RWA Nationals - Borders/ Sue Grimshaw

Here are my notes from a session with Sue Grimshaw of Border Group (this was a seperate session from her Passionate Ink Luncheon speech listed earlier this week.)

Book store Managers love to have ARC's.

Borders has an experts list available to authors of stores who are most familiar with or most supportive of a particular genre. General contact information for Borders may be found here:
http://www.bordersgroupinc.com/about/contact.htm Borders will be providing a list of Romance expert stores for the PAN website.

Borders has a limit on bookmarks they can accept. Please do not send more than 15-20 bookmarks for distribution.

Author shelf talkers are provided by publishers, they are not accepted from authors, so please do not send these.

As mentioned, ARC's are always welcomed and often what the management is looking for in order to be familiar with a new release.

The Border's email newsletters have a large circulation. The popularity of book trailers in the My Borders Newsletters is increasing. Book trailers are now 3rd on the list of things newsletter readers click thru.

Sign up for My Borders newsletters at http://reg.cheetahmail.com/regp?aid=266588556&n=100 and be sure to select the special Romance section.

Replenishment of books is automatic, however some buyers do request higher runs from publishers based on previous sell-outs.

Multi-author book signings work the best for promotion and traffic.

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RWA Nationals - Borders/ Sue Grimshaw

At the same Passionate Ink Luncheon, Sue Grimshaw, Romance Buyer from the Borders Group addressed the group. Here’s a few tidbits I picked up from her speech:

Borders is currently allocating more space to the romance genre.

In Spring of 2008, Borders will also be launching a new website with special attention to the romance category.

A great program to join is the Borders Rewards Program. http://www.bordersrewards.com/landing.aspx The program is free to join.

Borders also has an email romance newsletter. This is part of the My Borders monthly newsletter grouping. Sign up here: http://reg.cheetahmail.com/regp?aid=266588556&n=100

Generating the highest click-thru in the romance newsletter are:
1) Dollar off coupons
2) Links to author newsletters or other newsletters
3) Special author click-thrus such as book trailers

Promotion in Borders stores include:
1) Top picks
2) Shelf talkers
3) Samplers

Book-signings are welcomed at Borders. Erotic Romance group signings have been successful. Signing in a group can generate a bigger crowd and can be better for the authors and the store.

Romance is ever-evolving, and Erotic Romance has now come into its own.

Reader favorites overall in Romance are books with steamy sex and sexy covers. Quote “A good torso goes a long way!”

Anthologies are popular with Erotic Romance readers. Anthologies are a great way to introduce readers to the genre and are sometimes all the reader needs/is looking for.

Also popular in all areas of Romance are paranormals. Studies show readers love paranormals because of:
- the strong tortured heroes
- alpha males
- uniqueness of the stories
- hero is invincible
- attraction is unbreakable and almost supernatural

Overall, a great story with great characters sell books.

Borders is here to support, and proud to support the romance and erotic romance industry.

More information about Borders Stores may be found at http://www.bordersstores.com/index.jsp?tt=gn

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