Jan,
hi.  it's been my experience that university presses are more than willing to
work with small and irregular orders.  if such would fall into your desired
purchases, perhaps try university presses rather than larger commercial
publishers.   you might discuss with vendors the possibility of buying all your
books now - but having them only ship/bill some now and the remainder later.
reality says that small presses need funds to stay in business and so for their
scaleof business, they have to sell certain numbers. You might be able to buy
from a wholesaler who will let you buy small amounts while charging you a
little more than if you bought directly from the publisher.  Minimum purchases
and minimum numbers for each title can often be quite small.  Also, i think
you'll need to look long and hard to find a co. that'll do picture to postcard
at a cost of 12cents each, especially if you're looking at a short run (only a
few hundred or less).  if you can find one, please share with the list - i'd
love to do some under those circumstances.   i hope this helps.  do you sell
other things in your store?  if  you'd like additional help, please let me
know.
linn

Jan McCormick wrote:

> Greetings:
>
>         I work for a small history museum, and the distributors that we buy
> our books from do not want to work with small orders during the off-season.
> I would appreciate any information on distributors for small museums or
> flexable distributors that will work within the limits of a small museum.
>         I am also interested in any information on companies that will
> reproduce  old photos into postcards. We would like to sell them for .25
> cents each, and still make a small profit.