marketing your products to retail establishments

I am specifically talking about note cards and calendars here. Will corporate book stores like Barnes and Noble or Borders consider independent artists that approach them with products? Has anyone had any success doing this? Any advice or recommendations?

Thanks so much and happy holidays!

Michael

I haven't tried it, but instinct tell me there's a procedure and a national contact. Best way to find out is to talk to your local store manager. It wouldn't hurt to check the web sites, but I doubt it will be that simple. And even after talking to the local manage you may have to sort through several more layers "up the chain."

You've got good instincts, but I don't know enough to help you fine tune.

Hey Michael, you would probably have to get them into their distrubutors before the stores could order, like they do with their books. So you have to convince the distribitor to carry your products and then convince the stores to order them. I beleive each area of the country has different distrubutors. Check with your local stores to see who they order from. Good luck even talking to anyone at the corperate offices, I have the Borders headquarters not far from where I live, and I called many times and left many messages never to get a return phone call.

A friend of mine tried to interest the manager of the Barnes & Noble college bookstore, where he's a professor, in my photo greeting cards. He was told that they have an agreement that they may not carry that sort of merchandise from a vendor other than their usual distributor unless the subject matter is specifically regional/local photos that they can't get from that usual distributor. Hope this helps....