RAMP Summer & Holiday Catalogs

RAMP is a marketing, sales and production group managing the two seasonal (summer and holiday) catalogs for bookstores in four regions, including NAIBA.

Publishers: Ads are available NOW for our Summer Reading Guide (formerly known as the summer catalog)! Reserve your space.

Booksellers: Summer Reading Guides (formerly known as the summer catalog) are available for pre-order NOW! Just in time for Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer, this compact print (and digital) catalog is THE summer resource for readers. Don’t miss this FREE high-energy compendium of 40 summer titles curated especially for your indie customers! Current NAIBA members are eligible for a free box of 500; additional boxes are $55 including shipping. ORDER

Below are special considerations from NAIBA for using the holiday catalog. These deals are handled outside the system for ordering your supply of catalogs.

NAIBA offers a $50 credit on your next membership renewal to any member store that sends us photos of catalog displays, newsletter articles featuring the holiday catalog, social media screenshots, etc. Email us proof of in-store and online promotions of the catalog titles.

The holiday catalog sells books. Lots of books. And it is FREE to NAIBA members.

More ideas on how to make the most of your holiday catalog:

Use our direct/saturation mail option.
Insert in local papers.
Mail to customers.
Mail to top 20 customers with a handwritten appreciation note.
Place in other retail outlets.
Stuff in bags, hand out at your events and other community events.
Bring it to local independent living communities and take orders.
Have staffers choose a title they think will do well and have a competition to see which title sells the most copies. And the winning bookseller gets a prize!
Build a store display. Carry this throughout the store with mini displays in different sections.
Add a coupon to your imprinted catalog.
Add a QR code to your imprinted catalog that links to your digital page.
Include it in book shipments.

We’ve always used the free allotment of catalogs to give out in the store, as bag stuffers, and to share online. A few years ago I decided to try a mass mailing of the holiday catalog, so we added our branding and a coupon and had it delivered to 10,000 homes in our neighborhood. The first year we got back enough coupons that it seemed like a good return on advertising dollars. This year we’ve seen a huge increase. The big mailing of the catalog is really money well spent--we get hundreds of coupons back!

-Laurie Gilman, East City Bookshop, Washington, DC

We have inserted 9,000 Holiday Catalogs in 2 local papers each year for the last 5 years and hand out another 1,000 in the store. Our customers now look forward to seeing it in their paper the week before Thanksgiving. We have many customers who bring the catalog into the store and tell us what a great job WE did on the catalog!! Haha!!! Thanks NAIBA for this valuable piece of print material!!

-Jen Reisdorf, The Bookworm & BW Gifts, East Aurora, NY

As a brand new, small bookstore, I would not have had the resources to put together this fabulous selection of books, much less handle the creation of the actual catalog. By distributing this catalog we have met many new community members, and I am very grateful for my book selling friends at NAIBA for selecting such fabulous books!

-Kirsten Hess, Let's Play Books, Emmaus, PA

I love the holiday catalog! We had great results. We insert them in our newspaper with a coupon. The response to the coupon was unbelievable, the return rate was terrific. Thank you!

-Glenda Childs, The Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, PA

2024 catalog displays and promos from around our region...

A Likely Story

Bookends Bookstore & Homeschool Resource Center

Bookmarks

Booktenders (WV)

Browseabout Books

Bryn Mawr College Bookshop

Caprichos Books

East City Bookshop

Huxley & Hiro

Lift Bridge Book Shop

Looker Books

Main Point Books

Newtown Bookshop

Pages & Parchment

Park Books & LitCoLab

Snug Books

Winchester Book Gallery

Word Up

How are titles selected for the holiday catalog?

Publishers are the primary decision-makers in what titles are available for advertising in the holiday catalog. We have a good relationship with our publishing partners who tend to know our market, know what books they have marketing budgets for, and propose books accordingly.
Booksellers are invited to nominate titles every year. The call for titles is sent via emails and posted on our website.
If a title seems questionable to the indie market, a conversation may take place with the publisher; we always keep an eye on free speech and free press, and respect to diversity and content in every way.
Title lists are on the NAIBA website well in advance of catalog publication for review by booksellers. (Links are provided in the organization newsletter.) If a title seems objectionable, booksellers are welcome to contact NAIBA before catalog publication.
Free speech extends to titles and viewpoints an individual bookseller might not agree with.

See catalogs from previous years

Download the 2024 NAIBA Holiday Catalog