My short-term career as a bookseller. - Page 3

**Rain Man** · 02-01-2007, 08:27 PM

Long story behind this, but my company has "adopted" an elementary school, and we occasionally send people there to volunteer for the school.

My turn came up yesterday, and I approached the situation with a great degree of ignorance, having not actually seen a child since the mid-1990s. I showed up at the school, and I actually got a pretty good job: while my office manager read stories to various groups of kids, my job was to organize a book giveaway. Every kid at story time got a free book, so my job was to pull the kids out of the story circle in small groups, explain to them the choices, and make sure that they only took one book. I was also in charge of stocking the books on a couple of little tables.

Keep in mind that this is one elementary school, so this wasn't a huge operation. I gave away about a hundred books in three hours to kids ranging from 4 to 7 years old.

My lessons as a bookseller:

1. When the first group came in, it was a very small preschool class, so I brought the kids to the tables one at a time, let them pick out their book, and then took them back to the story area. One little girl wasn't paying attention, so I tapped her on her four year-old shoulder. Alarms immediately went off in my head. DON'T TOUCH LITTLE GIRLS! DON'T TOUCH LITTLE GIRLS! YOU'LL GO TO PRISON! So from that point on, I would wave my hand in front of their faces if I couldn't get their attention.

2. About 75 percent of the preschool kids coming in are Spanish speakers, so they had two tables of books, one in English and one in Spanish. My English-only preferences shone through, so I would try to steer the kids toward the English books. In a good sign, most of the youngest kids would pick Spanish books, while the older kids almost all got English books as the schools developed their language skills. Good job, school system! I was also a bit impressed that several of the 7 year-olds would wander back and forth between the tables checking out books. They were apparently fully bilingual.

3. By the age of six, you can already predict the destiny of a good proportion of children, just by observing them.

4. If you want a successful children's book, you apparently have to base it off of a famous televised cartoon character. It was annoying to me, so I pushed the other types of books in my marketing role. ("No, no. You don't want Shrek. Go with "I Know a Rhino". You'll love the surprise ending.")

5. If you don't have the rights to a famous televised cartoon character, make your main character a dinosaur.

6. On the Spanish-language table, I was pushing a book that showed pictures of houses all around the world. It was really kind of cool, but it took me forever to find a taker. Kids kept picking lame-o books with bright colors instead. "Come on, come on. You already know about how the dinosaur learned to make his bed. Look at this one. Wigwams! Quonset huts! Adobe! Trust me on this one."

7. On the English language table, there was little interest in self-help books (I could never sell anyone on the 'how to tie your shoes' book, though some kids really needed it), and I could never get anyone to take the cool "A Day in an Apple Orchard" book. ("Look. Trees. Apples. This is much more interesting than the dancing hippopotomous. Seriously.")

8. I had a theory going in that books that were physically bigger would go faster, especially among the littlest market segments. However, that was not true. I was surprised.

9. As a small businessman, I favor the independents. Books that were ghost-written by celebrities got poor placement on my table. Take that, you big-money stars.

10. I attempted to mold young minds by putting the better books in the best positions on the table. Biography of Einstein? Book on the planets? History of North American explorers? Good position. Stupid theme books about friendly pirates who want to give cake to young stowaways? Back of the bus (though still in front of the celebrities' books).

11. Kids don't get my jokes.

12. It was a little embarrassing when a five-year old asked me what a Spanish-language book was about, and I couldn't figure it out.

All in all, it was an interesting market research study. I discovered that nonfiction books for six year-olds is not a good market, and that content is less important than cover art for most consumers under the age of five. I also learned that you want to make a good impression on the bookseller if you want good placement in the store, and of course I learned that you should never touch a small child if you're a 40-something man.

A good day, overall, before I turned over the keys to the store to DaFace. I bet he wasn't expecting this assignment when he moved to Denver.

**Rain Man** · 02-01-2007, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfcan

I thought I would take a shot and see if someone knew someone that knew someone.....

I've got two completed manuscripts myself, but once I finish them I never think they're good enough. I hate that.

I've got a third one going now that I'm really liking at the moment. Then again, that happens every time, too.

Hammock Parties · 02-01-2007, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I've got two completed manuscripts myself, but once I finish them I never think they're good enough. I hate that.

I've got a third one going now that I'm really liking at the moment. Then again, that happens every time, too.

Maybe you don't think they're good enough because you're too close to them. You've read them dozens of times presumably so it just seems boring.

kc rush · 02-02-2007, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfcan

Actually the QAR was the flagship of Captain Teach (Blackbeard) who stole it from slave traders-it is probably one of the most imprtant finds since Titanic. They have a musuem in NC now that has all the cool stuff they have found.

