There are two kinds of sankirtana: book distribution and chanting of the holy names (harinama). When Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu started the sankirtana movement, there was no distribution of books, so “sankirtana” meant literally to go out in groups chanting the holy names. When Srila Prabhupada started the Hare Krsna movement in the West, there were still no books for mass distribution, so he also instituted the public chanting of the holy names as the main preaching activity for devotees. As devotees also needed some laksmi to survive, it was common to use a box or conch-shells to receive donations from people. At this time it was also not uncommon for temple devotees (even brahmacharis) to work outside, donating their salary to the temple, since laksmi was so scarce. Srila Prabhupada himself instituted it on the basis that if someone works outside and gives his entire salary to Krsna, he is actually in the renounced order and therefore such work doesn’t conflict with his status of brahmacari. Srila Prabhupada explains this point in his purport to Bg. 18.11:

18- Using all opportunities 

When distributing, it’s important to be attentive to opportunities that may present themselves to augment our book distribution. An interested person may put you in contact with a group of other nice persons, where you can distribute a number of books to quality people. Different events in the town attract different types of individuals, and many such groups may be favourable to our books. By going there and talking to people when they are entering or leaving (or sometimes even when they are inside), you can again get in contact with quality people who may be much more interested than most people in the street. In the United States, for example, devotees distribute large amounts of books at the entrance of rock concerts, where the young public is generally quite receptive. There are so many nice people that a lot of times they just start to scream: “Books about yoga and meditation!” and interested people go to them. 

15- Mantras 

Another important point is that sometimes we are very concerned about learning mantras, but mantras are of no use if we don’t have enough experience, the right qualities or enough spiritual strength to use them. We may learn all the mantras of great sankirtana devotees, but probably we will not be able to distribute nearly as many books as they do. The main thing is not the mantra itself, but the purity of the book distributor. It’s not just about repeating the words. Sankirtana mantras are like the celestial weapons used by ksatriyas in bygone eras: each weapon requires some special qualities of the wielder before it can be learned and used. One particular mantra may be effective only if we can control our enviousness or are perfectly peaceful. Another one may work only if we sincerely can see Krsna in the heart of everyone and therefore become truly humble, and so on. Without these particular qualities, we may repeat the words, but they are not going to have the same effect.  

13- Dress and then address

One important but often overlooked aspect of book distribution, is how we dress. The whole process of distributing a book depends on people getting a positive impression of the book distributor. If they get attracted to the book distributor’s mood, qualities, sincerity and appearance, they will stop and hear his presentation, but if they see him as an unpleasant person, it’s going to be very difficult to distribute books to them. 

9- Making a good presentation

If we succeed to give a good impression in this first phase, the person will become naturally receptive. We can then go to the next stage: presenting the book and giving our mantra. HG Navina Nirada Prabhu teaches that at this point the person will have three questions in mind, which your mantra should be able to answer effectively: 

7- Spiritual consciousness

To see everyone as part and parcel of Krsna and therefore treat every person in a respectful and personal way is another difference between material and spiritual consciousness. In material consciousness, we see ourselves as the enjoyers and others as objects of our enjoyment. Contaminated with this mentality we tend to treat people just like that: as objects. We treat nicely those who we think will be useful for our sense gratification and discard the others. Even when we treat someone nicely, it’s just because we want to enjoy him in some way: we flatter wishing to get something. If a person doesn’t act as we expect, we become angry and so on. Many times, we go out on book distribution with such a mentality, and therefore our sankirtana becomes heavily contaminated by passion and ignorance. We hand out the books caring only about the scores, and not about the people. We become upset when someone doesn’t want a book or gives a small donation. We are impersonal and inconsiderate in our dealings. 

4- Common mistakes

A common mistake, especially when one is starting on book distribution, is to draw out the book too soon, before stopping the person or introducing yourself, like if the book is a pamphlet. This is the quickest way to burn out a sankirtana field. Everyone sees the book, they see other people refusing it and they get the idea that it’s a valueless thing. Many think that you are giving the books away, and therefore snatch books from your hands without even stopping and so on. This is a terrible practice that has too many disadvantages to enumerate.

The proper way is to first stop people (by asking some question or starting a conversation) and to start showing books only when they stop. Keep in mind that our books are something valuable, and therefore you should not show them to everyone like a pamphlet. This way, the presentation of the books gets a much stronger effect and people are going to take them seriously. This practice helps them to perceive the books as something valuable. If the person is impolite, too defensive, etc. and you see that the conversation is not going to work, then it’s better to finish politely without showing any book.

In one sense, book distribution is a simple activity: we just try to present spiritual knowledge to people. Still, when we come to the practical application of this simple idea, the details start to multiply unlimitedly. These are a few points that I can present according to what I have heard from seniors and from my personal experience. 

The first important point about book distribution, in my realization, is that we can’t distribute what we don’t have. We go out to try to give people Krsna consciousness and to convince them about the importance of Srila Prabhupada’s books, but it’s not possible to do that if we ourselves are not Krsna conscious, and don’t have faith in his words.