Every once in a while there are days that make a bookseller crazy crazy. Wednesday was that day for two reasons.
The first reason is the book fair we’re doing for a local school. Only two grades had notes go home to parents reminding them of the book fair so the kids came to school with money. The rest of the grades walked through with only a dollar or two. One thing the school does is have a used book fair at the same time as the new books book fair. This tradition is started to really cut into the new book fair. While I understand the allure of a used book fair for budget-conscious families, it does make a new book fair a really hard sell. A bag of a books for a dollar, or a hardcover for $17.99?  We just can’t win. Consequently, we’re not exactly selling new books hand over fist. And to top it off, several people have questioned that our giving a percent of the proceeds isn’t enough. Several people have implied that we should be giving all the proceeds of book sales to the school. While that would be lovely, we actually have expenses that need to be  paid. Expenses like the books, the staff time to process the books, the staff time necessary to return all the books that didn’t sell, all need to be factored in to the discount we give back to any school. It’s also hard to be enthusiastic about a book fair when a teacher was overheard telling a student that a book could be bought much more cheaply through another venue, rather than the book fair hosted by the local independent bookstore. Ouch. This kind of attitude flies in the face of the dedication we feel from so many of our customers, who shop us every day and continually support us and want us only to thrive.
The second thing that gave me fits was a call we got at 5:45 pm on Wednesday. A teacher called and asked about the pricing/discount we could offer on 106 copies of a book. I quickly did research and knew that this being a Simon and Schuster book, we could offer a slightly better discount because we could do a Business to Business order and get a better percentage, which I could pass on to the teacher. I called the teacher back and told her about the better discount I could offer her. Then I asked her when she needed the books. Monday. This Monday? Yes, she said completely seriously. Monday? Really? I kept asking. So, it’s now 5:45 on Wednesday and you want 106 books by Monday morning. Sure, I can do that. I could. I did it by going to a distributor, not the publisher, thus losing some percentage points. I had to lower the teacher’s discount to adjust for the change in purchasing. The teacher was very understanding about it. If everything works the way it should, we will get 106 copies on Friday.
Then the teacher asked if we delivered. I just laughed.

Have you got favorite literary festivals? Recently, I’ve been an author guest at a couple of excellent ones, and I had so much fun at both that I wanted to share a little bit of what made them so terrific.
The first was the Brattleboro Literary Festival earlier this fall. This festival features both children’s and adult books, and in years past, they’ve had many children’s book authors, but this year, there were just two of us: me and the ridiculously charming Jef Czekaj (usual pronunciation). (Just kidding; he pronounces it “Jeff.”) (Kidding again. It’s Checka, or really, something in between Checka and Checkeye. Oh for Pete’s sake, ask him. He and I both need to record our names for TeachingBooks.net, where you can hear authors and illustrators pronouncing their names and giving teachers and students a little tidbit of interesting related info.) Jef’s recent book is Hip & Hop Don’t Stop (<—click on the link to see his book trailer, which hilariously spoofs movie trailers while also providing a great entree into his story). As a bouncy rap/dance picture book, Hip & Hop pairs very nicely with my book, How Do You Wokka-Wokka? That was terrific planning by the festival organizers.

Jef and I were scheduled to do our presentations back to back on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, we had a chance to meet at the lovely author dinner hosted by the organizers. Although we’d never met, I gravitated toward Jef and his girlfriend, Jacy, immediately. Children’s book writers are a kindred breed.

We are also usually more casually dressed than our adult lit counterparts, it must be said, which makes it easy to recognize one another. We sat down at one of the long tables, where a beautiful woman sat down next to me and introduced herself—”Hello, I’m Marilyn Nelson”—and I had a truly starstruck moment. “THE Marilyn Nelson?!” I gasped, as though there might be numerous Marilyn Nelson impersonators just waiting to trip up hapless fans. I like to think she was pleased by my enthusiasm; I need to think it, in fact, since I gushed, a lot, about Carver and A Wreath for Emmett Till and her other gorgeous, poetic, powerful achievements.


Then Jef Czekaj changed my life. He really did, by mentioning that he has a recorded soundtrack that goes with his book when he reads aloud to groups of kids. My Wokka is a rhythmic book, and it’s fun to give kids some music or a beat behind it to dance to. I’ve got a friend, Mashabane, who played drums to Wokka at my launch party, but he is a busy man and I can’t drag him to every event. Somehow it had never occurred to me to use Garageband, already handily installed on my laptop, to lay down a track to accompany me when I’m on the road. So after the delicious dinner, I rushed back to my hotel room and spent the next two hours messing with some jazzin’ drum beats. (I also snacked on some of the fruit from the GIFT BASKET they left in the authors’ hotel rooms (the Latchis Hotel is really wonderful, and I got a tour of the renovated old-time theatre connected to the hotel). They also gave us an envelope with the festival schedule and our individual instructions for getting to our various venues. Very helpful.)

