We just finished surveying indie bookstores from sea to sea to sea to learn about and set a benchmark for the scope, health, and challenges of indie bookselling in Canada. We learned a lot. See all the indie bookselling myths we busted, read about the takeaways that others in the industry gleaned from our study, or just go and read the entire report, What's in Store: The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada 2018.
But we realized that we learned even more than all those things above. We learned that many booksellers could benefit from one of our (FREE for retailers!) tools: CataList. In case you're not familiar with it, CataList is an online catalogue service and order management tool. We thought we could run through some of the perks it provides for booksellers at absolutely no cost.
Perks for any visitor to CataList (no account required)
Keeping up with award winners
Don't miss out on the titles in the news or on parents' radars when they are shortlisted for major Canadian awards. You can find handy catalogues updated with winners and finalists for the most prominent awards in Canada all in one place on CataList. No more checking multiple websites or Twitter feeds to stay up-to-date.
Once a book has won an award, we make it a featured title in the catalogue, which means it moves to the first spot and the book's description is displayed (and in other views of the catalogue, you'll see a star next to it).
Finding Canadian content
To find a particular Canadian publisher, go to the CataList home page and check the left-hand side for a list of all the publishers creating catalogues in CataList. You can start entering the publisher name in the box at the top to filter the list for matches, or scroll the list to browse.
It’s easy to spot books by Canadian contributors on CataList: They're clearly marked with a maple leaf next to the author's name. You can also use the advanced search to look for books authored by Canadians.
Drop-in management
How do you keep on top of all publishers' drop-ins? Well, if you use CataList, there are a few options. There's a carousel on the home page that shows the most recent drop-in titles across the site. If you happen to be in a catalogue already, or browsing titles, every drop-in has a little flag next to the pub date, and if you hover over it, it will tell you the date it was dropped in.
There is an extra perk for retailers who have a (free) CataList account: You can manage your settings so you get a weekly email from CataList with a drop-in report delivered right to your inbox so you don't miss a thing.
Get all the details about managing drop-ins here.
Perks available for retailers who are logged in to their (free) CataList account
Using comparable titles
Publishers and reps often add comparable titles to the listings for the new books they're releasing, to provide context for retailers about the target market for a new book, or how they expect it to perform in terms of sales. Once you sign in to CataList, you'll gain access to this useful information.
And if you're participating in SalesData (also free for retailers!), you'll be able to see right in the title record how these comparable titles performed in your store and in the whole market. We have more info available on the integration of SalesData into CataList.
Accessing reading copies
Let's admit it, a big reason we got into the book business is our love of books; and we remain in the book business so we can continue to have access to books before everyone else. Let CataList help you with that. We can show you which books are on NetGalley and which ones can be requested directly from the publisher.
Get all the details about requesting reading copies in CataList.
Finding samples and excerpts
Sometimes publishers want to give you a taste of what the book looks like or what the writing is like. Using CataList, publishers can upload samples or excerpts and retailers can see them. You can tell whether a book has additional content like this by finding thumbnails of interior images or a button that says "Read an excerpt" under the cover image. Now you don't have to wait for the whole ARC or blad to get a better sense of the book – just click the images or buttons to see more!
Ordering tools
Another big perk for retailers is ordering tools. CataList allows you to enter order quantities as you browse through catalogues or search for titles. You can manage your orders in multiple sessions, tag a purchase order or promotion code onto an order, and export to an Excel or CSV file to upload to your POS or send to your rep. We also work with POS vendors on direct exports.
Get all the details about ordering in CataList.
All these perks (and more!) are free for retailers in CataList. Even if you choose not to use CataList as your ordering tool, there are still lots of benefits. If you're interested in setting up your retailer account — did we mention it was free? — contact us. If you're still not sure and want more information, you can visit our website for all the information you could ever want.
Highlights from The State of Publishing in Canada 2023.