I’ve had a few emails from people about my posting on Borders. They all felt the same way. That many bookstores don’t know how to sell picture books. That the picture book has a unique selling ability – the cover. And, I have proof.
I went down to Powell’s City of Books in Portland last Saturday. It’s a great, huge, wonderful bookstore, and is reason enough to visit Portland, Oregon. Anyway, I was looking for a particular picture book. They have a huge picture book department (next time I will take pictures and post!) and while they have shelves and shelves of picture books spine out, they also have tons of books cover out. Perhaps a hundred were displayed with the wonderful art looking right at you. And you know what, I bought 5 picture books. 2 by artists and writers I have never heard of. The art above is one from one of the books I picked up, because the cover attracted me, and I ‘fell in love’ with it. The writing and art are superb. Powell’s made like 80 bucks from me because the picture book covers caught me. Borders, are you reading this?
