Ask any bookseller about school book fairs—those mini-bookstores they set up in schools for several days to give children a chance to buy books on their own—and their first response is usually a groan. "Book fairs are an unbelievable amount of work, and you're constantly in debt with the publishers," says Ellen Mager, owner of Booktenders Children's Bookstore in Doylestown, Pa., who holds them anyway. Besides ordering in extra inventory, there's packing the books, getting them to the school, unpacking, additional staffing for the store, and then the bookkeeping when the fair is over. So why do fairs?
"For us," says Scott Meyer, owner of Merritt Books in Millbrook and Red Hook, N.Y., "it makes our gross sales look better. If you make 5% or 10%, it's 5% you didn't have." It's also a way to bring in new customers, in Meyer's case from as far away as Louisiana, where a private school has begun doing book fairs with him and several other out-of-state vendors.
But with the large discounts that book fair giant Scholastic and shop-at-home programs like Usborne Books offer schools (see sidebar), can independent booksellers and independent book fair companies find a profitable way to compete?
Sometimes, Bigger Is Better
When Kim Dickie purchased Hobbit Hall in Roswell, Ga., in March 2003, she focused on improving the store's book fair business. With her background in product and business management—Dickie was a member of the Olympic Committee in Atlanta—she calculated that by doubling the store's current number of book fairs, from 60 to 120, she could turn book fairs into a viable piece of the business. Now she's working on making that a reality within the next two years.
Like many booksellers, Dickie finds it more economical to operate her book fair business as a separate wholesale operation out of the store's 2,500 square-foot warehouse, which enables her to order books at a higher discount for the fairs. "It's all connected, the retail store and the wholesale division. The goal is to promote literacy," she says. "My goal is to have each [division] stand on its own."
Unfortunately—and here's the rub that even Scholastic faces—school book fairs are a seasonal business. So while Dickie is aggressively courting schools through an e-mail campaign and by attending county-wide school district meetings, she is also looking at other types of book fairs to keep her wholesale staff employed throughout the year. "We're talking to hospitals," she says. "We'll try a new line of business and see where it takes us."
For Judy Nelson, owner of Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop in La Verne, Calif., and Mrs. Nelson's Book Fair Company in Pomona, Calif., a major commitment to expanding her book fair business four years ago has already begun to pay off. Although she founded a separate book fair company in 1986, a year after she opened the store, it was only recently that she upped the number of book fairs to as many as 15 a week, or close to 300 fairs a year. This past fall, she branched out to cities up to three hours away and is now considering including San Diego schools. "Since 2000," Nelson told PW, "our gross revenues have increased by about 75%. This is the result, in large part, of a significant financial investment in things like rolling bookcases, trailers, trucks and a move to a larger warehouse." The custom-made rolling cases, in particular, which are easier to pack and set up, have made a difference. After starting with 30 cases, Mrs. Nelson's now has 160.
Denver's Tattered Cover faces growth questions, too, although on a smaller scale. "At this point," says frontlist children's buyer Judy Bulow, "I don't think we will actively go after book fairs. We still have to figure out the ideal way to do it." Not that she'd turn anyone away. She's trying to work out a viable book fair model with booksellers from her store who currently handle conferences. "Ideally it would be best to pull from a separate stock, rather than our inventory, which is a little tight right now," says Bulow.
"We still do some book fairs that are targeted and more controlled," says Chris Bowe, co-owner of four-year-old Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, who found expanding book fairs to be a drain on limited store resources. "For a single operator to focus on book fairs, you have to take your eyes off the store. If we were bigger, maybe we could. It seems like it's such a noble thing, there ought to be grants to do book fairs."
With Bowe's blessings, former Longfellow children's book buyer and events coordinator Kirsten Cappy spun off a part of the store's book fair business, convinced that growing book fairs to a much higher level could make them work. In August, she opened Curious City, a book fair business, in Portland. Her warehouse is her garage, and her Koen account her passport to next-day service. "It's great to be able to say to kids and parents, 'You're right. I should have brought more of that. Come back tomorrow.' "
Web Play
In addition to holding school book fairs, Cappy sells books through her Web site. "The book fairs are a way to get traffic to my site," says Cappy, who sees both forms of business working together. "I have lists and lists of books I've kept from book fairs." At www.curiouscity.net, she offers a mini-store based on those lists, where educators and others can buy direct, as well as information on book fairs and other services her company offers, such as event planning and workshops.
