The Campus Bookstore
College campuses offer a full slate of resources that might further an a cappella group’s artistic accomplishments and exposure. Who should your group reach out to? How? What do you have to gain? Campus Connections is here to answer those questions.
This column is targeted specifically toward collegiate a cappella groups, though some of the principles and ideas we discuss may transcend that sphere and be useful to high school and non-scholastic groups as well.
In this edition of Campus Connections, our focus is on: the campus bookstore.
Students have a love-hate relationship with their campus bookstores. The love comes from easy access to not only books, but school t-shirts and sweatshirts and baseball caps and coffee mugs. The hate comes from over-priced textbooks and school memorabilia that, more often than not, you know you could find cheaper elsewhere, and yet it’s so convenient to not have go off campus or wait for shipping that you give in anyway.
While you’re welcome to maintain whatever feelings you may already have about your campus bookstore, it’s foolish to overlook opportunities to collaborate with them. The campus may well be eager to sell your group’s new CD by its cash register, or possibly even group swag like t-shirts of your own or promotional stickers. Sure, the store will probably take a cut of your profits, but you’ll be exposing yourself to potential buyers that don’t only include fans who come to your show, but also students, faculty, staff, and administration who may stop by the bookstore for anything from a windbreaker to show their school pride, to Christmas gifts, to a candy bar from the front counter. In any of these cases, you’re accessing people who were planning to spend money anyway, and, in most of those scenarios, have at least some level of school pride and thus may relish in supporting the school’s arts program.
Depending on your bookstore, fostering a relationship with the management may even afford you the opportunity to use the store for a performance space during a busy time like the start of the term or during a buyback period; the bookstore may also be uniquely equipped to facilitate sales for you during a new album release event in their space.
Not every campus bookstore will have the infrastructure of willingness to cooperate that I’m alluding to, but you may be surprised by how many would. Reach out, and this can become one of your most valuable connections on campus.