Publisher’s Weekly Jul 14, 2011

A Novel Approach to Supporting an Indie
By Marc Schultz

Gearing up for the release of his latest graphic novel for kids, Sidekicks (released July 1 from Scholastic), California-based author-illustrator Dan Santat (Chicken Dance, Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) developed a scheme to support his local independent bookstore through pre-order sales: buy a copy of Sidekicks through Santat’s own Web site (www.dantat.com) for $25—a penny more than the cover price—and Santat will buy your copy from LaVerne, Calif. bookstore Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop, which pockets the profits.

The pre-order “experiment,” as Santat refers to it, began in February with a blog post on his site. Despite very little publicity—Santat was simply too busy to promote the idea beyond a few online bulletins—the arrangement has pulled in 85 orders and counting, more than eight times the number of copies Mrs. Nelson’s would otherwise have stocked, according to general manager Andrea Vuleta. Santat reports that 65% of the preorders come from fans and 35% from those who happened upon the offer and like the idea.

To sweeten the deal, Santat signs each hardcover copy, bundles it with a “limited edition mystery unpublished art print,” and gives each customer access to a downloadable behind-the-scenes PDF book. “I had so much extra content,” Santat says, “I thought it’d be kind of cool to have a ‘DVD extras’ kind of thing.” The PDF, titled The Domesticated Four, features more than 60 pages of deleted scenes, concept art, and details on Santat’s process, demonstrating the book’s evolution from written manuscript to storyboard to full-color art.

Santat admits that it might be easier for a graphic novelist to put together this kind of package, but he hopes that his effort will inspire authors to find direct ways to support their local independent bookstore. “The frustrating part,” he said, “was independent bookstores finding out about it and writing to me asking how to get some of those pre-orders.” Santat wrestled with the choice of which store to support: he shops more often at nearby Vroman’s in Pasadena, but Mrs. Nelson’s is a children’s bookstore and a fan of Santat, having blogged about Sidekicks early on: “I felt like they made the initial good faith gesture.” Santat reasons that if more (and more well-known) authors each picked a single bookstore, the impact could be quite significant: “Imagine if someone like Neil Gaiman did it!”

Vuleta agrees, saying, “I don’t know how many authors know that [partnering with their local bookstore] can be quite successful for them in a promotion sense or on a long-term basis. Lots of stores have their local hot author. Even if they pop in only once every couple of months, it does drive business to that store and drives stores to support that author. I know I’d be happy with any of my local authors coming in and keeping my books signed.”

There was one glitch in Santat’s program: the shipment to Mrs. Nelson’s contained the wrong book, delaying pre-orders by one to two weeks. Though the posted comments about this on his Web site are entirely forgiving, Santat is bundling extra Sidekicks t-shirt iron-ons with the delayed copies.

Despite the early hiccup, the experiment has been so successful that Santat plans to keep the offer going indefinitely, and to use a similar scheme for future books like Tom’s Twist, due from Knopf in November.

Sidekicks by Dan Santat. Scholastic/Levine, $24.99 July ISBN 978-0-439-29811-7

Playing with the form he created in his trailblazing debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick once again sails into uncharted territory and takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey.

From the October Issue of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) newsletter:

CSLA Advocate for School Libraries Award Goes to Patrick Nelson!

Patrick Nelson Patrick Nelson (Mrs. Nelson's Library Service) was selected by the California School Library Association to be honored with its Advocate for School Libraries Award on Friday, November 12. The award will be presented at the CSLA Legislative Luncheon.  Patrick has supported California school libraries as well as Teacher Librarians throughout the state and nation by asking children's book illustrators to submit their original artwork to create public awareness pins and posters to promote the School Library Advocacy Campaign. SCIBA members will remember hearing from Patrick at our Spring Meeting this past April.  Many of you took several posters and pins to offer your support to CSLA in your stores as well. Be sure to congratulate Patrick when you see him at the Authors Feast & Book Award Dinner later this month.  And, while your at it, ask Patrick what you can do to help support you local libraries / school libraries.

