Anyone with experience of Barefoot, Usborne, Brainworks etc??

[moominmama86]

Has anyone got any experience of working as a party planner for children's book publishers? I want to work from home and have lots of experience in the book trade so thought this might be an ideal opportunity, but I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who's actually done it before taking the plunge.

I've had some info through from Barefoot and it looks pretty good, but I'm wondering what other people's experiences were. Any words of wisdom?

I thought about this- but my mum pointed out there are lots of cheap books avaiable now. I know schools like to do fundraisers etc. SO if you do it I would go form something a bit different- maybe very high quality books? DK used to do this (and I think were good- as the books are different from the usual run of the mill stuff) but I have a feeling they stopped party plan.

it depends really how much money you need to make. Although having said that the start up costs are low so you could always give it a go.

My sister works as an agent for Usbourne. The books are fantastic and the financial outlay isn't too big to get you started, but I do know that she finds it quite hard work. I think before you do anything like this you need to check how many other agents there are in your target area. Unfortunately for my sister she just happens to be in the area where Usbourne's top agent operates, who to be honest appears to have cornered the market of all the obviously places you would try and sell to, e.g. mother and toddler groups, nurseries, etc. Because of this - it means she finds it incredibly difficult to get events and bookings arranged.

Also difficult to do if you are planning to do this with children in tow - i.e. how do you keep them occupied whilst you're showing/ marketing the books?

Please do get me wrong - I'm not trying to paint a black picture, I just think you need to do a bit of research first into your target area and your competition (both for the same brand and other brands).

Hope this helps.