Three-year-old independent Christian book fair company Joyful Noise Books & Gifts in New Kent, Va., operates similarly, even though founders Sheri Coker and her husband, John, regard their work as a ministry. Their www.joyfulnoise.net Web site serves as an advertisement for their book fairs, and they have received requests to do Christian fairs from as far south as Florida. The discount schedule the Cokers have worked out encourages payment in free books and Bibles, and promises churches that have done a Joyful Noise fair a chance to continue to earn credit throughout the year through Web site purchases. Still, the Cokers earn most of their money at actual real-time fairs—they only did 16 last fall because of Hurricane Isabel—and John supplements their income with other employment during the slow summer months. "What makes our book fairs successful is we're there at the book fairs and we've read all 800 books and can talk about them," says Sheri.
At Mrs. Nelson's, potential customers are encouraged to visit the mrsnelsons.com/fair Web site. "We have a downloadable book fair packet, as well as other forms that are useful in giving them a good idea about how we operate our business," says Nelson. "In addition, we list all of our upcoming fairs. This is helpful to people who would like to find a nearby fair to visit."
Storybook Cove in Hanover, Mass., has a different approach to integrating its www.storybookcove.com Web site with an old-fashioned school book fair. "I had complaints that I didn't bring enough books, yet I always returned with over half of what I brought," says owner Janet Bibeau, who solved that problem several years back by bringing only one copy of each book. "The classes browse and go home with a wish list. They then return with orders that I individually fulfill." To supplement the sample copy, Bibeau provides a booklet with the books arranged by category and then by grade within each one. In addition, she lists the titles on her Web page so that parents can review the books more closely before approving their children's wish lists. According to Janet's sister, Joanne, who serves as the store's Webmaster, one advantage is that "we can order in bulk and get better rates, which pays for the booklet." The Bibeaus sort the books by classroom and bag each child's order; teachers are responsible for collecting the money.
While some stores and book fair companies are toying with the idea of doing on-line book fairs, 14-year-old Chinaberry (www.chinaberry.net), a catalogue sales company, has been experimenting with finding the right mix of books for their on-line book fairs for several years. "We promote it as a more thoughtful way of book-fair buying," says book fair coordinator Kevin Dillon, who finds that the groups most interested in online book fairs tend to be La Leche League chapters or Montessori schools. The most popular books are for babies through grade six.
Chinaberry uses a smaller catalogue than its regular one for its mail-order book fairs; others prefer not to use a catalogue and do the whole thing virtually. Free shipping is provided for both types of fairs. As with more traditional book fairs, Dillon looks at online ones as a way to attract new customers. "We get to introduce ourselves to folks who have never heard of Chinaberry," he says.
Although Chinaberry currently offers participants either cash incentives or free merchandise, Dillon plans to review that in the near future. "More and more," he says, "I'm not sure free merchandise is profitable for us." Most traditional bookstore fairs offer cash or credit, and are skewed more heavily toward the latter.
Staying In
For some booksellers, in-store book fairs are a better option. "I would love to move them all in-store," says Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex. "We are getting more calls than ever about doing book fairs, but we don't have the storage facilities or the staff time. The off-site events just about put my staff and family over the edge." In addition, she wants to bring potential customers into her store to see the full breadth of Blue Willow's inventory. "A lot of schools don't want us to bring sidelines, and we have a lot of sidelines," says Koehler, who does a substantial amount of prep for in-store fairs. She encourages teachers to come to the store in advance and make wish lists. Koehler and her staff then pull those books and bag them so that parents can pick them up. They also put together a librarian wish table.
Koehler has found that in-store book fair customers sometimes don't understand that everything in the store is available at a discount. She wonders about using another term for these types of fairs. "Maybe the words 'book fair' are a little dated," she says. "Maybe we have to go with what other merchants call it and go with Sharing Days or Shopping Days."
Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., primarily does in-store fairs, although these are not nearly as financially rewarding as traditional book fairs, according to children's book buyer and children's department manager Nicole White. In part, it's because in-store fairs are very brief, often just an evening, as opposed to five days for a school fair.
"It's one thing to make people stop by a table set up in a school, another to get them to stop by your store," says White, who prepares a coupon for the school or nonprofit organization hosting the in-store event. "It's their job to make sure the coupon goes out. Then customers bring them in and show them at the register."
To personalize in-store fairs, Vroman's puts up welcome signs and displays based on the organizing group's recommendations. Some organizations appoint a person to greet customers on the designated evening or afternoon.
In-store fairs with private schools can be especially lucrative at the beginning of the school year. "We get a list of the required books for the year for each grade, and we'll pre-pack those for the day of the fundraiser, so parents can just grab a second-grade bag," says Wendi Gratz, category manager for kids and young adults for Joseph-Beth Booksellers, with seven stores in Kentucky and Ohio. For Gratz, in-store fairs can be more profitable than out-of-store ones, in part because Joseph-Beth gives schools a full day or even an entire weekend to shop using a special coupon. Often Joseph-Beth will tie presentations to PTA groups or other school-related organizations on the same days as the in-store book fair.
Barbara Wilson, who recently purchased 13-year-old Butterfly Books and Literacy Center in De Pere, Wis., would like to do more in-store book fairs, but, she says, "I don't think it's quite caught on the way we would have liked." Instead, following up on a model the previous owner developed in 2002, she does "Award-Winning Literature Fairs" to counter the preponderance of TV books at other types of fairs. She and the staff put about 300 award-winning titles in Tupperware containers for the schools. "I think parents like it," says Wilson. "We've had a lot of librarians and teachers tells us that they were pleased."
Wilson is still trying to find new ways of bringing young readers into the store. One technique she's tried is to hand out store coupons at off-site book fairs. "It does bring some people back to the store," she says. She also finds that giving presentations at the school about the books prior to a fair improves sales, for both in-store and in-school fairs.
Other Ways of Working with Schools
Mager at Booktenders stopped doing book fairs, other than a few local ones, about five years ago. "Let them do Scholastic book fairs," she says. "You just have to find another way to get your name out there. You can't play Don Quixote. If you're doing the windmills, you can't win." In their place, she's developed several other ways to get her store's name in front of schools, including an Author/Illustrator in the Schools program. Whenever a publisher sends an author to her store, she arranges for a school visit as well.
In addition, Mager operates a book dedication program that works as a fundraiser for the schools and gets librarians the books they need. "The librarians make a large wish list, which is available through their school newsletter," Mager explains. "When the librarian picks out the book and the parent gives the money to the librarian, it makes it very impersonal." Instead, under the dedication program, parents can either come to the store and pick out a book from the list, or take a form to the school and pay the PTO directly and Mager delivers the book. "It's terrific, because my store's name is repeated in the newsletter," says Mager.
Although 25-year-old Hicklebee's in San Jose, Calif., has a sizable book fair program—"Our motto is we never say, 'no,' " says owner Valerie Lewis—it has developed additional school promotions. The most ingenious, according to Lewis, is scrip, or discounted gift certificates. "If a school calls and says 'we'd like $200 worth of scrip,' we give them $200 worth of gift certificates to Hicklebee's, and they pay $180," explains Lewis. "What happens is the school becomes our promoter. That gives 10% of the sales to the school, and we don't have to do anything." Similarly, for children who want to buy a book instead of bringing cupcakes to school to celebrate their birthday, Hicklebee's calculates the total amount of money spent and gives 10% of the birthday purchases back to the schools.
Hicklebee's also has what Lewis refers to as an "at-the-counter program," where a customer makes a purchase and tells the store that he or she would like a percentage to go to a participating school. "We note at the register that X amount, or 5% of the purchase price, goes to the school," she says. Then when the total from combined purchases reaches $200, Hicklebee's sends the school a $10 gift certificate. "The important thing here is promotion and flexibility," says Lewis. "We have to keep informing the schools that we have these programs in place."
