The term handselling may not rate an entry in Merriam-Webster, but it's been part of the bookselling lexicon for many years. Looking at its most basic anecdotal definition, handselling is the practice of a bookseller talking up a book to a customer, and often physically placing said book in a shopper's hands. This method has always been strongly associated with independent booksellers as a way to offer a touch of mom-and-pop—style service, though other retailers have picked up the baton, too.
Quite often, booksellers (traditionally a book-loving bunch) consider handselling to be a calling. Their trade organization, the American Booksellers Association, even created an award to honor the technique: the BookSense Book of the Year Award is given to the titles that booksellers find most enjoyable to handsell.
We know that lots of booksellers practice handselling all the time, and some have perfected their skills to an art. But how does one develop a talent for handselling? Is it something that can be taught or learned? Here, PW gathers opinions from some experts.
"I kind of think I was born with it," says Carol Chittenden, owner of Eight Cousins Children's Books in Falmouth, Mass., regarding her ability to handsell books. "I think it just means telling people about something you are enthusiastic about. I love when people give me the opportunity to share the good news about books."
Jill Bailey, children's book buyer at BookPeople in Austin, Tex., feels much the same way. "It's just something that comes naturally to me, to recommend books that I'm passionate about," she says.
At Children's Book Shop in Brookline Village, Mass., bookseller Leo Landry has been tweaking his handselling technique for 17 years. "I think handselling is about loving the book first, then just describing the book to someone," he says. "Your excitement carries through to the customer when you're recommending a book you love."
For Ellen Mager, owner of Booktenders Children's Books in Doylestown, Pa., "Handselling is the only reason I'm still in business. People still come here because I'll sit and work with them. I'm a terrible business person, but I like the books, so I can sell them."
The children's department at Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover, N.H., is where children's buyer Gerda Gofberg has been refining her handselling skills for the past five-and-a-half years. "I love to read and I want to share what I read with people," she says. Though many of the booksellers we spoke to believe they may have been born with a handselling gene, they all concede that when it comes to handselling, knowledge is power. "The more you know about the books, the better situated you are to answer questions," says Chittenden. "You have to read as much as you can and ask yourself, 'What is right for what age?'; 'Who is going to enjoy this book?' " Chittenden brought her experience as a reference librarian in the 1980s to the table when she opened her store in 1986, and that question-and-answer background seems to have served her well.
Before she opened her store, Mager was a schoolteacher—more precisely, a hearing specialist, which fostered in her a particular fondness for children's books. As a young educator, she recalls attending presentations by children's book expert Bill Halloran, who, she said, "went around the country trying to get teachers to use trade books in the classroom." By 1989, Mager had stopped teaching children but was running her store and teaching teachers about children's books. "I'm always listening to authors and illustrators for that extra information that may help a customer make a decision," she says.
Regarding her children's handselling education, Gofberg notes, "When I first came here [to Dartmouth], I had experience from working in other bookstores, but I didn't really know a lot about children's books. I immediately started reading everything and learning from the person in the children's department. I listened to the sales reps' comments and talked to children to find out what they like. Now I often ask my eight-year-old granddaughter why she likes certain books. Sometimes she gets so excited about new titles. It's great."
Landry laughs when he remembers his early days in the field. "When I first started, I thought that I knew plenty about children's books—which pretty much amounted to Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. But Terri [Schmitz, owner of Children's Book Shop] and Martha [Parravano, the store's former manager, now executive editor of the Horn Book] had such a wealth of experience and an enthusiasm for the books; they really opened things up for me," he says. "They would give me a list of 25 books good for preschoolers, with their recommendations. Then I would give them my likes and dislikes from the list. I ended up discovering five or six of my own core favorites in each age group, and would add little things throughout the year. I soon knew that children's books were something I loved and wanted to learn more about."