Article from Publishers Weekly:

Penguin Marks 75 Years with a Book Fair All Its Own

By Wendy Werris
May 20, 2010

Penguin director of field marketing Howard Wall with Mayfield School students at the Penguin Book Fair.

In celebration of Penguin Books’ 75th anniversary and in collaboration with Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop in LaVerne, Calif., the Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena hosted the first-ever book fair devoted entirely to one publisher. The fair was held on May 17–19 and was replete with children’s authors, giveaways for the students and a friendly greeter dressed in a penguin costume.

Hank Zipzer author Henry Winkler with a group of young fans.

“This was a unique opportunity for Penguin to show off the depth of its list,” said director of national field marketing Howard Wall, who coordinated the event at the K-8 private school. “Our goal was to get kids excited about Penguin books, and we succeeded beautifully.” More than 500 students, parents and teachers attended the three-day book fair, where Mrs. Nelson’s displayed about 1,000 Penguin titles and sold over $40,000 in children’s and adult books.

 

Lauren Myracle with young readers.

Field rep Nicole White was pleased with the breadth of titles that were displayed at the fair. “Penguin has something for every child, from the Madeline books to Winnie the Pooh and on into our chapter books,” she said. “Some of the bestsellers at the Mayfield event were Mockingbird (Kathryn Erskine), Hattie the Bad (Joe Berger and Jane Devlin), Palace Beautiful (Sarah DeFord Williams) and Incarceron (Catherine Fisher). And of course we sold a lot of Puffin paperbacks and hundreds of other titles. The reception to the books was fantastic.” In addition, Penguin pencils, posters, reader’s copies, magnets, and plush hand puppets were both given away and raffled off to throngs of happy kids.

Penguin's Wall and field rep Nicole White with Laura Nelson and Patrick Nelson of Mrs. Nelson's Book Fairs.

Parents of the Mayfield students served as active volunteers during the book fair, ringing up sales and passing out giveaways. “They enjoyed themselves immensely,” Guyer said. “Many of the parents who helped out are on the library committee, and are really committed to books and reading.” They were given copies of What the World Is Reading, a paperback sampler that includes the first chapter of 10 bestselling adult Penguin titles. “Those who picked it up on the first day returned to buy several of the books. It really sparked sales,” she added.

Article from Bookselling This Week:

School Librarians Find Ally at Mrs. Nelson's

May 13, 2010

Independent booksellers often team up with their local school and public librarians for community projects. But the stakes usually aren't as high as they are now in California, where Mrs. Nelson's Library Services is working with the California School Libraries Association (CSLA) to oppose drastic state and municipal budget cuts.

Mrs. Nelson's Library Services, a division of Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop, is helping CSLA raise awareness of the announced layoffs and service reductions. Patrick Nelson, president of Mrs. Nelson's Library Services, has been organizing donations of original artwork from popular children's book illustrators for posters and buttons in support of the School Library Advocacy Campaign.

The contributions include drawings by Caldecott winner Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), David Shannon (Pirates Don't Change Diapers), and Caldecott Honor recipient Marla Frazee (All the World), among others. The posters are sold at Mrs. Nelsons, and the buttons are sold online. Each features one of three slogans chosen by CSLA for the campaign: "School librarians teach every student," "Save California school libraries," and "Read. Think. Grow. Fund school libraries." All proceeds benefit the campaign.

Going from custom-made art to digital files wasn't always simple, Nelson said. "Marla Frazee had a painting she had donated to a school library" that she allowed him to borrow and scan. And David Shannon sent a 35-millimeter slide, which Nelson's scanner wasn't set up to handle. He ultimately scanned the image from the book in which it had originally appeared.

Mrs. Nelson's Library Services also hosts a webpage in support of the campaign. It offers downloadable artwork, template letters, editorials, interviews, audio and video files, contact information for area school districts, and more.

