Dear Bookstore Manager:
Greetings in the glorious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We trust that you and yours are doing well.
If you know anything about the book trade, and particularly the Christian book trade, you know that black authors and books that are targeting the black community are not represented as well as they should be, in bookstores and other outlets, for whatever reason. I have been amazed as I have visited Christian bookstores across the U.S., be they chain or independent, at the lack of black Christian books on their shelves. We believe that if black authors and black Christian books were given the same opportunity as white authors, particularly in the urban areas of our country that books by African-American authors would sell just as well, and sometimes even better. This has been proven.
In the spirit of D.L. Moody and the colportage ministry that he started years ago, the mission of Black Christian Book Company and the Black Christian Book Marketing catalog is to market and distribute quality Christian books written by black and white authors to every available outlet in the urban and rural areas across the United States of America and around the world. And our aim and purpose is to reach African-Americans and whosoever will, with a clear presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and with materials that will enrich their faith.
It is our humble prayer that the following three things would come out of the publishing of the Black Christian Book Marketing Catalog:
- That all people in the book trade, both black and white, both secular and Christian, would see in one catalog, the tremendous contribution to the world of literature that black Christian authors have made. (By the way, after the paid ads in this catalog, please also see over 300 more titles written by black authors that are available for your bookstore.)
- That many books written by African-American authors would be known about, made available, and sold to the millions of book readers around the world.
- Finally, to encourage all Christian bookstore owners to at least start an "African-American book section", by carrying at least one copy of the top 50 bestselling African-American Christian titles according to the Black Christian News/BCBC Bestsellers List which comes out every Monday, and have an automatic reorder of a book after it has sold. We really believe here at BCBC that bookstore owners and publishers would be pleasantly surprised at how many more books they will sell in a year to both black and white customers. By the way, Barnes and Noble has an African-American section, Borders has an African-American section, Books-A-Million has an African-American section, and even Amazon.com has African-American sections on their website. Also, I spoke with an officer at a Christian Bookstore Management company recently, who happens to be white, and while she was talking to me, she wondered out loud, why the Christian book industry has not made a category for African-American books, "instead we put them all in a general category like 'Christian Life'." In case you are wondering, she brought the subject up, I didn't.
Dear Christian bookstore owner, if you want to evangelize and minister to the African-American community in your area, start an "African-American book section" in your store. If you want to increase your customer base, start an "African-American book section" in your store. If you want to increase your financial bottom-line, start an "African-American book section" in your store. We do not have the space or the time for me to explain to you the psychological reasons why having an African-American book section sells books, but, suffice it to say that because of our unique experience in America, black people are keenly interested in what other black people are saying, and they often times feel that a fellow black person can reach a part of them that others may not be able to reach. Now, this does not mean that these new black customers will come in and buy just African-American books. No, what they will do is buy the newest Charles Stanley book, and on the way out stop by your African-American section and pick up a book or two, to see what their fellow African-American brothers and sisters are saying.
Also, allow me to say here that those bestselling black authors that you have mixed in with the other authors, you would not need to move all of them to the African-American section. Leave some of them in that section and then put two or three in the African-American section. The name of the game is to sell more books and we believe that if you gave this idea a serious chance, you will see more books sold.
By the way, if you don't have the shelf space, that problem can be resolved very easily, by buying a special rack that would accommodate the African-American traffic that you might draw. You do not need to carry all of the top 50 bestselling African-American books in your store, if your town only has two or three thousand African-American people. But the big urban area stores, in cities such as, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Washington D.C., can easily do this and more. I know this may sound strange to you, but more black people will come to your store if they see more books authored by people who look like them on your shelves in your store.
It is our prayer that the books promoted in the Black Christian Book Marketing Catalog would be sold through your store.
Blessings,
Black Christian Book Marketing Group
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