So are book fairs worth it? For stores that hone their ordering, like Meyer at Merritt Books, who keeps book fairs in mind when placing orders in the fall and works with schools to make the best use of limited staff, the answer is definitely yes. Although there is no one right answer for every store, even on a limited basis, well-run book fairs are still one of the best ways to get new customers.
The Field's Biggest PlayersIn the 23 years since Scholastic entered the school book fair business by purchasing California School Book Fairs, it has become the largest book fair operator in the U.S. Its Scholastic Book Fairs division, with offices in Lake Mary, Fla., has 76 warehouses throughout the country and puts on more than 100,000 fairs a year. Over the years, Scholastic's book fair growth has continued through strategic acquisitions. It went national in 1983 with the purchase of Great American Book Fairs; in 1998, it acquired Pages Book Fairs; and in 2001, it acquired its remaining large-scale competitor, Troll Book Fairs. According to the company's most recent 10-K filing, book fairs accounted for 27.5% of the revenues for Scholastic's Children's Book Publishing and Distribution segment and generated $327.6 million in the 2003 fiscal year, which ended May 31. For senior v-p of book fairs Alan Boyko, who joined the company 15 years ago when he sold Apple Book Fair Company to Scholastic, the division's size in no way diminishes the importance of individual book fairs. "The magic of book fairs," he says, "is bringing kids and parents and books together." Scholastic has many ways to enhance the magic, including an annual Kids Are Authors competition for grades k—8 and a series of short videos with authors such as Artemis Fowl's Eoin Colfer and Double Fudge's Judy Blume. The company also has operates a separate book fair Web site (www.scholastic.com/bookfairs) offering parents' guides, chairpersons' guides and listings of featured titles.Like many book fairs, Scholastic's biggest fans are children in preschool and elementary school. To improve sales at middle schools, where Clifford the Big Red Dog is no longer an attraction, this fall Scholastic implemented a redesign, called the Student Exchange Program. "We've designed the fairs to be a little hipper, a little cooler," says Boyko. But the most innovative piece of the new middle school fairs may be the use of student volunteers to run them. Although it's too soon to know how successful these new fairs will be, the company has worked hard to distinguish them from elementary school fairs by using a different color scheme and case fixtures. But it's not just Scholastic or large independent book fair companies that compete with retailers for book fair sales, but publishing houses with multilevel selling models, such as Educational Development Corporation in Tulsa, Okla., which distributes U.K.—based Usborne Books in the U.S. Through the school division that EDC set up a decade ago as part of its direct-selling program, Usborne Books at Home, the company does school fairs that have been organized by its home sellers, or consultants. According to Educational Services manager Todd White, of the company's 8,000 home consultants, about 3,000 work with the schools. "We probably do close to a couple thousand book fairs annually. There are hardly any other options left other than us and Scholastic," says White, who estimates that school fairs will bring in between $3 million and $4 million in sales for the fiscal year ending February 29. "We can operate on the other side of the fence from what Scholastic does. We do strictly cash and carry. Most of our fairs are straight out of the catalogue. All the consultants do is show the inventory." Like Scholastic, EDC offers a strong financial incentive for schools to order from them. "If the consultant sells over $500, the school gets back 50% in books," explains White. In July, EDC was named one of the 200 fastest-growing small businesses by Fortune magazine. It has made the Forbes list twice. Recently, Barefoot Books embarked on a similar direct-sales program of its own, the Barefoot Stallholder Program. "We launched at the beginning of November [2003] in the U.S.," says Barefoot president Nancy Traversy. "For us, it's obviously a way to get our name out. We're not trying to take on Scholastic, and we continue to sell our books to them." Traversy is encouraging Stallholders to do events in people's homes rather than in schools. "Stallholders get back a percentage of their sales or a host gift, which they can then give back to the schools," she says. Fair Tips To find out how to set up a successful school book fair business, PW asked children's booksellers for their suggestions.
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