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Step right up ladies and gentleman! No need to be shy! I’m here to show you today, on behalf of Fly-By-Night Incorporated, the machine that will revolutionize your life!

Is the daily grind of life getting you down?

Too much friction in your relationships?

Need to slide through life a little bit easier than you are now?

Well look no further! The Vaseline Engine ™ is here to help you out! That’s right folks! Just grease up the wheels of time and and let time just slip on by!

Weather a concern? Not with the Vaseline Engine ™! Water won’t affect it one bit. It just rolls off like, well, water off a duck’s back.

So smooth out the rough spots in your life day or night, rain or shine, sickness and health! The Vaseline Engine ™ for all your troubles! Don’t let this offer slip on by!

Step right up ladies and gentleman! No need to be shy! I’m here to show you today, on behalf of Fly-By-Night Incorporated, the machine that will revolutionize your life!

Is the daily grind of life getting you down?

Too much friction in your relationships?

Need to slide through life a little bit easier than you are now?

Well look no further! The Vaseline Engine ™ is here to help you out! That’s right folks! Just grease up the wheels of time and and let time just slip on by!

Weather a concern? Not with the Vaseline Engine ™! Water won’t affect it one bit. It just rolls off like, well, water off a duck’s back.

So smooth out the rough spots in your life day or night, rain or shine, sickness and health! The Vaseline Engine ™ for all your troubles! Don’t let this offer slip on by!

Remember being a kid and getting so excited when your parents said you could have that giant empty box that packaged some newly-arrived-on-your-doorstep appliance-or-such? It's a fort! It's an elf castle! It's a giant dollhouse! It's a... whatever you could imagine it to be.

Take a listen to this, from last week on NPR: Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills.

Turns out you didn't need the latest and greatest toy after all. And with all that unstructured play time you were learning, too. Who knew?

Along similar lines-- an excellent commentary over at Finding Wonderland, for those of us that are tired of the endless marketing of "stuff" to children (and everyone, for that matter...)

Summer stood in front of her closet. A flash of pink caught her eye.

Grody! Who let these DITTOS back in here? They're so out, it's embarrassing.

She grabbed her favorite pair of JORDACHE jeans and the OP tee with the powder-blue surfer. These will look super cool with my blue and white VANS, she thought as she moved to her vanity.

Summer dreamed of Matt as she curled her bangs under. I wonder if he'll be at DEL TACO today? Will he finally notice me? A spray or two of BABY FRESH will make him notice. I just hope it won't clash with his POLO.

Rick Dees's voice interrupted her thoughts and the jingly opening tones of "Borderline" filled Summer's heart with joy. Of course Matt will notice me!

Summer packed her school bag. She definitely needed Of Mice and Men and her trig book today. (Trig. Gnarly.) Hmmm, where is my bubblegum LIPSMACKER?

Throwing her backpack over one shoulder, Summer headed to the fridge and found the last FRESCA. The day had begun.
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The announcement from HarperCollins about a new "tween" series has me flummoxed. Head on over to the honorable Read Roger for the scoop.

Instead of offering you my opinion, I thought I'd share this beautiful piece of prose. Can you place me? (No fair if you know how old I am and where I'm from!)

And, as far as opinion is concerned, I'll let Tadmack speak for me. Yeah, what she said.

Here is Part 1 of a 3 Part series on Inventory Management. A great piece from Nora at Rainy Day Paper Back Exchange. It will get you thinking about optimizing your shop. It never hurts to do little a tweak here and there. We have sold many books right after moving them from one spot to another. Your regular customers can develop a ‘blinder effect’ after a while. This article should provoke you into at least thinking about placement if not actually moving a few things. Let us know if you’ve had success doing anything similar via the comments area.

*******************************

Part 1

What to do with under-performing sections?

You’ve figured out that a section is really taking up far too much space compared to what it contributes to your bottom line. But what do you do to rehabilitate the section?

Move it!
Sometimes it’s the location that’s doomed a section. Consider who normally buys those books and look over the section with a careful eye. Once you take a careful look at a section you may see the problem.

