{"id":31284,"date":"2019-10-18T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31284"},"modified":"2019-10-18T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T12:00:02","slug":"a-picture-book-free-for-all-the-follow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31284","title":{"rendered":"A Picture Book Free-for-All: The Follow Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I tend to do at the beginning of a new buying season, I dumped out a table full of picture book samples this week to see what our frontline booksellers had to say. There were some great \"\"<\/a>highlights, and I\u2019ll have the full report next week, but first I thought I\u2019d circle back for a minute on previous<\/a> installments of this series. The truth is that these initial bookseller reactions are just the first step on the path to determining the next staff favorite or in-store bestseller.
\nThe staff joke is that every mind will be changed and raves (and pans) will be forgotten\u2014or reversed\u2014by the time books roll in and enter the actual collection. That’s partially true, and it\u2019s also true that reactions can be\u00a0different when looking at books within a limited selection versus\u00a0in the context of the whole store. Our longtime picture book specialist, Merrilee, is famous for writing \u201cmeh\u201d on an samples she ends up handselling like crazy or writing \u201cme likee!\u201d on a book she ultimately forgets to recommend. As author\/part-time BookPeople bookseller Leila Sales wrote recently<\/a>, it’s not always easy to predict which books will rise to top of mind when you’re in the moment helping customers right in front of you.
\n
\nOf course it\u2019s valuable to get this instant bookseller feedback at sample review meetings. But in a store like ours, it’s ultimately the buyer\u2019s job to parse all these reactions, factor in trends compiled over time, and then also think about what we\u2014as a store\u2014want to be talking about in a given season. Frontline booksellers\u2019 perspectives on what sells can, for obvious reasons, be skewed by what they personally like. I can\u2019t tell you how often buyers get notes questioning stock on particular titles that are \u201cselling like crazy\u201d when the sales numbers don\u2019t really\u00a0bear that out. Booksellers know what they recommend (and they know what they see people stopping and looking at)\u2014but they don\u2019t always see what actually sells through.
\nSo looking back at past picture book sample posts, I was curious to see what ultimately rose to the top! Well, there are the obvious no-brainers, the books that our booksellers love because EVERYONE loves them, like Christian Robinson’s\u00a0Another. <\/em>No surprise, that one has been a huge hit. Sure, there were a couple that ultimately flew a little under the radar, but we built nice bursts of energy for a number of them, such as You Are Home<\/em>, which\u2014with its National Parks focus\u2014was perfect for summer travel season. Look! I Wrote a Book!\u00a0<\/em>was our newsletter pick for the month of August, which always gives books a nice boost. And\u00a0King of Kindergarten <\/em>was a huge seller for back to school.\u00a0Plus, bookseller enthusiasm helped flag our store for at least one successful author event (for Truman <\/em>by Jean Reidy).
\nPokko and the Drum <\/em>from our fall round-up<\/a>\u00a0is also already off to a great start and will be included in our annual holiday catalog. In addition to fall favorites, I find the catalog can be a terrific platform for highlighting a few\u00a0gems from earlier in the year that deserve a little more attention than they got, like\u00a0Sweet Dreamers\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Little Doctor and the Fearless Beast<\/em>. Here’s what\u00a0I’m featuring in our catalog for the holidays. What\u2019s on your picture book list this year?
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a> \u00a0\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>
\nCurious to find out what picture books for winter 2020 are\u00a0piquing our interest right now? Stay tuned for a new picture book free-for-all next week! Want a sneak peek? Here are some direct quotes from the room:
\n\u201cI would LOVE to see a 70 year old tightrope walker!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWhy\u00a0make a picture book and use bland colors?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWait. Is pink still a thing?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cEw! It\u2019s got a possum. No! No! No! No!\u201d<\/em>
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A buyer circles back to talk sell-through on bookseller favorites. Plus, a holiday preview!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}