What's Selling Now: Robert Brown

You maybe also plan your vacations around places to visit that have awesome bookstores? One of my dream roadtrips involves a stop at Books, Bytes, & Beyond in New Jersey, and Robert Brown is one of the reasons it's such a great, independent bookstore. Now Bob is shining up Scholastic Book Fairs, get to know him a little with Martha's great, pre-conference interview.

My favorite part of Bob's intro: How important it is to him to help children find the books that are right for them. Bob did this at his bookstore, and now with Scholastic he helps 35 million (!) kids via school book fairs find thousands of fiction and nonfiction titles.

Bob's answers to some of Lin's bookish questions:

Lin asks the panel to take the market's temperature:

Bob is upbeat about the children's book publishing industry. The biggest challenge is to get kids to read more. The book fairs provide unfettered access for kids to be in direct contact with new books, not only the bestseller listers, but wonderful midlist titles as well. In addition, it's a community event, families come to the fairs and the events continue to be well attended, with robust sales and enthusiasm on all sides.

How are Scholastic Book Fairs getting into the electronic book world?

Bob recommends checking out Scholastic's Storia, an app for Windows, iPads and Android designed for kids learning to read as well as readers and parents looking for a a curated set of great books.

Dream book type for Scholastic Book Fairs?

Contemporary multicultural!

Pre-#NY13SCBWI Interview with Robert Brown

Robert Brown is National Sales and Program Manager at Scholastic Book Fairs. In 1987 Bob founded Cornerstone Books, Incorporated (d/b/a Books, Bytes & Beyond), located in Bergen County, New Jersey. He joined Scholastic Book Fairs in August 2012. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School, Bob has a strong commitment to education, and a desire to help children become lifelong readers.

Bob will be on the Saturday morning (February 2, 2013) Bookseller's panel with Mary Brown, owner, Books, Bytes and Beyond; Jon Fine, Amazon.com, and Peter Glassman, owner, Books of Wonder.  They'll be talking about "What's Selling?"

In this interview, Martha Brockenbrough finds out more about Bob, what sells best at the book fairs, and how Scholastic Book Fairs manage to reach 35 million kids and their families a year!

While the Friday Intensives are sold out, there are a limited number of spaces still available for the Saturday and Sunday of the 2013 SCBWI Winter Conference.  You can find out more details and register here. 

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee