Some would say the secret to a good book fair is not to do them. Fewer and fewer independent stores are doing in-school book fairs these days because the cost\/benefit ratio is dwindling to such a degree that they can be a losing proposition. Book fairs are a complex thing for an indie bookseller to do well, and here are some tips that might help out.
\n* Work with one person from the PTO. Having more than one point person can make things confusing and needlessly complicated. Make sure there’s one store contact person as well. Confidence builds when there is a solid relationship between school and store.
\n* Be clear about expectations. How much money is the school hoping to raise? What will the school do to ensure the success of the book fair? The school administration needs to ensure that all the kids and their families, not only know about the book fair, but will given adequate time during the school day to shop for books.\u00a0 Nothing ruins a book fair than kids strolling amid the books with no money because their parents didn’t know what day the book fair was.
\n* Draw up a contract that clearly states what everyone’s responsibilities are. How will damaged books be dealt with? It is much better to have a simple document that makes clear what happens if books are stolen, missing, or damaged during the fair, than to discuss it after a box of books goes missing. Also, a contract makes the store look more professional and it lets the school know what exactly you are doing.
\n* Make sure the parent organization has enough volunteers to run the book fair before it begins. Nothing is more frustrating to the PTO than having an understaffed book fair. I’ve seen book fairs where the main parent volunteer not only never leaves the fair, but has checked in and set up the entire book fair and packs it up on her own.
\n* Be very clear up front how the school will benefit from book sales. Will they get 15% in cash or 20% in store credit?
\n* If your staff is able to go into the school the week preceding the book fair for booktalks, sales will rise immeasurably. In addition to booktalks, if someone can generate a flyer with the booktalked items on it that kids can take home then they’re more likely to bring money for those books.
\n* Don’t have a book fair that’s either too short or too long. A week-long, in-school book fair is probably too long for most schools to staff. One day is a recipe for failure. Two days with a kick-off dinner can be a really successful. Sometimes getting a local author can help jump-start a book fair and can generate a lot of excitement.
\n* I know it sounds ridiculous, but schedule the book fair when the kids are in school. We once had the misfortune of having a book fair scheduled during parent\/teacher conferences and it was the one of the worst book fairs ever.
\n* If you’re trying to get into a school that has traditionally only done Scholastic Book Fairs, stress that your store is better positioned to choose books that are geared for that specific school because you know them. I’ve worked with schools who didn’t want to give up the Scholastic Fair, so I suggested having two fairs: one using us and one Scholastic. If both book fairs are marketed well, they can both be money makers for the school.
\nI’ve had great book fairs, and not-so-great book fairs. One thing we’ve started to focus on is doing book fairs for schools close enough to the store so that those families can be become new customers. A book fair is a great way for folks to get to know your store and what you can offer the community, which can a long lasting ripple effect of good will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some would say the secret to a good book fair is not to do them. Fewer and fewer independent stores are doing in-school book fairs these days because the cost\/benefit ratio is dwindling to such a degree that they can be a losing proposition. Book fairs are a complex thing for an indie bookseller to […]<\/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-699","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\/699","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=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}