A Matter of Trust
Sure, many booksellers feel compelled to handsell books for altruistic reasons. But as chain stores, warehouse clubs and online bookstores have proliferated over the past decade, handselling has frequently become the key element that sets independent bookstores apart as desirable shopping destinations in a community. Handselling serves as both a competitive edge and a financial necessity for these smaller businesses.
"Any time you have information to share, that helps to establish your credibility with a customer," notes Chittenden. "Good handselling is always done from a position that you are telling what you really believe," she adds. "It's terribly important if you have not read something to be frank about that. And if you don't like a book, you need to be honest, saying something like, 'This is a favorite among so many people.' If you push junk, you have to have a steady supply of people who will buy junk. Our customers have become such missionaries for us, I don't want to betray them."
Landry concurs. "Lots of our employees go to Simmons College [which offers a children's literature degree] so they are genuinely interested in the books, and we encourage them," he says. "When someone asks for a job, we try to find out what they like to read. If it's Love You Forever, they'll never work here."
Mager adds, simply, "If you don't know your stuff and don't know your books, they won't come to you."
To that end, booksellers engage in many common practices for staying up to speed with the information they need to handsell and training their staff to follow suit. Most importantly, say booksellers, is to share what you know.
"Everyone has settled in on genres that are his or her thing," says Landry. "Everyone can't read everything, but we are eager to let each other know about things we like."
Similarly, Gofberg notes, "There are three of us here, and we routinely talk about books and why we like them. I don't love fantasy, but one staffer does. It is invaluable to hear why they enjoy something. Sometimes we handsell books that are not our favorites, but know things about them that we need to bring to customers' attention. For example, it's important to know why a certain fantasy book is popular, when someone asks."
Some stores take a more systematic approach. "At our staff meeting each week," Chittenden says, "we ask staffers to take one book and report on it; it can be anything they choose. We then go around the table and hear everyone's selection. We need to motivate some shy staff members when it comes to handselling but even they talk lovingly about a book they love."
Mager's new employees "watch me and see that you have to watch the customer," she says. "You watch their expressions when you show them things—a smile, a raise of the eyebrow—and then show them other, similar things. But if a customer is insisting on something you know is wrong, why fight with them? Just back off and let them browse. Some people want specific things and they won't change their mind. Then you have to give up."
One of Gofberg's favorite approaches is to ask a child (or book buyer for the child) what they read last or what their favorite book is, and what they like about it. "I think that's the best way to learn what someone is interested in," she says. "You also have to know your stock inside and out. With these two pieces of information, you can go through a whole section in your store with someone and point out things that might appeal to them."
Publishers and, more specifically, sales reps, have an important role to play when it comes to sharing information about new books. After all, reps come to a store bearing the advance reader copies and f&gs that will be a bookseller's all-important first look at a new title. "In the fall, before the holidays, certain reps will do a rep meeting, like a book-talk session," says Bailey. "They bring in a snack, even if it's just cookies from the grocery store, and we encourage staff members to attend. I like to get non—kids'-book people from the store to come, too; free food is a good motivator. For the staff to see the reps and see how the business works lets them put a face on the publisher—and that helps with handselling, too," she adds.
Share and Share Alike
Many of the booksellers we spoke with commented that the information and advance materials gathered from reps make them feel like true insiders. And in that ever-popular spirit of sharing, booksellers tell us that one of the biggest perks of the job is being able to use the store like a library—checking out new arrivals and ARCs to read at home. "It's a huge benefit," says Bailey. "It's especially good for audiobooks, because people sometimes don't want to invest in them if we can't tell them how good it is."
Advance notice about a new series or a new title from a big author often provides a helpful handselling hook. Customers appreciate being in on the buzz and being given the chance to pre-order a title. Harry Potter is, of course, the biggest example of this phenomenon, but the latest titles by Lemony Snicket, Brian Jacques and Barbara Park (the Junie B. Jones series) also occupy the top tier when it comes to anticipation. "We can let someone who's interested know what's coming," says Bailey. "We can handsell a book before it's even out."