For example, putting the books on parenting and childbirth at knee height won’t work. Pregnant ladies can’t see their feet, let alone that shelf. Sometimes it’s something you’d never think of, but smack your head when you hear someone say it out loud. To use the same example, if the parenting books are somewhere mom can’t get her stroller to, women with little children won’t buy those books.

If there’s no obvious reason, consider moving it next to a section that IS selling. The high traffic in that area may be enough to get a bad section out of its rut (see the blog article on planograms for more on this). Try and come up with a logical pairing. If your logical pairing didn’t work, try something completely illogical! We moved True Crime many times, placing it (logically) next to Mystery, Thriller, and Biography at points but finally found it sold when placed next to Science Fiction. We still have no idea why.

Move PART of the section
A little shuffling may be just what was needed because where you shelved it wasn’t where your customers thought it should be. This is easiest to do with nonfiction sections. Don’t overload a high performing section with books from a poor section. Just move some of the most valuable books.

For example, say you have a book about the psychology of serial killers. You could easily put it in psychology or true crime. If it gets real specific with examples, it might even fit in biography. Try moving some of the higher priced items to a different section and see if they move there. Don’t forget to put a new date on them to indicate when they’ve overstayed their welcome there!

Remodel it!
If the section happens to be somewhere that gets natural light, walk into it several different times during the day and check the light level. It may be unbearably bright or thrown entirely into shadow for part of the day. Installing a curtain or a spotlight that can be adjusted during the day may be all that’s needed.

Also stand there for a few moments, preferably while there’s customers in the store. If it’s a tight space, browsers may be giving up because they keep getting bumped by other customers trying to get by. People generally will put up with being jostled once. Twice and they’ll move unless they REALLY want it. Consider moving “grab and go” stuff to that spot instead. Serial romances and Cliff Notes are good examples. Customers’ll glance at it quickly and decide in maybe 5 seconds whether they’re buying or not, so they won’t get jostled or block the aisle.

You can also consider moving around some of your fixtures to create a little more aisle space or to reroute the foot traffic away from that section. Less foot traffic seems like it should lead to less sales, but giving people time to browse items undisturbed may actually lead to more sales. Putting the high priced items that people will examine in detail far off the main foot traffic may actually make them sell better. Those willing to drop $500 on a book will still find the section, but won’t get run over by a baby stroller while contemplating their purchase.

Also consider whether there’s adequate places to put things down. This is especially true to sections browsed by women with small children (such as the kids section). If mom’s got a toddler in one arm, she’s only got one arm free to browse with. If she has nowhere to put her purchases down while she continues shopping, she’ll only buy one or two books.

Look for Part 2 & 3 later this week

Rainy Day Paperback Exchange
Bethel, CT
gently used books for kids and adults
http://www.rainydaypaperback.com

related posts: Using a Plannogram | Killing a Section

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Now that's what I call product placement.

Thanks to www.fantagraphics.com/blog

The Washington Post had an article on writers being paid to write what is basically an advertisement e disguised as story or novel . Here's how the piece it uses as an example begins:

"The Lexus loaner turned out to be a GS Hybrid. To say it was an upgrade from the battered Crown Vic I'd driven with the LAPD would be an understatement. For one, you don't need a key. You keep the remote control thing in your pocket and to start the car you just push a button on the dash. Like on a computer. In fact the car's more like a super-powered laptop on wheels than anything else."

The story is being published in three installments in the Lexus quarterly magazine. It's also available, with interactive features, on the company's Web site.

Writers have always made artistic compromises. This one seems pretty clear cut. After all, the reader is seeing it in the Lexus magazine. There was a YA book a while ago with product placement paid for by Cover Girl, I believe, and that seems a little more iffy, since it wasn't obvious from the outset that they had paid to be there. (Actually, I guess they didn't pay. Running Press signed an unusual marketing deal with P&G's makeup division Cover Girl. Press reports say no money changed hands. Cover Girl makeup was showcased in the book and, in return, the book was promoted on Beinggirl.com, a website directed at adolescent girls. The book included references to Cover Girl Lipslicks, a brand of lipstick, and a specific color of Cover Girl eyeliner.)

Still, being a writer is all about compromises with yourself, with your editor, for your audience. And writers need to live as much as the next person.





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