ABSTRACT
This chapter considers five particular markets: home sales, export sales, special sales, rights sales and sales direct to consumers, and offers advice on how the selling may best be achieved in each case. Selling is often understood as a simple process: the offering of goods in exchange for satisfaction; the fulfilling of needs. Within the publishing industry, the existence of specific retail outlets that managed the sale of books to customers meant that distance was established in the selling process. Libraries usually work with specialist re-sellers and library suppliers, buying using selection criteria set up with their preferred supplier. Sales of publisher materials used to be routinely channelled through intermediaries –bookshops, wholesalers, specialist agencies dealing with particular markets. P. Kotler et al’s theoretical model of buyer behaviour concentrates on a series of logical stages from problem recognition and information search to information evaluation, decision and post-purchase thinking, within a context of marketing and other stimuli that may affect buyer thinking.
