By Ted Witt,  Pretty Road Press

You have just seconds to capture a buyer’s attention, probably fewer.  You won’t sell your book if it doesn’t get noticed. Point-of-sale (POS) merchandising displays are designed to capture reader interest and turn that curiosity into a sale. Just make sure you follow some fundamental principles before you design your POS displays; otherwise your products may be ignored or scorned. Use your display when traveling to book fairs, sitting for book signings or working with a bookstore.

A is for art. Your display should include signage and artwork, such as photography or an illustration that helps capture attention and curiosity. It will not necessarily be your book cover. You will already have your books on display with covers that tell readers what the content looks like. Choose complementary art. For example, if your book is about golf, it should not be too hard to find golf course photography on www.fotolia.com. If you have written about oceanography or business or romance, then www.istockphoto.com  is another good source for inexpensive, royalty free photography and illustrations.

Your signage should not be a letter-sized sheet of paper in a Plexiglas frame. Think bigger. Invest in a bigger poster-size sign from your neighborhood Kinkos (now FedEx Office) that sets you apart, but not so big that it cannot integrate with your book display on a table.

B is for benefit. Your sign should include a benefit statement.  Your cover title is not your benefit headline. A prominent header should be a catchy message that promises a return to the buyer. For the book Hatless, we have been successful in including an excerpt from a third-graders’ review that says, “I like Hatless because it teaches about kindness.” This phrase works because parents see a benefit in the message. They want to teach their children good values. The book may end up paying a benefit to their family. If you’re promoting a novel, your benefit statement may be something that promises entertainment or intrigue.

C is for curiosity. Something within your display must arouse curiosity. You have considerable freedom on what element of your display arouses this sense of interest. It could be the headline on your sign, the photo, a curio, an artifact or even a movie. If you are promoting a book about local history, you might bring a relic from the area, big enough to be noticed from a distance, but not so valuable it can be easily broken. If you are selling a detective story, it might be a crucial piece of evidence that leads readers to the killer.

D is for the display as a whole. Think like an interior designer. Remember the rule of three: arrangements look best when there are three elements. Your books themselves will be one element. Consider getting a cardboard product display case from a catalog company like Uline. If possible, get books up off the table. Your titles should not all be lying flat. If you do not have a display case, consider elevating at least one of the copies by wrapping a box and placing the book up vertically on a stand. Passersby cannot see a book lying flat. The rule is “up and face out.”

Your signage is a second major element of the display. Integrate your signage with your display box. Consider using Velcro to attach a sign to your cardboard display. Easels work nicely to hold large frames at an angle.  Don’t limit yourself to rectangular shaped signs. You can cut your sign into unique shapes. Think about three dimensions: signs with pop-outs, cutouts or build-ups.  (To make a build-up, make and mount two or more identical signs on foam core, cut out  unique elements from the second sign — such as your book cover — and glue it to the original; you now have a three dimensional sign).

The third element of your display could include, for example, a rack of collateral literature, an electronic picture frame, an artifact, or a fishbowl for collecting contest entries. Whatever element you choose it should contribute to benefits, curiosity and emotion. Keep your display a simple trio of parts. Limiting your display to two elements will force visual dissonance on your customers. Four elements will look busy and cluttered.

E is for emotion. Wrap all your elements into a package that conveys an emotion, whether love, revenge, kindness, sympathy, pleasure or compassion. It’s a proven fact; most of our purchasing decisions are based on emotion, rather than price, need, or logic. So use every aspect of your display to arouse an emotion. That includes the headline, the art, the benefit statement, and the arrangement of elements. The most important emotional element of all is YOU. If you are there next to your display, you must begin to have a relationship with people. Ask them questions. Find out about them. Only then can you relate your book to their life and make a sale. Always put a copy of your book in their hands. You will make more sales. They will have to make an overt decision to put it down. When you emotionally connect with your customers, they will take your book to the register and your story with them.