May - Giveaway! $20 Gift Certificate

Great Books for Children is giving away a $20 gift certificate this month for Barefoot Books!  How do you enter?  Well, there are 3 ways:

1) Be a newsletter subscriber.  Just sign up in the box on the right of this page.  You'll get a monthly (or sometimes twice monthly) newsletter full of discounts and interesting information about books.
2) Be a facebook fan of GB4C.  The fan page is found at www.facebook.com/greatbooks
3) Tell your friends about this giveaway and GB4C.  Put a comment on this post and tell me how you did that.  Did you twitter it?  Did you email the information?  Did you tell your mom's group?  Let me know!

Good luck!  Giveaway winner will be chosen May 28th at 8pm central.

Why a Job Selling Children's Books is Hard

In a complete departure from what is normally on this blog, I'd like to talk about the difficulty in selling children's books.  When I began selling children's books, I thought that passion and good business sense would take me a long way.  It's far harder than I ever expected, to be honest. This post is an attempt to examine why.

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  It is a Media Driven World

   There are so many different types of media clamoring for a child's attention.  There are movies, TV, computer games, console game systems, the internet and now iPod's and iPads... oh and books.  Books don't talk loudly, or force a child to interact with it.  They don't come with a 6 month commercial lead-up.  And reading takes more effort than enjoying the other sources listed.

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  Some Parents are Lazy and/or Busy

  Reading to your child also takes more effort than sitting them in front of a TV screen.  Parents who work long hours and have other stuff that need their attention.  Yes, they love their children.  But they may be too tired, or stretched too thin to take that extra step.

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  Parents Don't Know How to Judge a Book

  Books have changed over the past few decades.  The most popular books at traditional school book fairs tend to be TV or movie character driven, instead of the more classical stories you grew up with.  How do you know what to buy?  A lot of times, the answer comes down to the cost of the book instead of the quality of the books.

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  Quantity Does Not Equal Quality

  Because some parents aren't judging the quality of the books they buy, their children end up with a bookshelf full of books with no substance.  How many times does a child want to read a SpongeBob book with a predictable storyline?  So, the parent might surmise that their child won't read an additional books they buy because they aren't reading the ones already purchased.

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  Parents Buy from Amazon.com 

  Parents that do buy books would rather purchase from Amazon.  Free shipping, the ability to read reviews, and an almost infinite catalog of titles is hard to argue with.

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  The X Factor

  I'm sure there are other factors I haven't even considered.

What do you think?  Why is it hard for independent booksellers to sell in this economy?

Coming Soon

Great Books for Children is expanding the books and products that they offer.   While still offering award winning books from Barefoot Books, GBfC is going to offer hundreds of other fine products for your children.  When you shop with GBfC, you'll always find the quality you expect for your home or classroom!

A new website is forthcoming and will be showcasing all our products.  Until then, feel free to place orders via email or phone!