Using Treeline Analytics as a Publisher
Your indie bookstore customers utilize Treeline Analytics to get some help maintaining a healthy
inventory, including tasks like:
- finding those titles with which other stores are doing well
- finding the most-ordered upcoming titles
- getting a number of report cards for their stores
- finding those titles they should return
You can use Treeline Analytics to check how those customers are doing with your titles, specifically.
Below, you’ll find a quick tutorial for each available screen in Treeline Analytics:
First, you can get to Treeline Analytics through your Edelweiss homepage:
The first screen that comes up will look like this:
Note: since Treeline Analytics deals with actual sales and inventory data from actual stores, we’ll be
graying out the name of whichever store we’re looking at in this document, as well as any titles and
authors. In the screenshot above, you can see the dropdown menu in which you can choose which of
your accounts you’d like to view. WORD is a fantastic store with great sales, but we won’t be looking at
them at all here. You’ll be able to see here, though, which store and which location (if a multi-store
account) you’re viewing and when their data was last updated. Most stores update each night, but you
may see that some stores’ data feeds are a few days old. Feeds are cumulative for the month, so the
next time they update all data will be up to date. Note, too, that not all stores want you to see their
data, and so you won’t see them in this list. You can always ask them to make their data visible to you,
but they may, of course, decline to do so.
Now for the tour:
Title Lists
The Title Lists menu has two functions, the Market Top Sellers and the Market Top Not-Yet-Released.
Market Top Sellers
This is one of the more popular tools in Treeline. Here, you can see which of your titles are selling the
best, across the market, in a given time frame and how your stores are stocked on those titles. A retailer
would use this screen to see which of the bestselling titles they do not have in stock. This tool will help
you be sure that your accounts are not missing some important sales opportunities. The reality for a
store is that there are so many titles available that some are sure to fall through the cracks. This tool will
help you make sure that if they are accidentally out of titles, they’re not accidentally out of your titles.
1) Choose a store you wish to view
2) Choose a category. Choosing “All” is quickest, of course, but is also the least focused. (These are
BISAC categories)
3) Choose how many titles you would like to see, and for which market. You’ll see the same size and
region filters here that your accounts see
4) Choose a sales time frame
This graph, as shown in the illustration, reflects the 300 Top-Selling titles in all categories for the last 2
months. The whole pie reflects all 300 titles. The different colored pie slices show how this particular
store is stocked on those titles.
-The dark green slice shows titles that are currently in stock.
-The light green shows titles that are currently on order.
-The yellow shows titles that have been in stock, but are now out and not on order.
-The red, of course, shows titles that have never been in stock at this store.
The yellow (out-of-stock) and red (never-in-stock) sections are where the opportunities are. The onorder titles, though, in the light green are worth looking at too. If a title looks like it has been on order
for quite some time, there may be a problem.
Clicking in to a slice of pie will bring up a list of those titles. You can then send this list to Excel, quickly
copy a list of ISBN’s, or send the titles you’ve selected from the list to an Edelweiss Collection.
You can simply check the box next to titles you want to work with (or use the check box at the top to
select them all). Then simply select one of the options.
If you create a Collection, you’ll find that new Collection listed in your Collections tab in Edelweiss. From
there, you can mark it up and share it accordingly. You can also simply add titles to an existing
Collection rather than creating a new one.
There are 3 sections in each title list that give useful information.
1) This section shows the market details for this book. In the given time frame (the last two months in
this example) the top title was the 3rd best-selling book in the indie trade market. 77% of Treeline
stores had it on hand. Of that 77%, 81% had sold the title (there’s a difference between stocking a
book and selling a book, alas). There were a total of 3,045 units sold. Pretty good!
2) Bibliographic information: Title, author, ISBN, imprint, etc.
3) Section 3 shows the details of this title for the particular store you’re looking at. In this case, they
have 0 sales, 0 on hand, 0 on order, last received and sold back in March (this is showing data for
November and December)… this is a big missed opportunity for this store, and consequently, for
you and your publisher.
