Last Thursday, four booksellers led one of Children's Institute's most informative sessions, "Children's Bookselling 101: A Foundational Seminar for New Children's Booksellers." Lorie Barber (The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, Mass.) moderated a panel that included Lily Clay (Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, Wash.), Kristina Rivero (Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, N.Y.), and Paul Thomason-Fyke (Square Books Jr., Oxford, Miss.) and covered "so many resources that it may be a little bit overwhelming."
Attendees were long-time children's booksellers, new bookstore owners, individuals new to bookselling, and publishing professionals; topics included building community, bookselling resources, publisher relationships, and handselling. The panel made certain that the booksellers in the room were aware of virtual resources (such as Indies Introduce, the Children's Group Discord Server, Bookweb.org, and The Independent Bookseller) while also making sure the language of children's bookselling--Lexile levels, Edelweiss, Bookselling this Week--was clear to all.
The panelists expressed a "call to action" around reviewing books. Writing reviews "informs publishers of indie booksellers' tastes" and, most importantly, introduces the bookseller to the marketing team. Submit reviews, they urged, to Indie Next List, Edelweiss, and NetGalley and, "on Edelweiss," Clay said, "write a blurb and check off Indie Next List, ABC catalog, and the publisher to get credit for your review."
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| From left: Paul Thomason-Fyke (Square Books Jr., Oxford, Miss.), Kristina Rivero (Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, NY), Lily Clay (Eagle Harbor Book Co, Bainbridge Island, Wash.), and Lorie Barber (The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, Mass.). | |
With the basics covered, Barber asked the panelists what each wished they had known before becoming a children's bookseller. "It's different from general bookselling," Clay said. "You're selling to multiple age groups all at the same time--you're selling to the kid, to the parent, and to the grandparent." Rivero noted that, coming from librarianship, she has found it difficult to "find the line of profitability while also having a community resource where you can share books with kids." Thomason-Fyke said a thing he struggled with was "learning to sell the right book to the kid, not just your favorite book to the kid." So, Barber asked, what is your best piece of information? Clay's response? "Eavesdrop." The best way to know what your customers want is to "listen to what your customers are talking about." Rivero told attendees to "meet people where they're at." Whether that's the child or the parent, "be where that person needs you on that day." Barber added that children's booksellers should "utilize the teachers that come into the store" with Clay pointing out that "educator nights" are "a great way to get rid of all the things you don't want and to get teachers to come into the store."
Barber said that understanding the children's market and paying attention to performance drivers are imperative parts of selling books for children and teens. "Observe the culture at your store and communicate about what you see with your managers and buyers," Thomason-Fyke advised. "The children's bookseller is the reason the bookstore exists," Rivero said. "I need my booksellers to be my eyes and ears--tell me what people want, what is going on in our community, develop relationships." Barber noted that "the children's book market ebbs and flows just like everything else. Each store will have its own bestselling sections and titles. Watch the Circana U.S. Children's Book Market Insights and Look Ahead for national data." Key factors impacting kids' book sales in 2025? Educational materials and activity books are up; licensed books are up; Bible study and Christian life is up; while middle-grade is posting the steepest declines. Barber pointed out that "homeschooling is a bit of an untapped market in a lot of locations." Panelists suggested offering the educational discounts the store may have available for teachers to homeschoolers, setting up book fairs for homeschoolers, or doing mobile pop-ups in homeschool homes.
Directly following the importance of knowing the market and paying attention to performance drivers is knowing how to curate inventory. "Know your backlist," Barber said. Know which books are okay for recommendation, which books "people are gravitating toward," and which series have new titles coming out that may cause a backlist resurgence. "The backlist informs both your store's values and helps instill value in your community," Thomason-Fyke said. "Your backlist fills gaps." "You're going to get a lot of pressure to carry what's new," Rivero said, "but what's new isn't always best. There are decades worth of excellent books. I think about curating the store in the way that a public library would: There should be a book for every need."
As the session wrapped up, audience questions turned to concerns about chains and Amazon: "Target and Barnes & Noble have both expanded their offerings--to what extent do you try to chase the trends when filling your indie?" What, Barber responded, "do Target and Barnes & Noble not have?" Focus on that, she said. "They've cut down the children's books they're carrying, they don't have backlist, they're not focusing on BIPOC or LGBTQ+ books." A local indie bookstore should always make sure to carry the titles the big-box stores simply don't have. "The most important thing," Rivero said, "is that your bookstore has you. You are the most important resource that your community has when it comes to books. It is easy to pick up a book at a Target, but there's no one there when you pick it up."
Another attendee asked, "How do you cope with people taking pictures to buy from Amazon?" A member of the audience said they are direct with customers when they see them taking pictures of books: "You would help me so much if you made that purchase from me--you could buy it from Amazon but you're just going to be funding Jeff Bezos's next trip to space." Books Are Magic stocks copies of How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine at its front cash wrap. And Barber reminded the audience that the ABA offers great resources to share on indie bookstores versus Amazon. "For example, the tax you pay at your indie is going back into your community. We're fighting this--it's okay to be up front and in your face about it." --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness