I have recently been trying to think of ways I can help overworked, time-poor, teacher librarians (TLs), particularly those with smaller teams or working by themselves. In a conversation with one of my TL colleagues, she got me thinking about how time-consuming and difficult it is for one person to read ALL THE BOOKS (not that she was trying to but she certainly reads a lot) and to find interesting ways to describe and promote them. I have also had other, interesting conversations with TLs from NSW and QLD, as well as with some of my TL students, about how difficult the art of selling a book to potential readers is.

As I know some will be short on time, I’m going to flip the structure of my blog to explain what I am doing, and then I will explain why. So, if you’re super busy and only want to know how I’m hoping to be helpful, you only need to read half of this post! Starting with…

What I am proposing

I am going to release alternating Speculative Fiction and Realistic Fiction Drops bimonthly with four book-sell blurbs each month. I am more across Young Adult fiction, so will start with these. Books selected will identify if there are any themes or topics TLs should be aware of too.

The first drop will be Spec Fic, specifically Fantasy titles, and will be dropped across the 4 weeks of June. In each drop there will be:

• Blog posts
  • One scheduled to release each week during the months with drops;
  • Will have one post per book in the drop.
• Canva templates
  • Designed to be small enough to print, cut, and stick to bookshelves (feedback welcome on these!);
  • One sentence and title on each card;
  • Considering the idea of making a story-type template too, but we’ll see if I have time!
• Google Drive folder
  • Here you can find Google Docs with the blurbs you can copy and paste wherever you need them.

Ok, I think that’s everything for now. I’m going to move into the why portion of this post now, but before I do, if you have any feedback about any of this, I’d love to hear from you! You can email me at:

theliftinglibrarian.au@gmail.com OR you can get me on LinkedIn.

*Also… please note that this is the plan and I really hope to be able to stick to it but at the very least, I know the blog posts will come out!*

Why I am doing this

I truly believe in a TL’s ability to match the right book with the right child, at the right time (I know you’ve all heard that before!) We, as TLs have had many names, including the enabling adults (La Marca, 2004) or even the social agent (Merga, 2017), or perhaps you’ve heard me ranting on about TLs being influencers (Gagen-Spriggs, 2023). How we talk to kids about books is so important (Gagen-Spriggs, 2020), and how we talk about books is also equally important!

What I have come to observe is that for TLs, the art of describing a book in a way that makes people want to read it either comes naturally to them or it doesn’t, and that’s ok! We can’t all be good at all areas of TLship, goodness knows I’m not perfect at it! But… I feel I am pretty good at making a book sound incredibly readable, so I thought I’d share how I do it.

I also want to quickly touch on why I’m choosing to call these book-sell blurbs rather than book talks, shelf talkers, recommendations, etc… Firstly, I need to acknowledge that my approach to selling a book is based on my enthusiasm for the book, rather than the actual book itself. This is not easy! I don’t rely too heavily on describing the plot or finer character details, I tend to jump straight into what was great about it, etc. Sometimes, I have faked it. I don’t love all the books I’ve sold to students, but you wouldn’t know it!

I will say that students, particularly secondary school students, can smell when you’re trying too hard, so there is a fine balance between being enthusiastic enough and overdoing it. What I’ve come to realise is that authenticity and sincerity are key! Just as they can tell you’re working too hard to give them a book, students can also feel when you genuinely love it, or at least the idea of them reading it (fake it till you make it!)

So, why book-sell blurbs rather than book talks or other? Well… Some may find issue with my use of the word sell to describe this act but in a world where reading and books are competing with ever increasingly easy and attention-grabbing alternatives, I’m afraid we have to pivot and start thinking in more aggressive terms. Yes, this is essentially book/reading promotion repackaged, but I feel like thinking of it as selling makes it more urgent and active, rather than passive. Sometimes a rebrand truly is all we need to shift our thinking and outcomes!

Questions you might have

1. What do you mean by “selling” a book?

This is where you have a book in your hands or are on your way to the shelf to grab it, and you’re trying to describe the book to the student/s. You’re essentially trying to sell them on the idea of the book.

2. Where would I do this?

The beautiful thing about selling a book, is you can do it either one-on-one with your students OR you can do with a whole class. Many will know what I’m referring to as book talks, where you stand sit) in front of your group of students and give a “review” of the book while trying to entice them to borrow/read it. This is very common practice among TLs and school library professionals, but I do want to acknowledge that some are better than others and it is something we can always improve on!

3. What if I am no good at this?

Never fear! I have a formula that worked pretty well for me and I am going to share it with you! If you’re not good at this in person though, you might like to think of ways you can incorporate my provided paragraphs into posters or digital displays throughout your school’s physical and virtual environments. There’s more than one way to sell a book and it doesn’t always have to be in person!

4. How and when will the book-sell blurbs be distributed?

I will host all the links you need on the Book Sell Blurbs page on my website. I have set up a schedule to release a drop of four books in a similar genre, once every two months. The first drop, four fantasy books, is scheduled for release in June (next month!) with a book being released on my blog and socials every week of June. The next drop is scheduled for August and will include four realistic fiction books (across genres like relationships, issues, etc). The final drop for 2024 will happen in October, and then if all goes well and people like this service, I will look to continuing in 2025!

5. What if I have feedback or a request?

I love feedback! I also love requests! You can submit a book-sell blurb request, or even a blurb of your own, to the Google Forms available on the Book Sell Blurbs page. Please know that I will get to them when I can! You can also email me or reach me on LinkedIn if you have any questions or concerns.

References

Gagen-Spriggs, K. (2020). An investigation into the reasons students read for pleasure. School Libraries Worldwide, 20(1), 15. https://doi.org/doi: 10.14265.26.1.009

Gagen-Spriggs, K. (2023). The influence of teacher librarians on reading cultures. Access, 37(3), 7–14.

La Marca, S. (2004). An enabling adult: The role of the teacher-librarian in creating a reading environment. Scan, 23(4), 21–27.

Merga, M. K. (2017). Becoming a reader: Significant social influences on avid book readers. School Library Research, 20, 1–21.