This store may have decided that they don’t like this book…the 3rd bestselling book in the country… and
don’t want to carry it anymore. This is all well and good, and that is their right, of course. But... They’re
missing out on sales, of that there can be little doubt.
While each bookstore is indeed a special snowflake with their own unique clientele and personality,
there are those core titles that are just selling pretty much everywhere. To ignore those titles (those
sales) is, well, an interesting business decision. You can use the data you find here in Treeline Analytics
to make the case to this store that they may wish to reconsider their decision. That said, they may not
even know that title is out of stock.
Note: In this, and all other Industry Standard Category lists, you can dive in to other categories to
provide a deeper and more specialized list. See genres by clicking here, and diving in to the subcategories:
This can be especially helpful if a buyer tells you they’re looking to beef up their sci-fi and fantasy
sections, for example, but have no idea where to start. This tool will show you which of your titles sell
well around the indie market, and how this store is stocked on those titles. Then, you can quickly create
a Collection in Edelweiss with notes and suggested orders, if needed, from which they can quickly place
an order with you.
Market Top Not-Yet-Released
The Market Top Not-Yet-Released graph shows how a store is positioned for the most-ordered
upcoming titles.
1- Choose a store
2- Choose a category
3- Choose the number of titles and market
4- Click a pie slice in the graph, or click “See All” to view all titles.
This graph shows your most-ordered titles, what this store has on order (the green) and what they do
not have on order (the red).
A few caveats: This graph is dependent on the store having a finalized purchase order in their POS
system. If they have not imported their orders yet (or entered them at all) this graph will show all red,
not on order. Most stores do this well, but some definitely do not.
The second caveat is that you can change the publication date, which will allow you to view titles coming
out in a specific month or two.
A “Best Practice” would be to look at the upcoming month and be sure that your stores have those big
important books on order. Frontlist can be easy to miss between drop-ins, multiple buyers, and the
sheer volume of titles coming out.
Clicking on a pie slice (or See All) will show you a list of titles with a slightly different format than with
the Market Top Sellers list. There will be no sales history, last received, or on hand columns since these
titles are not quite out in the wild yet.
1) Market data. The # column shows how a title is ranked in the list. Note, that ranking is decided
using an algorithm that weights the OO% (on order percentage) of stores who have ordered this
title higher than the total number of titles ordered. This way, one store ordering 1000 copies
won’t throw off the whole list. The AVG column shows the average order.
2) Bibliographic Data, author, ISBN, etc.
3) For this store, “O/O” shows the number of copies on order. “O/O Gap” shows the difference
between what they’ve ordered and the average order. In the top example, the average order is
7.7 copies, and this store ordered 19. The “gap from average” is then 11.3 copies. Generally,
unless this gap is a large negative number all is probably well here. If the store has 5 copies of
the next George R.R. Martin book on order, their “gap from average” will likely be about -80
copies… which would be considered “actionable.” It might be worth mentioning to your account
that they may have under-ordered a big title.
Drilldowns: Analyze
The Drilldowns tabs are where you’re able to see the health of your publishers’ titles at a
selected store.
Trends
The Trends screen will show you sales, average inventory, turns, and your publishers’ ‘share of
total store’ numbers all in one quick view.
1) Choose a store
2) Choose a category. Note: choosing ALL here means you’re looking at the entire store, any
category in which your titles are located
3) Choose a Time Frame. 12 months is a very useful view, but you can look at more recent
numbers, as well
4) Sales (retail dollars) of your titles for the given time frame. Click a dot to see which titles sold.
