Wi12 Education: Successfully Merchandising and Selling Graphic Novels

The Winter Institute 12 education session “ABC Presents: Successfully Merchandising and Selling Graphic Novels” featured panelists Marika McCoola of Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Heather Hebert of Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pennsylvania; Michael Bender of Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York; and Michael Link of Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, Ohio, who served as the moderator.

At the start of the session, the panelists provided attendees with a list of suggestions for early reader, middle grade, and young adult graphic novels, many of which they discussed during the event. (The list is now available in ABA’s Education Curriculum on BookWeb.)

Graphic novels, explained Hebert, are books in which the pictures are equally or more important than the text. At Children’s Book World, these titles are shelved in their own section and grouped by theme. Because of the growing interest in nonfiction graphic novels, those titles have their own shelf in the section, she added.

Illustrated novels feature illustrations that support the text but are not necessary to understand the narrative, said Hebert; in hybrid books, pages of a comic-like story appear within traditional text. Both of these types of books are housed with regular young adult and middle grade books at Children’s Book World, rather with than graphic novels.

Community Bookstore has a large children’s graphic novel section and a smaller young adult section, as well as a separate section of graphic novels for adults. Shelving books face out is important in any section, said Bender, but it’s more important with graphic novels. “If you have someone who’s not sure what they want to get, good art will sell it,” he said. “You can tell them the story and that’s great, but with a graphic novel these amazing images are doing the work for you.”

Porter Square Books has a middle grade and a young adult section for graphic novels, as well as an adult section. A couple of the store’s staff both write and read graphic novels and are the go-to experts, though other staffers do hand-sell these titles as well, said McCoola. To promote graphic novels, each month Porter Square includes one or two titles on its staff picks table, which is located immediately inside the front door, and young readers are invited to submit shelf-talkers highlighting titles in the store’s graphic novel section.

For manga titles (comics and graphic novels from Japan), which tend to be longer series that can be impractical to carry, McCoola suggested posting a sign in the graphic novels section that invites customers to special-order any titles they want. If they do, staff can then ask if there are other popular manga titles the store should be carrying. Many booksellers also know of local comic shops they can recommend to customers who are looking for manga, she added.

At Porter Square, the middle grade graphic novel section faces the regular middle grade section, and the same goes for the young adult section; this makes it very easy for the customer to go back and forth, said McCoola. She also rotates face-out titles to showcase unusual or brand new titles.

When it comes to selling graphic novels, hybrid books are a gateway, said McCoola, explaining that they not only can attract kids who don’t normally read graphic novels or comics but also can meet the needs of parents who are looking to expand their children’s reading beyond comics and get them interested in novels.

When talking to parents or teachers who may be reluctant about graphic novels, it can be helpful to use the term “visual literacy” and to explain that children are growing up in a visual world and need to gain the skills to process what they’re seeing, said McCoola. Graphic novels are also a good way to hook a reluctant reader or to encourage an avid reader to try reading differently, as the pictures will make them slow down and use a different part of their brain, she said.

When talking with parents and educators, McCoola will also point to graphic novelist and Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang and his “Reading Without Walls” platform, which challenges readers to pick up titles outside their comfort zones. TOON Books has created a step-by-step guide for parents and caregivers on how to read comics with kids, McCoola added.

For adults who have never read a graphic novel, she noted that such graphic memoirs as Maus by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon), Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon), or titles from New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast can be an easier point of entry. “Even if they don’t buy it that day, they’re learning about it and they’re maybe accepting it a little more,” said McCoola.

At Children’s Book World, staff members focus on the story when selling a graphic novel. “We tell them the story, then hand it to the kid and it’s a graphic novel. The kid doesn’t care; it’s about the story first,” said Hebert.

Award-winning books, such as the March series by John Lewis (Top Shelf Productions), which last month picked up several awards from the American Library Association, or the Newbery Honor book Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin), are also easier to hand-sell, noted Hebert, adding that more and more teachers are seeing the validity of graphic novels and bringing them into their classrooms.

“I think that was led by seeing their students, in our area in particular, reading all the Raina Telgemeier books. She’s pretty much the J.K. Rowling of the comic book world in the kids industry,” Hebert said. “Now that teachers understand that visual learning is important and that you get wonderful vocabulary from graphic novels, they’re more willing to bring in graphic novels.”

When Hebert provides educators with her top book selections, she always includes graphic novels on the list, and at educator nights she devotes a section of time to talking about graphic novels.

McCoola, who handles school book fairs for Porter Square, is seeing increased requests for graphic novels in general, both fiction and nonfiction. “Teachers are definitely embracing visual literacy and want to know how to use the books in the classroom because they’re seeing students react so much more to them. They realize that they’re really a gateway into reading for most of their students,” she said.

To conclude the session, each bookseller named a top pick that attendees should consider carrying in their stores: McCoola selected the middle-grade graphic novel The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks (First Second); Hebert recommended Fish Girl by David Wiesner and Donna Jo Napoli (Clarion Books, March 7); and Bender suggested The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud (Humanoids).