Amy the Human Aggregator

Being in the business of small, independent bookselling, the whole shelf space issue really concerns me. I have learned so much in our readings about how marketing has changed to selling less of more, and how stores have a hard time with this new model because of their shelf space.

I see this every day at work. I see it when we can only order 2 copies of a book because a) we don’t know if it will sell, and b) there is not enough shelf space to take more of a chance. It’s a constant guessing game to see what will sell and what won’t, and if one of us orders a book to carry in stock, it is our responsibility to hand-sell that on the floor.

 This method is crazy and exciting, but also very inefficient and potentially costly. And this age is all about efficiency, about what Anderson calls the “root calculus of the Long Tail: the lower the costs of selling, the more you can sell" (Chris Anderson, The Long Tail, pg. 88).  Efficiency brings the costs of selling down. But when you are an independent Children’s bookstore, you don’t have a lot of options. This is why so many independent bookstores are closing. Even the big-box retailer Borders couldn’t keep up.

So how can we embrace this new model of Long Tail distribution and work it to our advantage?  I want to embrace this model because, well, there's no going back, and because I, too, have found niches and appreciate the freedom the Long Tail gives me to find things I love. So Anderson's emphasis on finding ways to aggregate or filter these niches makes perfect sense to me. This is how businesses or groups will find success. Which brings me to the quote of the week:

"Today's filters make word-of-mouth even more powerful by measuring so much more of it from so many more people and for so many more products" (p. 141).

The funny thing is, I think booksellers are the PERFECT people to give word-of-mouth! Hand-selling books is what independent booksellers do best (that, and hosting incredible events, of course!). Although Red Balloon is a small store with a limited shelf space, every item we have is hand selected by our book buyers. And our book buyers are also our book sellers. Need to know what chapter book would make a great read-aloud for a Kindergartener? Ask Willi or Susan or Barb. Need to find a book as exciting and gripping as The Hunger Games? Ask myself or Julie or Joan. We all have our niches, and we make it our business to know.  Not just that, but it is our passion to know! Let me tell you, there is nothing like passing on a beloved story to a customer. I get so excited for them to fall in love with the stories and characters, just like I did when I read it.

So, what is the problem then? I believe the problem is that this word-of-mouth is only happening in our store. This is changing a little with the introduction of our new Red Balloon emailed newsletter (The Well Re{a}d Balloon… you can sign up to receive it here!), in which we have 10 or more reviews a month, done by our own staff and kids from our book clubs.  And more is in the works, especially since Red Balloon's new owner bought the store last year.

But, with all the social media tools out there, we can be doing so much more, like lists posted on Facebook of great fall titles in Teen Dystopian books, or the release date of the next Erin and Phillip Stead picture book.  And hopefully, with our brand loyal customers and our fun events, people will want to take the extra effort to go to Red Balloon to buy these books that they heard about from a friend, who heard about it from another friend, who read it on twitter, after another friend pinned it to their board, after seeing it on Red Balloon’s Facebook page.

Red Balloon booksellers are a book niche aggregator, and we need to get our aggregator online and onto readers' screens and into their devices.  By doing this, we can only thrive.

Amy