The Book People

mattcanary

I have spotted a position advertised on Gumtree recently as an Assistant Distributor for The Book People. This is a self-employed position and I would help an existing long-term franchisee of the organisation.


The BookPeople basically sell books at businesses. You drop books into workplaces and return about a week later, collecting payments from anyone there that would like to buy any of the books that have been left there.


I enjoy driving and travelling around, as well as meeting a wide range of people, within a work environment and like books so feel this could be suitable for me.




The advert (and company website) suggest that £20-25k a year is very achievable. You would need to supply your own Transit van and storage space.
I don't have either of these - but leasing a van through someone like Northgate Vehicle Hire and storage space through the YellowBox company (who have a depot close to my home) would be feasible financially if the income mentioned is achievable. My living expenses are low.


Does anyone here have experience of The Book Company?
Would this opportunity be a worthwhile one?


Thanks for the help that anyone can give me!

lincroft1710

How much money would you receive for each sale? If £2, then you've got to sell 12,500 books to make £25K, if £5 then 5,000 books.

How much would leasing a van cost per year? And the storage for the books? And the diesel for the van? How much display stock will you need to carry? Do you have to pay for it?

Remember your competition is Amazon and Kindle plus discount bookshops.

I seem to remember someone doing something similar 20 or so years ago. Would bring a load of books into our office and display them on tables. Perhaps sold 2 or 3 books. After a couple of years, they gave up.

Without knowing how much you receive per book sold, you cannot start to decide whether this is viable or not.

ms_night_ryder

That is not all book people do.

They used to come to my workplace and they sell to you there and then taking the money from you on the spot, they used to sell loads, they are cheaper than stores and the rrp.

Marshmallow82

This is network marketing like Avon, betterware etc

This "franchisee" gets money for every person they sign up. You can't rely on it, you can make nothing or make a loss.

If you are leaving books for people to browse, you will pay for those and you may not get them back!

McKneff

Please, don't touch it with a barge pole....

soolin

I knew people that used to do this, I can't be 100% sure it was the same company, but basically they took a selection of books in to places and collected them a week later with orders. They also did direct sales at larger offices and would advertise that they would be there in person at such and such office and would sell stock as well as take orders.

At the time I was a self employed dealer of 2 nd hand books and tended to make more than they did based on how long we spent doing it each week.Most of the ones I knew gave it up around the time I gave up my business in 2010, the market in books just completely died.

I still occasionally have contact with a person who carried on, but they ended up taking a second job as well and fitting in the books in the evenings, weekends and on their day off. Working 2 jobs, 7 days a week to get an hourly rate that barely paid the bills.

Hermia

We have someone bring them into my work and he doesn't make much. The problem is the rep can only carry a tiny selection of stock compared to their website. For some reason he only ever brings in kids and cookery books! So what always happens is that some of us will like the books he brings in and will then look on the site and see lots of others great cheap books with free postage and gifts etc. so of course, we then just order via the site. I imagine he must have to go to an awful lot of places to get enough orders.

oldharryrocks

Marshmallow82 wrote: »

This is network marketing like Avon, betterware etc

This "franchisee" gets money for every person they sign up. You can't rely on it, you can make nothing or make a loss.

If you are leaving books for people to browse, you will pay for those and you may not get them back!

Since when has it operated the Network Marketing Model ?

oldharryrocks

McKneff wrote: »

Please, don't touch it with a barge pole....

Out of interest why ?

mattcanary

It doesn;t sound too positive does it? Although I definitely don't think it is network marketing.


The position was advertised on Gumtree. I have replied to the advert, attaching my CV and a cover letter.


They've not got back to me yet but I would like to meet up with them, if and when they are interested in me.


I will bear in mind though that I need to find out the average commisison I make on each book sold.
I do know you don't pay for your stock upfront. You pay once books have been sold. That is a positive, at least.


Thanks for your advice, everyone

soolin

There is a thread running here but dated before the book market died.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1737933