Publishers should send their sales materials directly to the sales reps, allowing for more direct contact between you and the reps and eliminating 7-10 days of transit time via NBN. The first mailing to prepare for is the "Early Bird" materials. These are for all titles whose pub date is the first month of a season (December, April, August) and those that are requested for the "big box" presentations. We strongly suggest that if you cannot provide adequate materials on these titles to the reps a full 6 weeks prior to conference, you consider pushing the pub date back a month.

All other materials should reach the sales reps before the sales conference. Please ask your Account Manager if you have questions about the timing or what to send.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR MAILING TO CANADA:
Please do not put a value on the paperwork for your shipments; mark them NCV (no commercial value) or tariffs will be assessed.

If you would like to bring materials to sales conference for show and tell, we suggest that you bring about 6 copies to pass around and leave with us. However, you should also be sure to send materials directly to sales and marketing as specified above.

Some materials that are critical for every rep to have, regardless of category:

• Attach the cover to your materials so they can easily identify the book, and always include the publisher name, book title, ISBN, price, format, pub month.
• One page sheet outlining the marketing plan for the book.
• As much information on the author as possible (often the information on the tip sheet and catalog page are limited). Please be sure to identify the city and state where the author lives (including if he/she summer vacations in the same place each year), if they are associated with any university, etc. First and foremost the rep wants to make sure that an author's local store is carrying their book.

Fiction (adult, middle reader or YA)

1. Galleys (if available), or a complete manuscript, or at the very least the first few chapters (50 pages).
2. Any early endorsements/blurbs

Adult Non-Fiction

1. table of contents
2. introduction or foreword (if applicable)
3. sample chapters (the 1st chapter is preferred)
4. sample interiors/color page spreads (if book includes any art or photography or has a unique design element)
5. sample recipes (for cookbooks)
6. endorsements/blurbs

If it is a fine art book, gift book/coffee table type title the most effective materials are high quality blads. This is really essential for a rep, especially on a book that is $35 or higher.

Children's Picture Books

1. F&G's (folded and gathered signatures of the book) are the absolute best way for any rep to sell picture books. If you are not able to supply F&G's, then the rep must have, at minimum, color page spreads with the complete text.
2. For board books/novelty items, bulking dummies are key to the rep's success. Printers can supply you with these dummies and you can paste in a few pages- to give the buyer the best feel for the book.