Every season or two, there seems to be a display (or dump, as they’re called) that is very daunting to put together. I still remember from years ago the display for Swine Lake by James Marshall and Maurice Sendak, which had a stage, wings, and probably an orchestra pit. It took hours to put together. I can handle putting the usual nine-book cardboard display, but last week, the display for the new Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers presented a huge challenge.
I took out most of the pieces and laid them out. I tried very hard not to freak out at the sheer number of pieces there were. I reminded myself that I can follow directions. I mean, really, how hard would this be?
The directions, all 12 pages of them on 11×17 paper, were found at the bottom of the box. I skimmed and was immediately overwhelmed by the number of steps. There were 45! Yes, the pages were big, and the photographs were enormously helpful, but 45 steps, holy smokes, that would take all day.
I had the first piece in and it took fifteen minutes and I started despairing because I just didn’t have all day. Right at my darkest moment, the store festooned with card board pieces that needed a home, my friend Sue walked in. Sue can re-roof her house. So I thought this project might be easier for her. I was right.
After reading all the directions through once before even starting (a novel idea that I will emulate), she gathered all the pieces and six minutes later she was done. I just sort of stood around dumbfounded that she would be done so quickly.
The display is eye-catching and books seem to be flying out of it. The 
best part of having Sue help is that she wouldn’t take a free book or even a coffee, she just wanted the dump when we were done with it for her son’s room.
Now, that’s a deal I can get behind: Sue puts it together and she takes it away.
I remember putting dumps together when I worked for a chain store, years ago. When one of the “new” Star Wars movies came out, there was a display based on those robot-things that roll up and roll away, then pop open to attack. Wicked complicated and a million paper cuts!
I remember that one. I was fortunate enough to not have to put that particular one together as it was decided (thankfully before I dug out and separated all the various pieces and parts) that we just didn’t have the floor space for it, so one of my co-workers took it home. 🙂
This brings back memories. At my first bookselling job many moons ago I was struggling with putting a floor display together and the (very funny) owner walked by and stopped to watch me. He acted kind of annoyed wit me and asked, “Can’t you figure that out?” He then took if from me and smashed his foot and leg right through the base and walked away wearing it.
My personal favorites are the ones that are pictures only for instructions, no text. Black and White pictures. Of a black dump.
It made my day to see a mention of one of my favorite displays in this article! With creative input from Maurice and Michael, I designed the Swine Lake display. While Michael was still in the process of presenting the book, we knew that we wanted a stage with pigs on the display. Each time I spoke to Maurice about the display he asked me to make it wider and deeper. He wanted the buyer to be drawn into the comedy of his pigs in tutus dancing Swan Lake. Each design pass of the display got larger and more complicated. Finally the Sales Department weighed in and instituted a size ‘guideline’. We went through great pains to make it as simple as possible to put together. Despite those efforts we knew it would still be a challenge (especially the floor display version!) Though I heard great things about the sell-through on that display, accept my apology for the hours it took you to put together. With that display and all other book displays, the challenge was to create something that was visually attractive, could support the weight of the product, could be shipped packed AND still come in under budget. It’s great to see that interesting book displays are still being designed and produced! (p.s. much to my family’s embarrassment, I’m still one of those customers who fixes displays that have been assembled incorrectly…)
Hi Erik,
Thanks so much for writing. While we may struggled with the the display, it’s the only one we’ve ever kept. No apologies necessary. Your display came early on in my bookseling career and dumps were much more of a challenge then they are now.
If you ever happen by my store, you are more than welcome to fix any poorly assembled display 🙂
I wish I’d videotaped my staff person putting this together. He hadn’t tacked a difficult dump before and was quietly determined to make it right. Half an hour later he had, and then needed a break. It is eye catching, that’s for sure.
who remembers the Stephen King dump for Regulators/Desperation, that had the battery-operated, spinning, two-sided book on the top featuring both covers? I worked for B&N at the time and we were supposed to shut it off every night, but I would forget and it would set off the motion detectors. The cops would come, and the phone would ring, and someone would have to show up in pajamas in the night.
I never did read those books, since the dump was so much trouble!! lol
Thanks for the post! I had to chuckle as that was my reaction when faced with putting together this awesome display. It is up and I must say, it will stick around a little longer than others as I want to be able to enjoy my hardwork for awhile.