5) Average Inventory (retail dollars)
6) Turns. Essentially, how well your titles perform for this store. Most stores aim for 3 turns, so this
store is doing very well indeed with your titles with Turns of 5.8
7) Share of Total Store. In this example, your titles account for 11.2 % of this store’s total
inventory, and 14.4% of their total sales
Prism
The Prism will show you a quick breakdown of how your titles are portioned out in a particular
store based on format, price, or publication date.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Choose a store
Choose a category
Choose a filter. Format (binding) will likely be the most useful
Choose a time frame
In the example above, this store stocks trade paperbacks most heavily, of course, and they do quite well
with them, showing a turn number of 4.31. Hardcovers do quite well, too, but the surprise would be that
mass markets do very well indeed. They’re not stocked as heavily, but they sell very well. Useful
information, perhaps, if a buyer is balking at bringing in mass market titles.
Note: The “Other” format will show titles for which we’re not getting binding data, or that have more
unusual formats.
Drilldowns: Pinpoint
The screens in the pinpoint tab will show where the store may need some help, either with
returns, or with restocking recently sold titles.
In Stock Pie Chart
While sales reps aren’t always super keen to suggest that their accounts return titles, there is
something to be said for helping your stores stay healthy and making sure that they’re carrying the right
titles. Unsold inventory can be an enormous drag on the financial health of a store.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Choose a store
Choose a category
Choose a “threshold,” or how long a title can sit on the shelves without moving
Make the “Last Received Before” date match the ‘Sales History’ date.
In the example above, you’re looking at titles that have been sitting on the shelves for over a year
without selling. This is a pretty ‘gentle’ threshold to set…many stores try to return anything that hasn’t
sold in 6 months (or less) to be sure that their turns and profitability stay as strong as possible.
Many stores, of course, have never returned a single book, ever, and their inventories are bloated,
crammed, and thoroughly unhealthy (see also: unprofitable). You can help!
In the pie chart shown above, the red pie slice will show titles that haven’t sold at all in the last year.
The yellow shows titles that have sold 1 to 3 copies, and the green shows titles that have sold 4 or more.
Keep in mind, though, that these titles may have sold, but there has been a stack sitting on a shelf for
over a year. The store may have ordered in a dozen copies and sold 5, so now they have a dusty stack of
7 books that, arguably, their customers just don’t want. It would behoove everyone involved to replace
this stack of books with a stack of books that will sell much better than this. Stores have limited space
and limited funds, after all.
Click on a pie slice to pull up a list of overstocked titles.
In this list, the Last Received and Last Sold dates are where you should focus. Some of these have been
sitting on a shelf, unsold, for over 18 months. The bottom example has never sold, and is a hardcover to
boot.
In Stock Bar Chart
The bar chart shows basically the same information, but it portions these titles out according to
quantity on hand.
1) Choose a store
2) Choose a category
3) Choose a threshold
4) Match the Last Received Before date
Choosing to View as Absolute #s (as opposed to Percentages) will simply give you a display that’s
easier to click on.
The same parameters apply here as on the pie chart. This chart is simply a nice and easy way to focus on
those stacks of unsold titles. Using the Other Filters, you can choose to view only Hardcovers (or other
formats), etc.
You’ll be able to easily and quickly see if your account is sitting on giant stacks of unsold hardcovers, for
example.
Restock Support
The last screen, Restock Support, will show you, within a specific time frame, which of your titles
this store has sold and how they’re currently stocked on those titles. The titles that are selling are,
arguably, the most important titles in the store, and helping your accounts stay stocked on those titles
can be very helpful.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Choose a store (basically, just always be sure to choose a store)
Choose a category (and be sure to always be aware of which category you’re looking at)
Titles Sold Since—This date dictates the span of time for this sales and stock report
Month Sales History—This time frame doesn’t affect the pie chart, but will affect the data that
shows in the title lists after clicking through a pie slice
The dark green titles are in stock. These can likely be ignored. The light green titles are on order, and
the yellow titles have sold, but are not currently on order. These are the titles that need the most
attention.
This list will automatically be sorted by Sales, so whatever has sold the most will be at the top. The
last 2 columns, ‘Last Recd’ and ‘Last Sold’ are worth noticing, too.
Note: You can sort by any column by clicking on the column header.
That’s it! If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at
[email protected]