market
rates for books it has undercut the market to charge the least, leaving fewer
profits for authors and publishers.
Perhaps
authors and publishers need to package books with another product, service,
event or opportunity so that a more valuable exclusive arrangement exists. For
instance, a book on relationships or romance is packaged with lipstick and sold
for more, collectively, than either product would get separately.
We
should learn from what happens at airports, concert arenas, sporting events,
highway rest stops, and conventions. Whenever you can create an environment of
exclusivity you can charge more and give less.
My
inferior gum is losing its flavor as I write this. It may have left a bad taste
in my mouth, but it opened my eyes to seek out new exclusive arrangements. The
only way to charge what you’re worth is to exclude the competition.
Don’t
Miss These Recent Posts
Making
Your Book Promotable – Before It Is Published
FAQ ON
BOOK PUBLICITY
10 Ways To Get A Media Hit
Why
Aren’t There Any Signs Of Books On The Road?
Sell
Books Where They Don’t – Including Funeral Homes, Police Stations & Hair
Salons
What Can
You Do With Old, But Underexposed Content?
The Role
Of Money In Book Publicity
What Is
Your Attitude Towards Book Publicity?
How Can Authors
Measure Social Media Success?
25 Ways
For Authors To Break Through & Establish A Legacy
Do You Market
Your Books Doggy Style?
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter.
You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He
feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.