School libraries make up a significant part of Mrs. Nelson's business, but Nelson said that self-interest wasn't the sole reason the store partnered with CSLA. "A school can decide if they want to keep their library open, [and] if they want a credentialed professional," he said, because unlike student-to-teacher ratios, school library staffing and hours are not mandated by the state. As a result, several major school districts, including Los Angeles, have announced that all their certified librarians, who make up most of the library staff, will be laid off at the end of the school year. "I think this is an important cause," Nelson added. "I'm trying to get some of the other independent booksellers in Southern California involved."

In a letter to fellow independent booksellers, Nelson wrote, "Every week we hear stories of another district reducing their library hours to just one day a week or closing their libraries all together... With these types of cuts, literacy is severely affected as well as the opportunity to instill a love of reading in children. Reading is the key to creating successful, compassionate students, and school administrators need to realize that these cuts are handicapping their students." He also encouraged other booksellers to share the buttons and posters with their own customers.

Mrs. Nelson's Library Services "was sort of a spinoff of the book fair company," Nelson said, because many schools were using their book fair earnings to buy library books. The library services division offers school and public libraries a way to order any book in print and have it made "shelf-ready," with the library barcode and protective cover in place. Since acquiring a bindery in 2009, the company has been able to supply custom pre-bound books as well. --Sarah Rettger

School Library Advocacy Campaign

3/1/2010

School librarians across the state of California are rallying together to fight the massive funding cuts and layoffs happening in our school libraries. Members of the California School Library Association have organized an advocacy campaign to promote the importance of a well-funded, well-staffed school library and its impact on student literacy and classroom performance. Mrs. Nelson's has been working with other independent bookstores, illustrators and authors, and book publishers to provide materials to use for the campaign as well as spreading the news about these devestating budget cuts.

To read more about this advocacy campaign or to get involved, please view our "Support School Libraries" page and contact your local state representative.

Katherine Paterson: Madam Ambassador

By Karen Springen -- Publishers Weekly, 1/5/2010

Today Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson adds the title of National Ambassador for Young People's Literature to her long list of honors. In a ceremony at the Library of Congress this morning, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will officially name Paterson — who succeeds the first children's ambassador, Jon Scieszka—to the position.   

Books like Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Jacob Have I Loved helped make the effervescent Paterson—a 77-year-old mother of four and grandmother of seven—a natural for crossing the bridge to ambassadorship.

Scieszka’s platform was reaching reluctant readers. Paterson’s will be “read for your life.” With books, she said, kids (and adults) use their “powers of intellect and imagination” and experience “delight.” Stories also teach children about people from other religions, races, and countries, she said. “Books help us make friends who are different from ourselves.”

Read more here...

"Books about the Library" Contest

After reviewing the contest entries, we picked 3 winners who will receive $150 worth of books from our inventory sale. The winners are:
Susan Briggs- Aliso Viejo Christian School (Aliso Viejo)
Francisca Soza- Puesta del Sol Elementary (Victor Elem. SD)
Denise Wong- Oak Avenue Intermediate (Temple City USD)

And, because we have a hard time saying "NO", we added 5 honorable mention prizes. Each winner will receive a $50 certificate to spend on books at our Library Services warehouse in Pomona. The honorable mentions are:

Children’s Author Breakfast Celebrates Mrs. Nelson's

By Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 5/29/2009 1:52:00 PM

Breakfast speakers Meg Cabot, Tomie dePaola, Julie Andrews and Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Photo: Stevekagan.com.

“Our hope is that parents and their children will read and re-read the poems, and that this will be a keepsake to bring families together,” Andrews declared. Before turning the microphone over to the panel of three authors, “who are really the megastars in this sandbox we’re all playing in,” she asked, “What better way to kick off our program but with a song?” and introduced a surprise guest, folk singer Peter Yarrow of  Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Sending the booksellers off to the show floor at the breakfast’s conclusion, Andrews quoted Gabriel Garcia Marquez, saying, “Books matter. Words count,” and thanking the crowd for “putting books in the hands of children and keeping reading a priority for generations to come.”

