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Here is my original post and the responses I received about Scholastic's = Literacy Festival. Thanks to all who responded. Has anyone had this new book fair from Scholastic? I'm considering it for next fall but I'd like some input from others who have used it. I'm = especially interested in how it compares to their regular book fair.=20 I'm having my fourth Literacy Fair in June. I love it! The book = selection=20 is current and varied. It's like having a book store right in the = Media=20 Center. I used to dread the book fairs because of all the junk, but I = like=20 this fair (no, I don't work for Scholastic!). My Scholastic reps are the best and do everything to make sure the fair is = a=20 success. I even go to the warehouse and select books that I want to=20 pre-read so that I am able to promote them. I hold two fairs -- one in = the=20 fall during parent/teacher conferences and one in June when our books = are=20 due back and students can't check anything else out. I offer a 25% off=20 coupon for one book to students who have returned all books by a certain=20= date and taken care of their fines. I just heard about it today and I am going to visit a catholic school on Sunday morning (that's right -- Sunday morning) that is having one. I'm = in a public school; apparently this catholic school in Fishers, IN (just northeast of Indy) is a very strong school and they are having one next week. The reason it was recommended to me is because we have had some = very strong Scholastic Fairs during the past 4 years. We have 2 per year; over the last 2 years we have sold over $12,000 each year at both Book Fairs. This catholic school has a smaller enrollment than we do and they have = sold as high as $7,000 with a regular fair. With one of the literacy fairs previously, their sales jumped from $7,000 to $12,000, just during one = fair. There is no literature on this fair and it is a lot of hard work. My rep also told me the profit is only 25% instead of 30%. However, it sounds intriguing so I am going to visit on Sunday morning. Their hours next = week are 9-1 on Sunday, 8-4 on Monday and Tuesday, 8-8 on Wed. and Thurs., and = 8-12 on Friday. I'm surprised at Sunday morning hours, but I am going to = leave after my sunday school at my Baptist Church and head over there. I can let you know more next week if you are interested. It is a wonderful fair. There is definitely a better selection; this fair had many more hardbacks, paperbacks, and other things. There would be = many good choices, so I can understand why they would sell more money. A = school in Noblesville is going to have this fair in April, and I would = like to see theirs also. I think I could make a better comparison. 1/3 of the = students in my school come from a lower-income trailer park. The neighborhood = around this Catholic school is an upscale neighborhood. This could be = part of the reason they sell so much more; would we necessarily do the = same. My last concern is about the profit. It's a harder book fair to = set up because most of the books are packed in boxes. They had 8 cases = and 15 tables of books. They could have used one additional table even. Yet, their profit is only 25%. With a regular fair, you make 30% straight cash profit. You don't make a lot more for the extra work. With a Books on Tour Fair, or = expanded fair, a year ago last fall, they sold $7000. That translates to $2100 @ 30%. With $12,000 in sales @ 25%, their profit is only $3000. That's = only an increase of $900. I haven't decided if it is worth it or not. = Otherwise I liked the fair. Be careful with scholastic! If the fair you are talking about is what my = sales rep calls a "Lit Fest", than they may lower your profit percentage. = It is supposedly a "better" fair but I have refused to switch from my = "Super Books on Tour" fair to the Lit Fest because I will not allow them = to lower my percentage from 30 % to 25% (they already lowered us from 35 = to 30).=20 Grill your rep about money before accepting a different kind of fair. We finished our Book Fair last week. Never before has Scholastic sent me so many books. There was still a lot of the crafty, expensive stuff, but there were a lot of books, especially hard cover. We did have a lot of restocking problems -- some books had only 2 copies to begin the fair and then couldn't be restocked; we asked for many titles, but got a lot of one and none of the other. Profits were lower; we received $100 off the fair and 2 $50 drawings for our two family nights. Our fair grossed about $20,000. =20 While our fair was going on some planners from corporate offices in = Florida visited. Naturally, I put in my 2 cents. From the beginning I didn't think there were enough Easy Reader titles. Plus I was dismayed that they had put "Captain Underpants", "Ricky Robot", "Spiderman" and "Xmen" books = into the cases where the kindergarten children would be browsing. I was = told the cases were K-2. We had very few of the Henry and Mudge, Frog and = Toad early chapter type books. You could tell we didn't have enough = because the cases were so light when we packed up the fair. =20 Overall, the company was more accomadating than last year. But even = though we are only 45 minutes from their warehouse, they couldn't deliver = during the day. They eventually found someone who lived closer and would = deliver after 5pm. =20 Here in Charlotte we have a small bookstore/toy store that competes with Scholastic. They add or remove titles upon my request. They sell books, with no "junk". Their profit includes $500 off the fair (at a certain level, like Scholastic) and 30% over $15,000. I think that's why Scholastic was more accomodating this year. I will continue to have 2 = book fairs each year, one with each company, because I like the variety. We have had the lit. fest. bookfair for several years. We were overwhelmed the first time, we received twice as many books than before. Our teachers were very impressed by the quality and variety that was offered. We have been very successful with this type of fair. Some years we have not had the high inventory, but we have bad timing for our bookfairs. Our fairs need to be held in November and May, this we understand is a time when many others in our area hold fairs also. We have been told that Scholastic is trying to solve that problem by limiting restock orders and more control on the inventory, but we haven't seen that happen yet. Scholastic (at least in our area) does offer great support when you move to a lit. fest. - we have a high priority rating. Lori Loranger, LMS Robinson Elementary Kirkwood, MO lorangl@gw.kirkwood.k12.mo.us http://www.kirkwood.k12.mo.us/parent_student/re/lorangl/Library.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv. For LM_NET Help see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ Archives: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml See also EL-Announce for announcements from library media vendors: http://www.mindspring.com/~el-announce/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=