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Shannon Smith on American Born Chinese and Bookstores
posted June 29, 2007
 

Regarding your post about not seeing American Born Chinese in bookstores...

If you went to Borders (I work at one, mine has four copies on hand, I think we've sold about five) and said Borders shelved their graphic novels according to the company standards, it would be a hard book to find. ABC is stickered under Graphic Novel/Other which basically means not-super hero and not-manga. "Other" is usually the smallest section of the graphic novels. They are supposed to be shelved alphabetically by the author's last name (same as literature as opposed to manga and spandex which are shelved by series title). So, if your nearest Borders is doing their job correctly, then ABC would be one of the very last books on the bottom shelf of one of the smallest sections in the store. In short, damn hard to find.

I personally have done a lot to get it on endcaps in my store but more space than we have is already claimed by company planogramed displays.

Another shelving tragedy is Fun Home. It is shelved wayyyyy back in lesbian fiction. It is sad that Time magazine's book of the year is in a place where (probably) less than 1% of our customers would see it. Good news though is that the new paperback of Fun Home is a part of the ongoing 3 for 2 program which means it gets to sit on one of the front of store tables. (If your Borders has enough copies.)

I've fought a secret one man war to get good graphic novels in prime selling spots in my tiny part of the retail world for five years. It ain't easy.