Click here for more BookExpo America 2009 coverage from PW.

Pannell Awards Announced

By Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2009 2:33:00 PM

The 2009 Pannell Awards have been announced. In the children's specialty category, the winner is Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop in LaVerne, Calif. In the general bookstore category, the winner is Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, with honorable mention going to That Bookstore in Blytheville, in Blytheville, Ark. The awards go to two bookstores that excel in contributing to their communities in ways that bring books and young people together.

The five-member jury commented the innovative ways that the winners — and all the entrants — are reaching young readers despite shrinking budgets and resources.Joseph-Beth’s citywide reading project, Small Fries: A Kids’ Cookbook with sales benefiting a children’s hospital, was singled out as an illustration of what can be accomplished without a lot of funds, and the store's Reading Reindeer gift tree was commended as well. Mrs. Nelson’s Young Authors contest and use of outside venues, such as libraries and churches, to reach more children were considered noteworthy at a time when many such programs are being eliminated. And That Bookstore in Blytheville was applauded for its Head Start classroom reading program, as well as its variety of programs in the community.

The Lucile Micheels Pannell Award has been given annually since 1983 by the Women’s National Book Association. Each winning store will receive a check for $1,000 and framed original art donated this year by Barry Moser and Anna Dewdney. The awards will be presented on May 29 during the Children’s Book and Author Breakfast at BEA.

Maurice Sendak's classic book Where the Wild Things Are comes to the big screen in an wonderful adaptation by Spike Jonze, director of Being John Malkovich. Upon hearing of this adaptation several months ago, I first thought of the clunky live-action Dr. Suess movie The Cat in the Hat and was disgusted by the thought of yet another well-loved book being "re-imagined" by a film studio. Thankfully, this movie looks fantastic!

January 27, 2009

Attention All Book Buyers!

Mrs. Nelson’s Library Services recently purchased a large inventory of books from Mook & Blanchard Wholesale Library Books and will be selling it off at a 50%-70% discount.  Mook & Blanchard have worked with school and public libraries for the past 40 years before closing their doors in December. Their inventory consists of bestsellers, award winners, popular series, fiction and non-fiction for all grade levels and in hardcover, prebound, and library bindings.

You can be sure to find some great titles at rock-bottom prices.

In addition to discounted books, Mrs. Nelson’s now has the ability to create customized library processing for any school, no matter how detailed your specifications might be. And best of all, Mrs. Nelson’s purchased Mook & Blanchard’s bindery and all the computers programs necessary to create great, quality prebound books.

If you are interested in shopping at our warehouse, please send an email to myself at pnelson@mrsnelsons.com or call us at 909) 397-7820. All forms of payment are accepted, including any credit on file from past book fairs.

Patrick Nelson

pnelson@mrsnelsons.com

www.mrsnelsons.com/bookcompany

800-875-9911

Excerpt from an article appearing in Publishers Weekly, 7/21/2008

Kids' Stores Grow Up

How some children's-only stores have beaten the odds and survived well into their 20s and 30s

by Judith Rosen

Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop (La Verne, Calif.)

Changing of the guard.

When Judy Nelson, co-owner of Mrs. Nelson's, contemplates the future of bookstores, she sees a big question mark. “We have one of the most wonderful bookstores,” she says. “But we just don't have enough traffic to have a booming store. There's so much competition. I don't think people realize the impact their choices make. We had a brand-new Barnes & Noble go in five minutes away, and our customers love the Internet.” Though her store is labor-intensive, she has no intention of closing it. It's an integral part of Mrs. Nelson's other businesses: a book fair company that opened a year after the store did, in the mid-'80s, and a school library business that launched two years ago. Mrs. Nelson's is one of the few children's booksellers to go head-to-head with large library suppliers like Follett by selling shelf-ready, bar-coded books. “It's very complicated,” says Nelson. “But it's a good adjunct to our book fair business and the store. We're still learning.” Her book fair business continues to grow. Eight years ago Mrs. Nelson's moved from table-top book fairs to rolling cases. It now has two branches, and serves 400 schools a year.

