How do small presses prepare sales sheets?
- A sales sheet is the one-page document that sells a title to the trade.
- Five sections: metadata, pitch, comps, audience, ordering info.
- Metadata includes ISBN, format, price, page count, and pub date.
- Ordering info tells buyers exactly how to stock the book.
- It is built for booksellers and distributors, not readers.
Small presses prepare a sales sheet as a one-page document aimed at the trade: metadata (ISBN, format, price, page count, pub date, BISAC), a sharp pitch (the hook in a few sentences), comps (comparable titles that place the book), target audience (who buys it), and complete ordering information (distributor, terms, how to order). It is a selling tool for booksellers, librarians, and distributors — not a reader-facing description — so it leads with the facts a buyer needs.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Booksellers and distributors decide whether to stock a book from the sales sheet, often in under a minute, so a missing price, a vague pitch, or absent ordering information can cost the sale. A complete, well-built sell sheet gives the trade everything needed to say yes and place an order. For a small press without a sales force, the sheet often does the selling on its own.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Metadata: ISBN, format, price, page count, pub date, BISAC.
- A pitch: the hook in two or three sentences.
- Comps that position the book for the trade.
- Target audience and key selling points.
- Ordering information: distributor, terms, how to order.
- Cover image and any endorsement quotes.
Chapter iii·Example
A small press builds a one-page sell sheet for each spring title: cover image, full metadata block, a three-sentence pitch, two comps, the target reader, a blurb, and the distributor and ordering terms along the bottom. A regional bookseller scans it, sees the price, the comps, and how to order, and places an opening order — all from the single page, with no rep call needed.
In WriteLoom
Everything this article talks about, in one project
WriteLoom holds each title's metadata, pitch, comps, and ordering info together, so building a sales sheet is assembly, not a hunt.
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