We Need Your Business
to Keep on Helping
Dear Catholic Retailer,
Relax. This is not one of those pleas for donations you get every other week from some organization by "e" or "snail" mail. Though it is a plea for consideration that is vitally important for the continued funding of our apostolate.
We, at Good Catholic Information, desperately need your continued book orders to keep our information and counter cult ministry alive.
THE NEED WAS GREAT
AND STILL IS.
When we started our
information, apologetics and counter cult ministry over seven
years ago, other than Catholic Answers, help in the apologetics
area was hard to find. Virtually no one had a web site devoted
to biblical and historical defense of the Catholic Faith. Parish
and diocesan help for Catholics involved with cults, like the
Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, was virtually nonexistent. Catholic
psychologists and family counselors were not well versed. I know
all of this from personal experience. When my wife got recruited
by the Witnesses neither my pastor or bishop would come to my
aid. Surprising truth was, Catholics, like myself, could count
on more help from Calvary Chapel, the "Fundamentalist"
Christian Research Institute, or the Bible Answer Man than we
could from our own Church.
WE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING
ABOUT IT
When the powers-to-be
in my Church failed to answer my cries for help, I was both disillusioned
and devastated. I lost my Catholic wife to the Jehovah's Witnesses.My
marriage and my four children were in peril. But rather than lose
hope or abandon my Church for its shortcomings I decided to do
something about it. I took a leap of Faith and gave up my vice
president position and six figure income to establish Good Catholic
Information. I wanted to prevent anyone else from suffering the
loss and heartache I did. I wanted to be there for those suffering
from the kind of desperation and hopelessness I had felt. I invested
all the savings I had, and rather than beg for sustaining revenue,
I planned to finance this pastoral ministry from the margins I
could make from selling cutting-edge apologetics and counter-cult
books to Catholic retailers like yourself.
OTHERS SAW OUR DREAM
AND BOUGHT INTO IT.
Back then, now best-selling
author, Patrick Madrid bought into my dream and recruited our
apostolate as first distributor for his then fledgling Basilica
Press---first title: Surprised by Truth. We grew as Basilica
grew, suffered with them through all their growing pains and management
changes, and was able offer more counter cult help as a result.
With the addition of Did Adam and Eve Have Bellybuttons
and Ascension Press, many of you became regular case customers.
Our business and our ministry expanded as a result. While other
distributors came and went, we were able to attract other publishers,
establish services like a toll free order number, a comprehensive
web site, and firsts like the first national Catholic retail store
directory on the web. From the onset, our marketing emphasis was
directed to Catholic retailers like yourselves. We didn't run
direct-response, consumer-focused ads with bookstores as a footnote
or afterthought. We took your concerns about publishers selling
direct to heart. We believed with all heart there was a place
for a 100% Catholic distributor. We felt it wasn't right to sell
to you on Monday and against you on Wednesday.
WE MISS YOUR BUSINESS
AND NEED IT TO KEEP OUR MINISTRY ALIVE
We were sincerely
hoping that all the time, money and sacrifice we invested would
finally show some profit. That way we could expand and extend
our help to even more people. But unfortunately our sales, especially
over the past year, have dramatically declined We haven't heard
from many of you, especially former case customers, in months,
even though we continue to refer customers to your stores. Low
sales volumes have not only made it tough to meet basic operating
expenses, they've meant layoffs, cut backs on the help we can
give our desperate Catholic brothers and sisters, and, even worse,
they jeopardize our distributor status with publishers. Some have
advised us to adopt non-profit status and actively solicit donations.
Others counsel us to retain a credit card company and, like you,
sell direct to consumers. We know what it's like to have to pass
along the collection basket. We know how tough it is to make money
on the slim margins you make on Catholic books. Still , we'd rather
not solicit your customers for sales, then solicit you for donations
two weeks later.
WE ONLY WANT WHAT'S
BEST FOR ALL OF US
Any
of you who has spent any time talking to us knows that we champion
pure lines of distribution. We believe publishers should create
books, build primary demand and sell to distributors. Distributors
should sell to retailers, retailers to consumers. Co-op programs
can provide incentives and help grease the wheels. But, when the
lines are crossed (as they often are), and everybody sells to
everybody, customers are confused, relationships become bitter
and fragile, cooperation becomes self-seeking and an environment
for resentment exists. Because no one specializes in anything,
no one does anything well. What suffers most is the opportunity
to expand into the mainstream and evangelize. As an industry we
can only afford to preach to the choir. Year after year we're
out-marketed on mainstream mass media by Protestants, Mormons,
Jehovah's Witnesses and new age religions. There are more non-practicing
Catholics than any of the people in these groups. Sad truth is,
most of their recruits are ex-Catholics.
WE WANT YOU TO TAKE
ADVANTAGE
Here, at Good Catholic
Information, we give you the opportunity to access lots of titles--
all from one central source. We feature the complete line of titles
from Basilica/e3Press, Ascension, San Juan Catholic Seminars,
Harmony Media, St. Andrew's Productions, Stampley, Catholic
Replies Publications and the best apologetic sellers from
Sophia, Catholic Answers, Ignatius, Queenship,
Emmaus Road, Servant, Intervarsity Press and Random House.
You don't have to call to or ship from New Hampshire, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin, Oregon, North Carolina, Colorado, California, Ohio,
Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Mexico, Kansas City or
Maryland. One call to us at Good Catholic Information does it
all. You don't have to hassle with title minimums. You get standard
bookstore discounts or better on everything. You get the benefit
of shipping from a major market (plus drop ship benefits on case
orders from any of the above if it's to your benefit.) You deal
with a 100% Catholic Distributor (not a secular one that has a
religious division.) You don't add to the profits of any company
promoting anything not in line with the approved teachings of
the Catholic Church. We inventory best sellers. We can order anything
else for you from the publishers we represent. We'll drop ship
case lots directly from printers or publishers when it's to your
advantage. We'll match promotion prices whenever we can. We even
pro-rate shipping to match publishers geographically closer if
it means keeping your business.
YOUR BUSINESS MEANS
MORE THAN YOU KNOW
Catholic publishers
that sell direct to consumers, also sell titles from other publishers,
and sell to you. Non-publishers that set up wholesale, retail
and mini-distributor divisions sell to you. Brokers that act as
fulfillment arms of small publishers sell to you. Secular distributors
with "Christian" divisions sell you Catholic titles
right alongside Protestant ones and handle homosexual and soft
porn as well. So many hands are in so many pockets, it's hard
to know where to extend yours. Pricing, shipping and handling
structures are indiscriminate, inconsistent and confusing. You
don't know where your money goes or what it's going for. In the
wholesale web of Catholic marketing it's difficult to determine
where loyalties lie and where you should put yours. We make it
simpler. We, Good Catholic Information, are a "Marketing
Distributor to the Catholic Retail Trade." You are our primary
customer. We exist to serve you. When you buy good Catholic titles
from us, you not only support the Catholic publishers we represent,
you support a vital ministry to your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Like parish script, you can feel good about your purchase dollars
doing more. Your loyalty goes further than you can imagine.
OUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR
HANDS
When all is said and
done, the choice of where to buy Catholic books is up to you.
When making it, we pray you take stock in the difference we are and the difference you can make by choosing us at Good Catholic Information.
We need your help to keep on helping.
Believe or not, you don't have to write an extra check to do it.
Pax tecum,
Rick Sikorski,
Good Catholic Information
Marketing Distributor to the Catholic Retail Trade
1-888-634-8GCI (toll free)
1-949-495-8731 (fax orders)
wholesaleorders@goodcathinfo.com
Your comments are always welcome.
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