The next day, we met Ruth Allard, the conference organizer, half an hour or so before our event to check the sound system. There was a bake sale in the room, and bottles of water provided for us, and then families strolled in and sat in the rows of seats provided and on the floor. Jef and I took turns reading our books. I had my newly minted beat background; the littler kids happily danced around, wokka-ing. Afterward, there were lots of questions, from adults and older kids asking about the writing and publishing process, to preschoolers proudly telling me they had a brown dog or that their favorite color was blue. Then I got to watch Jef’s presentation, an energetic, funny, kid-friendly-rap-filled tortoise/hare friendship story. Schools must love this book, too, with its theme of celebrating differences and breaking through barriers to bring people together.
It was a delightful two days, and I loved how the entire picturesque town of Brattleboro, Vermont, becomes a literary mecca during the weekend of the festival. Thanks, Ruth and everyone! It was extra fun to see my bookselling colleague, Lisa Sullivan from The Book Cellar, at the reading with her adorable kids. The Book Cellar was a major provider of books for the festival, and they did a great job.

The Rochester Children’s Book Festival is another fabulous festival. As the title suggests, it’s all about children’s books. Let me just say that it’s a riotously fun and extremely well organized event where 40 children’s book authors and illustrators meet 4,000+ kids, families, teachers, and librarians. There are ongoing author presentations and book readings all day long, and a big room with tables where all of the authors and artists sit and sign books and chat with visitors to the table. There are crafts for the kids—an incredible volunteer named Margie Hillenbrand comes up with a craft related to one book from every single author and illustrator at the festival! It’s 100% volunteer-run and operated, which is absolutely amazing. The three powerhouses behind it are Elizabeth Falk, Kathy Blasi, and Barbara Underhill, and they manage to pull off a huge all-day event without any of its seams showing. Lift Bridge Book Shop provides all of the books for sale at the festival, and my bookseller self knows exactly how challenging and time-consuming that must be, while my author self is wildly grateful to them for doing such a great job. This is one of the best-run big book events I’ve ever attended; every aspect of it is thought through deeply and completely.
A few particularly wonderful things the festival provides for its authors: transportation everywhere you need to go; a gift bag with water, Post-its (to help with the autographing process), candy, and other goodies; and a curtained-off lunch area for us to refuel during the day and catch a breath. They also host a beautiful dinner after the conference, which is a blast. Picture a big room full of exhausted, giddy authors and illustrators chatting and laughing their heads off, and you’ll get the idea.
This post is already stretching the length limits, so I will now close with several photos that will do a better job of conveying the joy of this event (before, during, and after) than I ever could.

Young kids who love the store and are very possessive of it make me happy. It thrills me to see a child stride in, head up, marching toward the register to give one of us a hug.  When kids show off the store their friends it just kills me. The tour they give is priceless: “Here is where they have the book I have at home.”
Yesterday I was working alone. I was deep in the heart of a multi-step mail order sale when one of my favorite kids came in the store. She didn’t come in the store as much she swept in, practically dropping her coat to run toward the register. Celine didn’t care that I was on the phone as she shouted, “Hi, Josie!”
I was charmed to bits. This curly-headed moppet adores the store and loves coming in. Celine made herself very comfortable behind the register, sitting on one our spinning office chairs. Chad, her babysitter, had never been to the bookstore with Celine before and was somewhat horrified to see her making herself so at home while I was on the phone. As I was hanging up I heard Celine explain why she could sit in the back. “I have a wish list here.” As if that explained it all. And yesterday, it did.

We’re just a week into November and I’m deeply thinking about the holidays. I look around my store and try to guess what the “must have” books are going to be. While I usually look at books, yesterday I also spent a fair amount time trying figure out what the best stocking stuffers will be this year.
I  am not the sidelines buyer, thank goodness, but I do try to notice trends, so I can tell Elizabeth what’s working and what’s not. Fancy 3-D bookmarks are literally flying off their spinning display at a rate that has me wondering if we’ll have enough come December. Do we have the right animal mix? Are wolves going to outsell kittens? Are dinosaurs dead? This is what I think about when I’m quiet at work.
These cute little ceramic dolls from Japan are doing surprisingly well for a $12.95 item. I’ve seen enough kids and parents eyeing them that I know I won’t have enough to see me through the holidays. Do I have enough of the letter magnets that I was sure wouldn’t sell, and have been? And what letters should we really have in abundance? Is there an algorithm for knowing that for every “S” you have, you need four “E”s? All I know is there are never enough “J”s.
The problem with sidelines is often they take a long time to arrive at the store. Shipping is by no means overnight, or free, so it’s a guessing game of time and money. Sidelines can’t be returned as books can. So will I be stuck with 12 gorgeous ceramic, hand-painted flying piggy banks, or will they sell out, or fly, as the case may be, before Christmas? I just don’t know and this makes me crazy this time of year.
Guess right and you’re a genius who has all the doo-dads and cool add-ons that customers didn’t even know they needed. Guess wrong and you’ve lost a sale and are looking a January sale full of buying mistakes.
So, I’m curious what folks think will be the hot not-book sellers this holiday season.

