Teen Advisory Groups Empower YA Readers

A growing number of booksellers are finding that teen advisory groups are both a great way to engage young adults in the literary community and to promote YA sales. Whether a group of teens or tweens is called an advisory board, a press corps, or something else, a platform that empowers a sometimes overlooked age group to voice their opinions about upcoming titles is a win for both the participants and the bookstore.  

Three years ago, when BookPeople in Austin, Texas, was looking for a way for teens to become more invested in the store, children’s and young adult buyer Meghan Dietsche Goel visited middle schools to gather input from students and librarians, and she discovered that there was interest among teens in taking a more active role in the store. While the term “advisory board” didn’t generate much excitement, students expressed their support for “Teen Press Corps,” which alludes to a more active and engaging role in the bookstore.

“We saw it as a great way to pull in the voices of the teen community and facilitate a dialogue about books,” said Dietsche Goel. “We found that these kids love books, they have a lot to say, and our program gives them a platform to express themselves.”

Interested students applied, and from the responses BookPeople assembled a 10-person Teen Press Corps. There is a waiting list to join the corps, said Dietsche Goel, but not much turnover, as most of the original members are remaining involved until they graduate from high school. The teens meet at the bookstore once a month to complete various book-related tasks, including reviewing ARCs, interviewing authors, and writing opinion pieces. Content is published on a Teen Press Corps blog, which is featured on the BookPeople website.

The members of the corps have control over their tasks, said Dietsche Goel. The teens choose their own titles and sign up to submit their reviews at deadlines throughout the month. Once a month, the group selects a YA Buzz Book, which the corps deems worthy of additional promotion. The members of the group also blog about what they’re reading, or are looking forward to, and periodically they receive an assignment for a feature article or opinion piece. Teen Press Corps members can also sign up to work alongside store staff at YA events, as well as to conduct both in-person interviews with touring and local authors and long-distance interviews with authors of the books they love. During the annual Austin Teen Book Festival, the corps is tasked with live blogging from the festival site.

As an additional benefit, Teen Press Corps members receive BookPeople’s employee discount, but being distinguished as a member of the Teen Press Corps is incentive on its own, said Dietsche Goel, adding, “They relish the opportunity to contribute something tangible to our literary community.”

Dietsche Goel oversees the press corps’ activities with the help of a second staff member, Ta’Necia Cannon, a frontline bookseller and young adult specialist. Dietche Goel selects ARCs specifically for the group and solicits publishers for multiple copies of new titles that seem to be gaining buzz. She also provides the corps with direction for each month’s agenda, including selecting books to be distributed, conceptualizing feature stories, and setting up interviews. Cannon runs the meetings and posts content to the website.

Much of the content generated by the Teen Press Corps is used in the store’s marketing efforts. BookPeople prints reviews on “Teen Press Corps recommends…” shelf-talkers, which are placed throughout the Teen Fiction and Teen Fantasy sections. The store also announces the YA Buzz Book in its monthly teen e-newsletter and cross-promotes it in the adult newsletter as well as on the store blog.

The Teen Press Corps has been beneficial to the store, said Dietsche Goel. Staff has received great feedback from customers on corps members’ contributions, and the store sells many of the books featured on the corps’ shelf-talkers, especially the monthly YA Buzz Book. “Readers are certainly paying attention,” said Dietsche Goel.

The passion that the Teen Press Corps “has brought to what we do has been incredibly invigorating,” said Dietsche Goel. “They are a lot of fun to have around, and they know what they’re talking about. They have given our YA marketing and programming a level of energy and authenticity that we really couldn’t achieve without their voices.”

Until this past January, Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey, seemed to offer something for every age group, except teens. The store hosted a Mom & Me storytime for children two year old and younger, an author/illustrator storytime series for young children up to seven years old, a summer family book night for six- to nine-year-olds, and various book groups and events for adults. However, there was a palpable void in programming for teen customers.

Members of Watchung's YA Advisory Board

“The YA Advisory Board has successfully filled this gap,” said Liane Freed, the program’s manager. Though the advisory board creates content that Watchung uses in its promotional efforts, the focus is on bringing teens into the store and engaging them in reading. By including more teens in the store’s activities, Watchung programming has become more representative of the needs of the community as a whole, Freed said.

An announcement about the creation of the Watchung advisory board and a call for volunteers was made on the store website and in its newsletter. From the responses, Watchung assembled a group of 20 teens, ranging from eighth to twelfth grade. Once a month during the school year, the advisory board meets to take part in fun and engaging activities. Board members read ARCs of upcoming YA novels and write reviews that are posted to the store’s website.

Last season’s Watchung events included a visit from author Maureen Johnson (The Shades of London series, Putnam Juvenile), who was interviewed by members of the advisory board. And at an event with author/illustrator Henry Neff (The Tapestry Series, Random House Books for Young Readers), advisory board members were invited to read one of their creative writing pieces to the group. Neff then offered critiques and feedback on their work, which led to a discussion about the writing process in general.

Freed is most pleased by the teens’ passion for their work on the board. “I try to let the discussions be teen driven,” she said, “that way they talk about what they want to talk about. The meetings are an hour long, and they never want to leave. They have animated discussions and really enjoy each other’s company.”

As the program continues to develop, Freed plans to ask advisory board members to read to younger children as well to create videos to promote literacy in the community.

At Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, the YA advisory board — called MB14 for “must be 14” — was created as a way to learn more about teens’ reading preferences. Calvin Crosby, the store’s general manager, teamed up with staff member Amanda O’Connor and former librarian Sue Campbell to bring together a core group of teens. The call for volunteers was spread by word-of-mouth to the store’s regular customers and through an existing partnership with the Marin School of the Arts that spread the word to students.

Book Passage held interviews to learn more about the would-be volunteers and found that all who applied were “bright, amazing, overachieving kids,” said Crosby. “Everyone who was interested got in.”

There are about 20 members of the Book Passage advisory board who have their own shelf of ARCs to review. The store’s shelf-talkers are based on the reviews, “and they definitely influence our buys,” said Crosby, who noted that larger quantities are ordered when a member of the board gives a title a positive review. The board also conducts author interviews via Skype, which are published on the store’s website.

Another perk to being an advisory board member is “we feed them well,” said Crosby. The bookstore’s café will provide meals, or staff will order pizza to the store for the group.

However, members of the board are fully focused on all things book-related. “The thing I love is that they’re all about the books, in all aspects,” Crosby said. “From the beginning to finished product, they have so many questions and are just completely engaged.”

Members of the advisory board are also tasked with selecting teens for “the next wave,” said Crosby, noting that new members are recruited by invitation only.

To meet the demand for programming for kids under 14, Book Passage has started a group called Ink, which performs the same tasks as the teen advisory board but with titles geared toward a younger audience.

Book Passage’s YA section has become a place for the members of the advisory board to congregate even when they’re not attending a meeting or event. When they’re in the store, many members talk to customers about books and recommend titles that they’ve enjoyed.

“The energy they’ve brought to the store is just amazing,” said Crosby. “We have such a vibrant YA section that’s just buzzing with activity.”