When I started this- there was nearly nothing out there on Pirates and such. My Dad even made the comment-who would want to read about an old pirate ship. Well low and behold- Pirates of the Caribean came out and the whole world went pirate crazy. Even though the main story revolves around a 12 yr old girl, her mother and grandmother-there are characters I developed to explain the connection.

Publishers don't even want to hear about Pirates now, so I am trying to tone that part of the story down.

We've vacationed on the outer banks of NC the last couple of years. You should see all of the pirate books out there. If you could get through the editing process and self publish you might be able to find a distributor out there.

We bought some pirate books for my 5 year old while we were out there, I'll check and see if I can find publisher or distributor information in them.

Skyy God · 02-02-2007, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

3. By the age of six, you can already predict the destiny of a good proportion of children, just by observing them.

Examples?

02-01-2007, 08:27 PM
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	My short-term career as a bookseller. Long story behind this, but my company has "adopted" an elementary school, and we occasionally send people there to volunteer for the school. My turn came up yesterday, and I approached the situation with a great degree of ignorance, having not actually seen a child since the mid-1990s. I showed up at the school, and I actually got a pretty good job: while my office manager read stories to various groups of kids, my job was to organize a book giveaway. Every kid at story time got a free book, so my job was to pull the kids out of the story circle in small groups, explain to them the choices, and make sure that they only took one book. I was also in charge of stocking the books on a couple of little tables. Keep in mind that this is one elementary school, so this wasn't a huge operation. I gave away about a hundred books in three hours to kids ranging from 4 to 7 years old. My lessons as a bookseller: 1. When the first group came in, it was a very small preschool class, so I brought the kids to the tables one at a time, let them pick out their book, and then took them back to the story area. One little girl wasn't paying attention, so I tapped her on her four year-old shoulder. Alarms immediately went off in my head. DON'T TOUCH LITTLE GIRLS! DON'T TOUCH LITTLE GIRLS! YOU'LL GO TO PRISON! So from that point on, I would wave my hand in front of their faces if I couldn't get their attention. 2. About 75 percent of the preschool kids coming in are Spanish speakers, so they had two tables of books, one in English and one in Spanish. My English-only preferences shone through, so I would try to steer the kids toward the English books. In a good sign, most of the youngest kids would pick Spanish books, while the older kids almost all got English books as the schools developed their language skills. Good job, school system! I was also a bit impressed that several of the 7 year-olds would wander back and forth between the tables checking out books. They were apparently fully bilingual. 3. By the age of six, you can already predict the destiny of a good proportion of children, just by observing them. 4. If you want a successful children's book, you apparently have to base it off of a famous televised cartoon character. It was annoying to me, so I pushed the other types of books in my marketing role. ("No, no. You don't want Shrek. Go with "I Know a Rhino". You'll love the surprise ending.") 5. If you don't have the rights to a famous televised cartoon character, make your main character a dinosaur. 6. On the Spanish-language table, I was pushing a book that showed pictures of houses all around the world. It was really kind of cool, but it took me forever to find a taker. Kids kept picking lame-o books with bright colors instead. "Come on, come on. You already know about how the dinosaur learned to make his bed. Look at this one. Wigwams! Quonset huts! Adobe! Trust me on this one." 7. On the English language table, there was little interest in self-help books (I could never sell anyone on the 'how to tie your shoes' book, though some kids really needed it), and I could never get anyone to take the cool "A Day in an Apple Orchard" book. ("Look. Trees. Apples. This is much more interesting than the dancing hippopotomous. Seriously.") 8. I had a theory going in that books that were physically bigger would go faster, especially among the littlest market segments. However, that was not true. I was surprised. 9. As a small businessman, I favor the independents. Books that were ghost-written by celebrities got poor placement on my table. Take that, you big-money stars. 10. I attempted to mold young minds by putting the better books in the best positions on the table. Biography of Einstein? Book on the planets? History of North American explorers? Good position. Stupid theme books about friendly pirates who want to give cake to young stowaways? Back of the bus (though still in front of the celebrities' books). 11. Kids don't get my jokes. 12. It was a little embarrassing when a five-year old asked me what a Spanish-language book was about, and I couldn't figure it out. All in all, it was an interesting market research study. I discovered that nonfiction books for six year-olds is not a good market, and that content is less important than cover art for most consumers under the age of five. I also learned that you want to make a good impression on the bookseller if you want good placement in the store, and of course I learned that you should never touch a small child if you're a 40-something man. A good day, overall, before I turned over the keys to the store to DaFace. I bet he wasn't expecting this assignment when he moved to Denver.
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