This has been a wonderful fall for new books from some of my favorite picture book authors. As a bookseller who is also a lover of the picture book, it’s always a fraught moment when I see the latest book by my favorites. I want each book to succeed and meet all my expectations and surpass the previous book. I nervously open the pages and hope for the best. In these two instances, I was thrilled.
Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion is the third and final book in the Knuffle Bunny series by Mo Willems. This time Trixie and Knuffle Bunny go to Holland to visit her Oma and Opa. The adventure starts well enough, with going to the airport. There’s a funny image of Knuffle Bunny going through the x-ray screener and all seems well.  Until Trixie and family arrive in Holland and realize that Knuffle Bunny has been left on the plane.  Again, the combination of art and photographs works really well. Trixie’s Dad calls the airline and finds out that the plane was headed to China! The distance makes the loss of Knuffle Bunny seem all the more great.  Oma and Opa do their best to cheer Trixie up by getting her “a brand-new, top-of-the-line Funny-Bunny-Wunny-Doll Extreme!” Close but no cigar. A foreshadowing with Trixie’s dad sharing a story about outgrowing his “Special Lamby” sets the stage for a very moving ending. I have to confess the first time I read this book was out loud to 18 kindergarteners. I suggest that people read books once through before they are read aloud; I found it hard to not tear up a tiny bit at the ending. The book works as a very satisfying finale to the series.
David Wiesner is one of my all-time favorite author/illustrators. His wordless books are modern classics. So it was of great interest to me when his newest book, Art and Max, had words. The words work in this very playful exploration of art. Max and Art are good friends. Art is a practiced painter who thinks he knows everything about art, but it’s his friend Max who teaches him about real art. Max sets out to paint Max, literally. And this is where David Wiesner is so gifted: he really works with color, or lack thereof, on the page to dramatic effect. As Max tries and tries again to capture Art, the pages fill with color against the pale desert backdrop. Gentle humor between the friends made me laugh with the words and the art. The different media are as educational as they are beautiful; what a fun and clever way to introduce art to children.  I tend to pore over books by David Wiesner and this one is no different.
Both of these men have two things in common: they produce great books and between them they’ve won three Caldecott Medals and five Honors. I suspect this year they’ll both be adding to their medal count.

On Facebook the other day, I happened to catch sight of Margie Palatini’s new book trailer for Lousy Stinkin’ Rotten Grapes, her fun new collaboration with Barry Moser. The trailer was terrific: funny, brief, well-edited, visually appealing — and it definitely makes a viewer want to see the book.
Lousy Stinkin’ Rotten Grapes book trailer
Watching it made me realize how rarely I see (or seem to seek out) book trailers, although there are so many terrific, effective ones out there. I really only watch them if an author or illustrator friend (or a publicist, or a blogger) alerts me to it via Facebook or email or blog post.
And that realization made me curious about who, exactly, IS watching — and using — book trailers, and where, how, and why. I know that YA book trailers seem popular with avid teen readers, many of whom create trailers themselves in homage to favorite books (or, sometimes, as send-ups of some of the more popular books). But how much of a viewership is there beyond teens, authors, and the social networking friends of authors?
So we’re asking you:
Do you booksellers and librarians who embed trailers on your sites find that they get many hits/views?
Do your customers/patrons ever mention book trailers to you?
Do you publishing folks find that book trailers lead to sales (or at least increased hits, or interest in the books) on your websites? Is this even trackable?
How important do you feel book trailers are for authors? And what do you consider to be their goal and best use?
Finally, where do you discover new book trailers, and what makes you want to watch them?
I’m so curious about this subject and would love to hear from you all.

