Staging a book fair with Black Books Galore - includes related article on book festivals

American Visions, Dec-Jan, 1994 by Francine Silverman

Last winter, two organizations that care about African-American children - Black Books Galore (BBG), a company that markets children's books, and the Pleasant Company, maker of the Addy doll and accompanying books - threw an ice cream social for mothers and daughters. Some 600 people, including actress Vanessa Williams and her daughters, braved the Connecticut snow to participate in the event, which included skits and storytelling and which netted $6,500 for the Port Chester Carver Center in Westchester, N.Y.

Incorporated in August 1992, BBG earned its first profit in 1994 from the sale of books. The company is run by three women who provide free consultation services to clients. The issues they address - how to stage a book fair and what books to order - are also contained in a 30-page manual written by BBG and available with each book order.

"Let us select the books," says co-founder Toni Parker to BBG's potential customers. "If it's just a little day-care center, we will send maybe 50 titles." But, she adds, "We like the biggies because there are so many wonderful books." BBG handles 600 titles designed for African-American children in preschool through the 10th grade; it ships between 50 and 200 titles to each book fair.

Seven years ago, Parker and her friend Sheila Foster were among eight Stamford, Conn., mothers in a play group with daughters between the ages of 9 months and 12 months. When Foster embarked on an exhaustive search for children's books on famous black women for her daughter's first-grade class project, a hunt through five bookstores failed to fully satisfy her need. It was then that she came up with the idea to have a book fair, and she turned to the play group's mothers for support.

Her idea led to an African-American children's book fair in Stamford in 1990, put together by the women's newly formed group, the Black Family Cultural Exchange (BFCE). BFCE succeeded not only in selling books but also in defining a hitherto unmet need. School principals and teachers, impressed by BFCE's array of titles, wanted the women to put on fairs at their schools.

To meet the demand, the women applied for nonprofit status and in 1991 and `92 organized eight fairs. "We had only planned to do one," recalls Parker, "but every time we ran a fair, we'd get a half dozen requests from people who were interested in us coming and doing a fair." National publicity from an article in the May 1992 issue of New Woman magazine heightened the interest, generating 150 requests for additional information on organizing book fairs.

Originally backed by Waldenbooks, and then by Nestle, BFCE organized book fairs in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, usually raising a few thousand dollars on the sale of books. Foster says the responses to BFCE fairs were always overwhelming. "We saw book fairs in other areas," she says, that "didn't have a selection of African-American or Latino books. What was amazing, people who were not African-American or Latino would come and buy just as many books" from BFCE.

For each fair, the women were responsible for ordering books, contacting authors, handling the cash register, generating publicity and working at the fair. "It was very much our show," says Parker. "We only did four a year because it was a lot of work. Five out of the eight women had full-time jobs, and Sheila and I were at home doing 85 percent of the work."

As BFCE's operation dwindled (it is currently in limbo), BBG took root, run by two women from the original play group - Parker and Foster - and a new partner, Donna Rand. "We wanted to continue," says Parker, "and Sheila came up with the idea of mailing our books on consignment to meet the demand nationwide."

Noting that roughly one-quarter of BBG's clients want authors and illustrators to attend their book fairs, Parker says she maintains a list of possible speakers. She also suggests allowing one month for advertising - sending a black-and-white glossy to local newspapers, ordering and displaying printed balloons on the front door, and contacting the school system. Advance notice also gives BBG adequate time to prepare. "If you told me today you wanted a fair," says Rand, "we could respond in a week to 10 days, but we wouldn't advise it."

According to Parker, every group runs its book fair differently, depending on its resources and creativity. "Some organizations will invite an author, illustrator or storyteller, and if they are lucky, they will get a celebrity to come and tell stories," she says. "One organization had a local radio station broadcast from the fair. One group in North Carolina had storytelling at night and told the children to wear pajamas." The one constant at BBG fairs is that books are always displayed on tables in a large room, such as a school gym or auditorium.

The women meet weekly at Parker's home to update their files, check on inventory and discuss publicity. "We spend so much time trying to organize this concept," declares Foster. The three women work weekdays until their children return from school.