This is my little rant for the week. We are celebrating our 15th anniversary this fall. Like many bookstores we are known for our children’s section, but we also have a pretty great adult section. As we approach planning for our anniversary, we are seeking children’s authors\/illustrators as well as adult authors. We have been fortunate to host some truly extraordinary children’s authors, ranging from Judy Schachner to Katherine Paterson. I am not complaining about the quality level of the children’s authors. I feel fortunate to have so many talented people coming to the store. My frustration comes from the challenge to get adult authors to come to the store.
\nThis points up the classic problem that “children’s stores” have. Our clientele is made up of adults who buy books for children. These people come to events with adult authors. Stores like ours and like many across the country, have events that cater to the grown-ups, not just the kids. Yes, our bread and butter will be kids’ events, but our adult events often our best attended events, where we sell a ton of books. Local bookstores are doing more and more and that often means having events that cater to all the patrons of the bookstore. But I’m finding it increasingly difficult to book adult events.
\nAlmost all the publishers have event grids that they ask bookstores to fill out well in advance of the tour dates. I have faithfully filled out event grids for adult events for 10 years, and I think I’ve gotten one author from the grid system. The dilemma I’m facing is how can a store known for its children’s section secure adult authors for events? It’s a situation that is not unique to my store, but affects all children’s stores with great adult sections. Ironically, our bestselling section is adult fiction, with middle grade right behind it. With this dynamic, you’d think I could get adult authors to come to the store. But, not so much.
\nIt’s frustrating to plan an anniversary party as big as 15 years in business, and only have two adult authors (both of whom are local and fabulous) and not get the big names that I’m getting from the kids’ events. Is it crazy to want Christopher Moore, Dennis Lehane, Ann Patchett or Sapphire, to name a few. They sell amazingly well at my store and I know I could have a great event. My store is not is in a huge market, and sometimes that makes publicists shy away from the area. But what is sometimes missed is that a smaller market has less competition, so an event with a big-name author is often the only big event of the night in my town, thereby guaranteeing a full house of eager book buyers.
\nI sometimes feel like publishers are most comfortable slotting stores as either children’s or adult when they’re planning tours. I can see the reasoning behind this to some degree, but from my perspective, it’s so frustrating. Our event book sales for children’s or adult often wind up as the bestselling books of the year, so it’s a win-win for everyone.\u00a0 So, as I strive to plan the best 15th anniversary I can, I am lacking the adult balance that reflects my store. I’m hoping that adult tours are being planned later in the season, so there’s some hope for getting bookings and I will keep my fingers crossed that some big-name adult authors will find their way to my store, and others, during the fall touring season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a small bone to pick. We are celebrating our 15th anniversary this fall. Like many bookstores we are known for our children’s section, but we also have a pretty great adult section. As we approach planning for our anniversary, we are seeking children’s authors\/illustrators as well as adult authors. My frustration comes from the challenge to get adult authors to come to the store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}