We are officially over halfway through our Virtual Book Fair, and despite the different strategies I explained previously, we are still selling a LOT less than we would in person- even below our shrunken down goal. Although we are over halfway through the fair, we haven’t even met half our goal. I’m feeling a lot of things about it, but mostly I’m feeling okay.

I went into this knowing there wouldn’t be as big of a reward, but my goal was to get some books into some hands and I’ve managed to do that. Other than my time, it hasn’t cost anything to do, and I’ve even been able to give away some books miraculously. I’ve also got to share some pretty cool books with my kids that hopefully they’ll be able to check out soon.

So, halfway through, would I recommend hosting a virtual book fair? It depends, but I’m leaning towards yes. Even though I’m let down that we’e not doing as well as I’d hoped, sharing books with kids has brought back some of that librarian joy I’ve been missing this year and it’s added a few bucks to the Scholastic Dollars budget. If you have some spare time to work on some of the strategies highlighted in the last post and involved families, you would see the most reward.

Well, now onto last minute Read Across America Week activities as book fair has consumed me. What are you doing for Read Across America Week?

I have to admit something. I love Book Fair season. It’s exhausting, the hours are long, my eating and sleeping schedule is ruined, and handling lots of money gives me anxiety. But I LOVE Book Fair season, still. That’s changed this year.

After a year of no real Book Fair (and a year of covid), I’ve decided it’s time to put my all into a Virtual Book Fair and the magic almost feels gone, and my new tired is from overacting my excitement to students so the magic isn’t gone from them. I’m also concerned about making enough money as Book Fair is the biggest fundraiser for our library. So what am I doing to try to make this Book Fair just as successful as our past ones?

Raffles

Well, first I’m running some book giveaways. I’m usually able to use my profits to make sure every student is able to buy a book, but that’s not going to happen this year. Instead, I stretched my money to purchase some new paperbacks from Scholastic that I can raffle off. I’m utilizing both “Caught Reading” tickets that teachers can distribute to students, then students can use those as raffle entries. I’ve created mine based on the ones provided by Scholastic, but I can use less paper with these. Tickets example below.

I’m also allowed eLearners to participate by creating Wanted posters for Book Fair books, which doubles as bulletin board promo. I can’t wait to see what my students come up with! Check out the template below.

Teacher Book Talks

As said before, I had to stretch my budget to acquire some paperbacks. Some of those paperbacks were also for teachers at my school. A little quid pro quo; teachers get a new book to add to their classrooms, and in exchange they create book talk videos to share with students. These book talks can serve as quick commercials for students, and are an especially great way to get the word out to eLearning students.

So far, my school’s teachers have done great!

Online Marketing

No matter how many flyers, bracelet reminders, and announcements you make at school, there’s always going to be the kids that lose/forget it all, and then the families who have no idea what’s going on. With our switch to remote this past year and our district utilizing online resources more than ever, marketing online seems like a no-brainer. We’ve been doing this in a few ways.

First, our school has a PTO Facebook page that we’ve been sharing updates. This is a great way to reach the more casual parent; they are likely to see updates while scrolling on Facebook.

Next, I’ve been posting updates to Schoology, as well as embedding information into my Bitmoji library so families can see it every time they access my class.

Last, I’ve been making an effort to convert many of the paper materials into digital materials. Using living documents, such as Google docs, is a great way to do this, especially since it allows for viewer information and you can make changes when necessary. It’s also easy to make these materials interactive with links.

Thoughts?

So, has anyone else made the leap into a Virtual Book Fair? If so, what did you learn? I’ll be back soon to update (hopefully with good news). We’re less than a week to countdown so wish us luck!