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International Day of Peace

At BookExpo America, I was told a wonderful story by Melvin Weiner, director of the Peace Day Calendar Program. Last fall, he discovered the U.N.'s International Day of Peace, which occurs annually on September 21st.

As the sales manager for a large calendar publisher, Melvin did something only a few people in the world could have done. He enlisted the help of other major calendar publishers to add the U.N. International Day of Peace to their calendars. As a result of his work, most major U.S. calendar publishers will be listing the U.N. International Day of Peace in their 2009 calendars.

Last year on the International Day of Peace there were over 3,000 events in all countries involving hundreds of millions of people; these included vigils, workshops, exhibits, school activities and more - and that was before any calendars listed it. Now with the date on the calendar, they'll be even more!

I love it when someone who can make a difference takes the time to do just that.

For more information, check out: http://www.pathwaystopeace.org.

Labels: calendars, International Day of Peace, Melvin Weiner, United Nations

Publishing Calendars

Reader Question: I've enjoyed your book 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books, immensely. However, I'm a photographer and would like to self-publish a fine art calendar. I'm having difficulty finding the best route to go. Would I also hire
distributors to get my product into bookstores? I plan to market the calendar primarily at art festivals, but I'm looking for other distribution channels. Any thoughts.

John's Answer: I rarely encourage anyone to self-publish a calendar. Calendar publishing is a high-risk proposition if you are marketing to the retail trade. Calendars are dead in December and are returned heavily very soon after that.

Calendars for the retail market must be ready by May/June of the prior year. Must be distributed over the summer. Die in December. Buried in January -- buried in your warehouse as they are returned.

That doesn't mean you can't sell a calendar via your website and art festivals. But note that calendars, because they are full-color, are also expensive to print. To find appropriate printers, check out some of the magazine/catalog printers who would probably also be competitive in printing a calendar: http://www.bookmarket.com/catprint.htm.

I would suggest you consider selling the rights to a good calendar publisher like Ronnie Sellers Productions out of Maine. I think they would like your work.

Labels: art festivals, calendar publishing, calendars, Ronnie Sellers Productions