We’re reaching that time of year when all schools, it seems, are having book fairs. It makes sense to have the book fair right before the holidays as folks are thinking about presents for the entire family. In-school book fairs are the most common, although the appeal of an in-store book fair is not lost on some schools. I want to talk about in-school fairs.
The most successful book fairs are ones with the most parent and teacher involvement. You’d think that goes without saying, but often book fair times are not really thought out for increasing sales. Our last in-school book fair had us slotted to be at the school during half days and parent-teacher conferences. Needless to say, the kids seldom came through and the fair was a bust.
– Timing is key. Work with the school to find a time, usually over several days, when the school is in session to have the book fair. Make certain the room you’re having the fair in can be locked at night. This protects the books and makes all involved sleep better.
– Secure good volunteer help before the book fair begins. This is perhaps the most vital part of any book fair. It’s also really helpful to have one contact person at the school. This person is key. She (let’s face it, not many dads help at book fairs) is your point person at the school, she knows how to run the cash register and, most importantly, she’s personally invested in the book fair’s success. It’s her job to make sure she has enough help at the school.
– Be very clear up front what the bookstore’s role will be. When we do book fairs, we provide the books. The school is responsible for getting the books from the store to the school and setting them up and making sure they received what we said they would. When the book fair is over the school is responsible for packing up and bringing the books back to the store. Although we have found that helping the school with set-up and display can help create better sales.
– Stores must provide a clear list of all the books provided. We usually give schools a master packing list and then a sales sheet to use at the register. As books get sold a hash mark is placed next to the title. These lists can be invaluable if there’s a dispute or the money at the end is either over (as the case usually is) or under.
– Ordering books for book fairs is always the hardest part. This is where you need to know your school. Are they looking for hardcover gift books for the whole family, or are paperbacks more what they’re looking for? One thing to keep in mind with book fairs is that Scholastic Book Fairs have gotten schools and parents used to lower prices on all the books, so having non-discounted hardcovers could really backfire. There is always the struggle to have a book fair that looks full without overwhelming the school. This has always been a challenge for us as we don’t take orders at book fairs, so if we run out of it, it’s not there to buy anymore.
– Work with the school librarian and teachers about wish-list books. These are often great sellers as parents are eager to help out by purchasing books that have been specifically requested.
– Remember to include your state’s award list books. Parents like getting books they think the kids will like that might also be books the kids have to read.
– We have found one of the best predictors of sales is doing book talks to as many classrooms as possible. Elizabeth gets really smart and she creates a flyer for her book talks that the kids can take home with them. Nothing’s as easy as circling the covers of the books you think you’d like. Then the parents can see what the kids want and can budget accordingly.
– The kids need to have access to the book fair. They often need to see the books more than once. So, if classrooms can go through the book fair twice, if not more, then they’ll be more likely to buy books. More importantly than the kids seeing the book fair, are the parents knowing about it and either giving their kids money to buy books or coming in themselves to buy books for their kids. Send notes home with the students about what time their class is going through the book fair so the kids can have money, or  the parents can come at that time and shop with their child.
– While no one really likes contracts, sometimes they’re helpful for book fairs. A simple contract states what percent of total sales goes back to the school. It also protects the bookstore from damages as how they are dealt with can be clearly laid out.
– Check the books back quickly once the school gets them to you. The faster the store does this, the faster the store gets paid and the sooner the school gets its money. Also, disputes about damaged or missing books can be handled speedily.
In a perfect world, all the books sell, none get damaged and everyone is happy. I don’t live in such a world, but we’re doing a book fair next week, and I’m hoping for the best and that no one gets a headache.

Several weeks ago I wrote about the fun of actually having time to plan ahead for our Spooky Story Hour. We have an event space upstairs from the store that really is perfect to turn into a  haunted room. I waxed rhapsodic about the joy of getting the cream of the crop Halloween decorations, and then I totally forgot to go shopping.
So, once again it was the day of the story hour and I was scrambling around town to find scary things. We actually had some decent things left over from last year so I didn’t need too much. I had some disembodied heads that lit up, and my personal favorite, a black sweatshirt filled with helium balloons suspended from the ceiling.
But you know what? The kids weren’t impressed by the decor. They just wanted to hear scary stories, and lots of them. We arrange the story hour (it’s actually two hours of stories) so that the young kids can hear less scary stories first, and then we work our way up in age and fright levels.  This year there were calendars listing that had the event starting at 4:30, not the real time of 4:00, so we had an influx of really little kids at

4:30.
I took the little ones downstairs and read about eight stories.The kids were all under four, so I tried not to read anything scary, but I inadvertently terrified a little boy when I read Where’s My Mummy? I had a very bad cold and I think my shockingly deep voice scared him more than the little mummy lost in the woods. It’s not fun to make a little kid cry.
Elizabeth entertained the older kids upstairs. After terrifying the toddler, I crept up the stairs and stealthily entered the room with a roar and a growl and scared the bejeepers out of the older kids. Now that was fun.
So for next year my goal is to make it fun and cozy for the younger kids and to absolutely scare the older kids who think they can’t be scared anymore. And I’ve got a whole year to plan.