At Eight Cousins, "we have a regular place where we put Post-its about borrowing books," says Chittenden. "And when new books arrive, we put them on a staff shelf for a few days so people can get through them."
Landry notes that at Children's Book Shop, galleys are saved in a mini-library beneath the staircase. "Everyone's always encouraged to be reading up on new things—to know what's age-appropriate, what the content is."
Armed with information and enthusiasm about books actually allows handselling to take a variety of forms, some of which don't include face-to-face interaction with customers. "When we're training booksellers, we try to have them make a staff selection card for something they like, right away," says Bailey. "It's like handselling when you're not there. Everyone has an old book they love, so that gets people started. And our cards are really elaborate: they're decorated with pipe cleaners, glitter, illustrations. I think they make a big difference."
A summer BookPeople catalogue featuring employee-selected titles serves as a type of handselling, too, according to Bailey. "It gets the staff thinking about books they love and it opens the door to making sure the staff is familiar with the books."
Gofberg says that a book group in the store, an annual annotated reading list and a frequently changing display of "our favorite books" are elements that give customers an experience that is similar to a traditional handselling exchange.
Hicklebee's Children's Books in San Jose, Calif., has established its own book award as a way to acknowledge staff favorites. "We actually choose two books per year, one of the new books for spring and one for fall," says co-owner Monica Holmes. "We have big stickers that we put on the jackets and we create a window and display. It works very well for us." Past Hicklebee's "winners" include Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and The Dot by Peter Reynolds.
Checking Out the Chains
Though handselling has long been considered the bailiwick of independent booksellers, many chain store employees have also earned their stripes as handsellers. Barnes & Noble declined to participate in this article, though a spokesperson for Borders shared several of her company's handselling initiatives.
"The practice of handselling is part of our bookseller and manager training for all store employees," says Jenie Dahlman, manager of public relations for Borders Group Inc. "Because our industry naturally attracts booklovers, handselling comes naturally to a majority of our employees. The Borders and Waldenbooks culture embraces the discussion of books, and employees learn the art of handselling by observing their fellow employees successfully interacting with customers and feeling good about passing on their own recommendations."
Just as smaller stores do, Borders takes advantage of ARCs and such perks for bookselling staff as in-store book lending and being invited to a publisher event. "Sometimes publishing houses feel so strongly about a first-time author or a break-out book from an established author that they arrange for field employees to be invited to dinners or breakfasts with the authors," Dahlman explains. "Feedback from the field has always been very positive in these cases, as it gives them face time with an author that often leads to a greater dedication to handselling that author's title."
Dahlman notes that booksellers, like most readers, tend to focus on what they like, which often results in what she calls "blind spots outside their areas of interest." Borders is attempting to address this issue with a new program called Borders Recommends. According to Dahlman, Borders Recommends regularly provides booksellers with updated information on award winners, critically acclaimed books, new and noteworthy titles and buyers' favorites. "This way, field staff have the material to answer every customer's need at their fingertips," she says.
As a complement to the program, Borders prepares shelf talkers and signage for Borders Recommends titles and also provides stores with blank shelf talkers and signage to allow booksellers to fill in their own favorites.
Borders contends that its in-store, Internet-based Title Sleuth kiosks serve as information/handselling depots as well, allowing customers to search for titles, browse recommendations and view special promotions. In addition, the monthly publications Borders This Month and the Book Report (available at Waldenbooks stores) "give an overview of what's hot in the store for a given month," says Dahlman.
When it comes to handselling, today's booksellers continue to shine. No matter the venue, a good handselling experience is something that booklovers/book buyers will always seek out. "People who shop here expect us to know about books," Gofberg says. "We try so hard to help them when they come in with questions. Some stores don't have that same expectation of book knowledge." As Landry of Children's Book Shop sums up, "In the end, we're all salespeople. But handselling really works for us, and people come back because of it."
