As Halloween continues to grow in popularity, Shelf Awareness surveyed a group of booksellers about the holiday, its importance, how they celebrate it, and what works best.
At Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, Ga., Halloween sales have been steadily increasing and are second only to December holiday sales--"and it's a close second," co-owner Diane Capriola-Little noted. "To compete with Target and other big box stores, we have been putting these titles out earlier each year when we used to wait until after Labor Day to do it several years ago." This year Little Shop of Stories' Halloween display went up early in August, and the store has already sold through some titles, including "the brand new (and delightful!) Vampire Jam Sandwich by Casey Lyall and perennial favorites, Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown and Gustavo, the Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago. Halloween themed sidelines are always popular as well and include Jellycat plush, puzzles from Chronicle/Mudpuppy, and anything involving monsters. Don't be afraid to put these titles out earlier than usual. We like to say that 'if you build it, they will come!' "
For a variety of reasons, Halloween is an important holiday at the Bookstore at Fitger's, Duluth, Minn. (The building is haunted and included in Travels of Terror: Strange and Spooky Spots Across America, and the North Shore of Lake Superior "lends itself to spooky tales," as store manager Jennifer Jubenville puts it. "Let's just say that we always have campfire stories and ghost tales in stock.") Halloween has become ever more popular, in part because "more and more kids are asking for horror titles."
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| The Bookstore at Fitger's display when the theme was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. | |
Window displays are important at Fitger's. "We make sure that we have books in the design that people are going to want to check out." Among them last year was The Gothic Cookbook and books like Edgar Allan Poe: Collected Works. (The store's main room window theme last year was "Death by TBR.") Backlist favorites include the Goosebumps series ("parents and grandparents remember those and know that they're appropriate for kids"), classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Haunting of Hill House. The store also carries Halloween plush and Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King sidelines from Out of Print. Jubenville notes that mystery & thriller is the store's second-best selling genre so the store makes sure to stock William Kent Krueger, most of Brian Freeman's books, Josh Moehling's books, and titles by Catherine Ryan Howard.
This year the store is doing a "speed booking" event (like speed dating, but with books) a week before Halloween that will be all mystery/thriller and horror. On the last Saturday of October, Fitger's also does a big family Halloween event (and Canine Carnival) where people (and dogs) are invited to come in costume and trick or treat in the building's complex.
At Flintridge Bookstore, La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., Halloween is such an important sales opportunity that the store promotes it with a children's and an adult display, a window display, decorations throughout the store as well as in a print ad in the local newspaper and a special e-newsletter, plus social media postings.
Backlist standards for the store consist of "classic ghost stories, including Dracula, Frankenstein, and Lovecraft and Poe collections as well as newer horror titles," according to Gail Mishkin, who's in charge of events and marketing. "We always feature a selection of Stephen King titles. We always have Halloween-related coloring books for adults and other seasonal novelty books. Children's staples include Room on the Broom, Little Blue Truck Halloween, Drew Daywalt's Crayon series, and funny cookbooks." New titles the store is looking forward to include Grady Hendrix's Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Stephen Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and Joe Abercrombie's The Devils.
Jen at Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery, Park Rapids, Minn., emphasizes the lasting popularity of Room on the Broom: "If you don't have Room on the Broom in stock for Halloween (even the goofy plush), why are you even open? I swear we've sold enough of that title every October for every child on the planet to own at least one copy (and we're a 1,500 sq. ft. store in a town of less than 4,000) and yet we still sell it like crazy every Halloween."
At Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex., "We always dress up for storytime and encourage toddler costumes," according to Valerie Koehler, owner and girlboss. "We usually have several fun displays with books, games, and puzzles. And every child is asked for the two weeks before what they are dressing up as for Halloween."
Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H., has what Ryan (Gibson's "Queen of Scream") calls "a really robust horror section" with a lot of shelf talkers and faceouts. The store's many horror fans allow it "to do some extremely cool horror-themed events. We've got a panel coming up with CJ Leede, Clay McLeod Chapman, and Delilah S. Dawson. We've got a virtual event with Brian Asman. We've got Alma Katsu in conversation with Paul Tremblay. We've got P. Djèlí Clark presenting the paperback of Ring Shout. We're also planning a 'spooky' version of our now-monthly Audiobook Walks for October, which will include optional costumes and walking at dusk instead of in the morning."
Last year, Gibson's kicked off Halloween with a Local Horror Author Showcase, featuring a group of local horror authors who set up tables with their books. "A huge crowd" mingled, enjoyed spooky-themed snacks and drinks, and received publisher horror swag--and the authors sold a lot of their books.
Not surprisingly, Halloween is a major event for Ghoulish Books, San Antonio, Tex., a horror-themed bookstore opened two years ago the Ghoulish Books publishing company. "This is a genre readers enjoy year-round, of course, but people are most excited about spookiness during spooky season, of course. We have to be ready for it," notes co-owner Max Booth III, who adds that Halloween has become so popular that it "allows to operate all year round."
Ghoulish plans on "nonstop" Halloween events throughout October, including author signings, a trick-or-treat event for kids, and the monthly reading series First Friday Frights. The store will also feature "little spooky coffins with grotesque imagery on them that sell very well" and T-shirts featuring the store logo or the phrase "Keep San Antonio Ghoulish."
Important backlist titles for the store include Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest as well as Booth's own novella The Last Haunt, about a Halloween haunted house attraction and published by Ghoulish Books. Booth is looking forward to Paul Tremblay's middle-grade book Another and Jess Hagemann's Mother-Eating (published by Ghoulish).
At Books-A-Million, Halloween is "one of our favorite seasons to celebrate," executive v-p of merchandising Kathy Gagliano states. "Our stores come alive with spooky displays featuring a curated mix of classics and hot new releases." BAM's v-p of YA and kids' books Sandra Wilson adds that the kids Halloween section aims "to strike the perfect balance--fun with just the right touch of spookiness. You'll find perennial favorites like Room on the Broom and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, alongside beloved characters like Bluey, Pete the Cat, and the Paw Patrol crew. On the adult side, horror has never been hotter--from Stephen King's Never Flinch to Grady Hendrix's Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, and our August Shelfworthy pick, The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw."