WebCommerce and the nation's largest society of published authors

The Authors Guild, the nation's largest society of published authors, is a leading advocate for fair compensation, free speech, and copyright protection.

Q. What first attracted you to the idea of selling your goods online?

A. Backinprint.com, an online bookstore for out-of-print books, was developed as an online store from conception. Working with a limited budget our goal was to reach the widest possible audience to sell books.

Q. What were your goals when you started out?

A. Our goal was to build a site that would sell books as well as accept submissions for our on-hand and on- demand services. The bookstore inventory had to be easily accessable. To accomplish this we built a searchable database, a "browse our catalog" section and a "help" section. Our on-hand service affords authors the opportunity to sell existing copies of their out-of-print books. The on-demand service allows authors to print additional copies on an order by order basis. Both services require the applicant to send us all the information we would need to build the pages to represent the author and their books. To accomplish this we built interactive forms and advice sections organized in step-by- step instructions.

Q. How easy was it to set up and integrate e-commerce into your existing website?

A. We have been working with WebCom for about four years before we ventured into WebCommerce. We chose to build Backinprint.com, our third WebCom hosted web site, at WebCom because of the reasonable cost, great technical support and reliability!

Q. How does selling online differ from selling in the 'real' world?

A. The very impetus for Backinprint.com was to build an alternative place for people to buy books. It's a great way for authors to extend the shelf life of their books.

Q. What specific marketing efforts/techniques do you employ to increase your online sales?

A. Our PR techniques are pretty straight forward. When we officially launched this past summer we sent out press releases and gave interviews to all the major newspapers and publishing- related magazines. We were featured in many including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Examiner, Publisher's Weekly and others. We were also featured on National Public Radio last month (11/99). We place ads in various print media and write about the project in The Authors Guild quarterly journal. Every time we are mentioned the web site traffic notably increases.

Q. What effect does having the ability to shop via your website have on your walk-in customers?

A. We are completely virtual. The site does however provide a longer shelf life to books that would initially be available for a limited time in a traditional bookstore and then find a permanent home at Backinprint.com.

Q. What are some of the advantages to you, as a merchant, in making your goods available online? Any disadvantages or pitfalls?

A. Among the advantages is the 24 hours 7 days a week access and the low rent. The disadvantages are relying on people to know how to use the web.

Q.. What, if anything, surprised you about selling online?

A. The number of people you can reach is amazing.

Q. How easily did Webcommerce fit in with your existing business practices?

A. We could not have built Backinprint.com without WebCommerce.

Q. What do you like best about WebCommerce?

A. Its flexibility. It is very easy to make changes to pages whenever needed.

Q. What advice would you offer to someone who wants to open a WebCommerce store?

A. Soft launch your site a good six months before the public launch. This will afford you the time to work out all the design and structual kinks before your advertising efforts.

Q. What marketing advice would you offer to a new web merchant?

A. Advertising is still key to getting people to visit your site. Try some free publicity by getting articles written about your project whenever you can. Be sure to include the site address in all your advertising, including brochures and business cards.
 

The staff at Backinprint.com are honored to have you visit them on the web at: