God help me, I've just volunteered to run the book stall at the school fair

[ExcellentLibris]

Sorry folks, been away from MN for a few years and I couldn't work out where this belonged.

Any tips

I live in a small city in New Zealand. The fair will be in October. The book stall will be in one of the classrooms.

Apparently guidelines for running the stall will be issued in due course, but I'm uptight and want to plan now.

I've volunteered in a charity bookshop before (which I realise will be very different from a two-and-a-half-hour flash sale)

And there will be other book sales around town for me to check out and glean tips from.

I have no idea what I'm doing. Suggestions gratefully accepted!

Ours works by the parents and children bringing in the books a few days before. You get a couple of hours to set them out and then the ——rabble—- buyers come and chose which books they want. You might need to enlist sone help.

Welcome back to MN

Pricing can be a problem, I help on a school book stall each summer, and if whoever runs it prices the books too high, we are left with loads at the end of the afternoon!

Yes - went to DS's school fair on Sunday. The books were £2 each regardless of type. Not many went.

I think they'd have made a lot more overall if they'd priced them at 50p-£1

I ran the book stall at mine - it was some donations, and some that had been cleared out of the library.

I enjoyed it! There were some really unusual ones (from the library!) I put on my full sales patter, and tried to find something to interest anyone that came in - I think I sold about half of them (which considering it's a small school, and the very odd selection, I was pretty proud of)

I agree about pricing. I had an official price of 50p, but if a kid came along with less then I'd let them have a book for what they had (I didn't have any problem with people taking the mick, and preferred a child to have a book than go away empty handed to enforce a price)

Ours is 3 for £1. The pupils give their £1 to the teacher in the run up to the sale and then come and choose 3 books. Saves faffing around with cash on the day and hassle with pricing.
All books are donated by parents so it's all profit.

Get a rota of helpful children to tidy the books and fill any gaps.
Don’t price too high as you don’t want piles of books left over.

I really like Avebury’s pre pay plan.

I helped on one stall where people were asked to pay what they thought the book was worth. Most paid a reasonable price, and we didn't have too many left. Good luck!

Keep the prices simple. Most easy the same price for everything - except if it's a really nice fancy hard back or box set then I price undivdually (and am happy to let people haggle a bit on those). I tend to display the books by age. Put all picture books together, if you have loads put some on a table and put the rest upright in a plastic box that people can flip through and you can rotate stock through out the sale. Paperbacks for older children - if you aren't familar with that age group it might be worth having a quick check on line about what age a book is aimed at and keep ones for older children on a separate table. Some parents might not be happy with their 7 year old coming home with a copy of The Hunger Games but it's fine for a 12 year old. I have an 'older readers only' section usually.
Oh as someone else said - if a child is clutching a handful of coins that isn't quite enough.... just say "oh that's fine".

Thanks so much, JiltedJohnsJulie, Clawdy, listsandbudgets, swivelchair, Avebury, SavoyCabbage, mrssmiling and bookmum08!

I'm sorry for not getting back and replying and thanking all of you sooner - that pesky Real Life had other ideas.

I really like those suggestions. It turns out the Fair Committee may have other ideas, but I'll do what I can!

To my horror, I hadn't thought about the involvement of the kids at all, even though the fair should really be all about them (with fundraising coming second). Will definitely push for that and make sure we let kids who are short of the dosh have the book :)

Also, I've been checking out other book stalls in my town (half the schools have autumn fairs and ours isn't until Spring) and have noticed that the most organised-looking stalls have the following in common:

The same, low pricing scheme for all books (as suggested above) - something along the lines of $1/book, 50c/kid book. Some of the better-off schools have upscale magazines, as well, for 3-for-50c.

Generous aisles between rows of trestles, which are arranged to keep people flowing without blind corners. (One school had a spot in a vast school hall and had a square ring of trestles with all volunteer staff in the centre).

Keep books together by genre in cardboard fruit boxes (with spines facing up and big labels on the boxes/tables).

Absolutely noone has been selling music or posters or anything peripheral like that. And noone seems to sell old reference books (dictionaries, encyclopedias).

I've been told we need six adult volunteers, so I went around and nabbed them before other stalls snapped them up - I'll keep communicating with them as we go, because there's nothing like a keen bookstall volunteer who is on the same page :)

Thanks again! :)

I help out at children's book swaps and we split things up into age categories so picture books, early readers, junior fiction and YA. Fact books are separate, and we normally bung all the neverending series like Rainbow Fairies and Beast Quest etc together. It is very satisfying watching the kids find the books they want.