WASHINGTON D.C., July 19, 2008

Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop Receives 2008 Best of La Verne Award

 -- Mrs Nelson's Toy & Book Shop has been selected for the 2008 Best of La Verne Award in the Book Stores category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).

The USLBA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2008 USLBA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USLBA and data provided by third parties.

July16^th, 2008

Suzanne Collins, author of the City of Ember, has a new book scheduled to release in September which is already receiving fantastic reviews. The Hunger Games is quickly becoming a favorite of Mrs. Nelson's and will surely become Suzanne Collins' next bestseller. Watch the video below for a teaser of what is to come...

May 13^th, 2008

For us book lovers, this article, appearing in The Guardian, can be put  in the ‘old news’ category:

Benefits of bedtime reading

James Randerson, science correspondent

Reading to young children stimulates their development and gives them a head start when they reach school, according to researchers who have reviewed studies on the effects of reading. Apart from helping their reading, sharing a bedtime story with a child promotes their motor skills, through learning to turn the pages, and their memory. It also improves their emotional and social development.

"You can imagine if someone technologically came up with a widget that would stimulate all aspects of a two-year-old's development, everyone would want to buy it," said Professor Barry Zuckerman, of the department of paediatrics at Boston University school of medicine, who led the study.

Studies show that children who are read to from an earlier age have better language development and tend to have better language scores later in life. Getting children to grip pages with their thumb and forefinger improves their motor skills.

Most important, though, said Zuckerman, is that reading aloud is a period of shared attention and emotion between parent and child. This reinforces reading as a pleasurable activity.

"Children ultimately learn to love books because they are sharing it with someone they love," he said. The research is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

NPR Article with an Audio report from "All Things Considered."

The staff of Mrs. Nelson’s recently got the chance to sit down and have lunch with the new (soon to be bestselling) author Michael Reisman at a lovely restaurant in downtown Monrovia. We chatted about his new book, The Gravity Keeper, his experiences as a writer during the strike, and most notably, what the grossest thing we’ve ever eaten was. He sums up the dinner nicely in his blog (written by a fictional narrator), which I’ve taken an excerpt from:

Observing Michael Reisman's life has its share of interesting moments. Why, just last Thursday he met with an excellent Penguin books publicist and a number of charming Southern California booksellers from Vroman's, Mrs. Nelson's, Mook & Blanchard, and First Page. They had a delightful lunch and wonderful conversation...until Michael decided to ask them about the weirdest things they'd ever eaten. He asked this during the salad course. Oh, Michael...not the brightest bolt of lightning in the storm, is he?

The booksellers were tolerant of this, somehow restraining themselves from clubbing Michael silly with the copies of SIMON BLOOM, THE GRAVITY KEEPER laying around. Conveniently enough, the weirdest-food winner might well have been the people who tried the restaurant's bleu cheese ice cream.

Yes, that's right, bleu cheese ice cream. Michael tasted some and declared that, in his mind, bleu cheese is better suited for buffalo wings than for ice cream. (He and I are in agreement, there.) I wish Michael had thought to bring a camera to the event so there could be action photos of the lunch, the booksellers, and the bleu cheese. But he didn't, so there aren't. (Re-read the title of this blog-post for the explanation.)

The only other news in Michael's thrill-a-decade life is that he's gotten two excellent reviews for his upcoming book. Of course, the accolades really belong to me -- after all, it's My Chronicle. He only had it published. But he's reprinted the reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publisher's Weekly on his website here: http://michaelreisman.com/index.php?page=news

You can view more of Michael’s blog here and click the video below to view a short movie Michael created to accompany The Gravity Keeper.

2/05/2008

A Letter from the National Ambassador for Children’s Literature, Jon Scieszka (from a recent article in Children’s Bookshelf)

Dear Bookshelf Readers,

It has been a weirdly wild month. The whole combination of touring for Trucktown with Dave Gordon, Loren Long and Dave Shannon, and simultaneous Ambassador touring, has combined into a perfect storm of kid mania. I've been received by my people with small open arms. 

Here, for instance, is a partial list of suggestions from Ambassador fans big and small of what I should receive as Ambassador: 

cape
sash
laurel wreath/crown
bejewelled goblet
those little flags for my car
guards for my embassy
an Apache attack helicopter (my idea)
jetpack
Popemobile
jetpack-Popemobile
instant restaurant reservations anywhere, anytime
a fancy uniform
medals
epaulets
a Captain Crunch style admiral's hat (Dave Shannon's suggestion)
Secret Service Franking privileges (mine also)
lifetime diplomatic immunity, for anything (ditto)
a million dollars (surprisingly not mine, but very nice)
official seal diplomatic pouch rank above TSA officials
Ambassador underwear
championship wrestling style belt
require everyone to address me as "Your Excellency" or "Your Eminence"
A butt of Malmsey (traditional payment for England's Poet Laureate)

 I'm thinking we should implement ALL of the ideas.

But the best, the absolute best tribute so far was my reception at the La Jolla Country Day School. The room was packed with 200 pre-K through first graders. As I entered, they presented me with a red satin Ambassador sash, and the fifth/sixth grade music class played an original composition, "Ambassador Fanfare," on kettle drums, trombone, trumpet, and xylophone.
I liked it so much that I went out and came in three more times. And Dave Shannon was with me, so I had them play it for him as Vice-Ambassador—
only half of it, and twice as fast.

It's been very cool to actually get the attention of the ever-fickle media to get across the message that we can and should let our kids read for pleasure. And that there are all kinds of good books out there that kids will want to read.

I have gotten an avalanche of requests. Some of them weird, but most of them heartfelt. The CBC is fielding more every day, looking for events important on a national scale.

I'm also working on a plan to promote the best of every publisher's list for Reluctant Readers, deputizing teachers, librarians, booksellers, parents, kids, and anybody who's found a book that works. Details to be released soon.

Oh, and Dave Shannon also taught a library full of 250 K and first graders the "traditional" way to say goodbye to the Ambassador: both arms straight up overhead, bowing/salaaming farewell. Priceless. Though my wife is not too crazy about doing it every time (or humming the Fanfare, now that I think of it).

Bum bum-bum Baaaahh!

Salaam,

Ambassador Jon  

1/01/2008

Amulet, Book One; The Stonekeeper

A great new graphic novel has just hit the book shelves and it already has people buzzing. Written and illustrated by the immensely talented Kazu Kibuishi, this book is the first in a series which was purchased by Scholastic in a heated bidding war. Fans of “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” will love the action and humor as well as the breath-taking artwork.

Book Description:

“Emily and Navin are moving, again. After a road accident took their father from them, their mother has decided it’s time to move to their grandfather’s old home deep in the woods. Grandpa Silas was an inventor, though, and there are a number of peculiar creations and creatures lurking in the home. When their mother is taken captive by a monster that looks like a cross between an octopus and a spider, though, the two are forced to cross into another world where a mysterious amulet is guiding them towards their last chance to save their family—and a lot of danger as well.”

Media Links:

* Click here to view more details about the book.

 * Browse other books by Kazu here.

* Read an excerpt from the new novel here!

* Read an interview with Kazu on Newsarama.com

* Read a short Publisher's Weekly article from 2005

 * Visit Kazu at his homepage, BoltCity.com

 * View "The Future of Graphic Literature" panel discussion here.