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<\/a>The fiction corner of Teen Lit (we separate fiction and fantasy).<\/p><\/div> A beautiful Earth Day display by Staci Gray<\/p><\/div>
\nLast week I wrote a little bit about the fun of previewing new books at conferences like Children\u2019s Institute. And that\u2019s always a key part of these gatherings. But one of the big topics this year was the importance and resurgence of backlist, both as a sales trend and as one of the core ways stores express their points of view. We all put our own spin on our frontlist selections, but you\u2019ll often see a good amount of commonality in the new arrivals section of any store at a given time. It\u2019s really the backlist that indie stores choose to carry, and how we present it, that speaks volumes about our personalities.
\nI was on a panel about the topic, and I found it interesting to think about the ways we highlight backlist at the store. Because our store is physically large, we work staff selection rows into each section to cut through the density a bit and make sure our customers know where to look for personalized recommendations no matter where they are.
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\nWe also tend to differentiate between children\u2019s books that were published less than 25 years ago and those that are <\/a>older. I was alone on the panel in doing this, but it really works for us. Parents and grandparents love sharing books from their own childhoods with their kids, and those generational shifts play a vital role in the ever-evolving children\u2019s book canon. People just love browsing it to see what they recognize, and it’s nice to see the sales boosts on backlist titles that age into the \u201cclassics\u201d section. I’m a parent now, and I know I can’t wait to share my own literary touchstones, like A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> orThe Phantom Tollbooth <\/em>with my kids.
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\nLike many stores, we definitely put rotating displays (and artistic staffers) to good use, mixing frontlist & backlist \u2013\u00a0 which is always fun. And I\u2019ve already written a bit<\/a> about the way we use sectioning in the store to engage customers in topics or themes we think are topical and interesting. As most of these sections are anchored by backlist, it\u2019s really a technique for calling out books we care about and don\u2019t want to get lost in the stacks.
\nSimilarly, I\u2019ve been working with a handful of small publishers whose voices and rich backlists we value and want to amplify. I think it\u2019s important, even for backlist, to let our selection evolve. And sometimes that means getting input from other voices and hearing what books still speak to others. Bringing outside voices in to talk
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