Successful selling of sets to a group is dependent on two principles:

Principle #1: “The more you show, the more you sell.”

If the sets are visible, you will sell them. The more visible they are, the more readily you will be able to sell them. (Note: even if you’re not able to follow the elaborate process suggested below, if you simply make arrangements to display the sets, you will also sell some. By the same token, books left in boxes in the dark recesses of a storage locker do not sell as readily.)

The Monthly Sankirtana Festival (MSF)is a fun way to do book distribution that gets everyone, including the congregation, involved. These festivals are based on the strategy that it’s best to have a lot of devotees each doing a little bit.

ISKCON Silicon Valley, (ISV ) has pioneered this strategy and now averages about 500 books and $3,000 each festival. Just two and a half years ago they were sending nothing to the BBT.

A Smart Box is a box which is “smart.” It knows exactly what cure the materially diseased people need in this age of Kali. It therefore distributes the most potent medicine – Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental books - to whoever is interested in taking it.

The Smart Box Project is an initiative taken to increase book distribution, sponsored by Friends of the BBT (www.friendsofthebbt.org) under the guidance of Vaisesika Dasa, ISKCON North America's National Sankirtan Strategist ably assisted by Sri Venkatesh Chembrolu of ISKCON Silicon Valley.

After going to the workshop on book distribution at the Festival of Inspiration at New Vrndavana, where I live, I became very inspired to take up a more imaginative approach to book distribution.

We have so many guests coming to visit New Vrndavana every week, and yet many had been walking away without even one of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Lord Krsna made this point very clear to me:

A renaissance in book distribution is blooming in North America. This revival is being led by a new pedigree of transcendental book distributors—the "Weekend Warrior."

Many "Warriors" are householders who have family obligations and who work during the week to earn their livelihood. But despite their busy professional and family lives, these devotees, eager for the nectar that comes from direct preaching, go out on weekends to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books.

Shastra Dana means "Giving of Shastra in Charity." Through Shastra Dana programs donors contribute for books that are then either given freely to institutions and other appropriate venues or sold at subsidized rates.

To learn more about this program we present a comprehensive manual for the Croatian Shastra Dana program. We also refer readers to www.sastradana.com, the site for the very successful programs in San Diego and Los Angeles.