We are going to put out a (GORGEOUS, if I do say so myself) calendar and sell it off the site. But it’s going to be so incredibly beautiful, I know there would be places interested in selling it.
But every card and gift shop on earth deals with distributors for this kinda stuff.
I have googled until I’m blue in the face, and I’ve called many, many stores. The googling led me to the two most gigantic book/calendar wholesalers on earth, who, of course, are not the slightest bit interested in talking to me. I know this because I did NOT call them, it’s just a given. But apart from them, I’m coming up dry. Calls and emails to retailers to ask who their distributors are has yielded a weird stonewalling reaction “That’s privileged information” Huh???
There has to be some small, specialty guys that deal in unusual material…but how the hell do I find them?
I’ve never done anything like this, but seems to me like you’d have to start with a publisher or printer, instead of printing it yourself and then looking for a distributor. The publisher or printer will have his own distribution network for his goods.
I can understand why the Book Emporium doesn’t want to tell you where they get their calendars, because there are probably lots of people in your shoes, with a keen idea for a calendar but no way to get it on store shelves. The Book Emporium owner knows that if she tells you who her distributor is, you’ll call him up and pester him to carry your calendar, and then he’ll be pissed at her because she gave you his number. So she’ll just say, “That’s private”, because it is.
If you still want to print it yourself, all I can think of would be to suggest that you find some funky little bookstores yourself and persuade them to carry it, and bypass the distributor entirely.
There are a variety of smaller distributors with a variety of specialties; don’t know offhand whether any of these guys handle calendars or not, but it’s worth a try:
I didn’t really process who I was replying to; a couple of the distributors on my first list, while handling general interest material, are affiliated with religious publishers.
I didn’t really process who I was replying to; a couple of the distributors on my first list, while handling general interest material, are affiliated with religious publishers.
I didn’t really process who I was replying to; a couple of the distributors on my first list, while handling general interest material, are affiliated with religious publishers.