[Slashdot] - How To Sell Books in 2020: Put Them Near the Toilet Paper

If you want to sell books during a pandemic, it turns out that one of the best places to do it is within easy reach of eggs, milk and diapers. From a report: When the coronavirus forced the United States into lockdown this spring, stores like Walmart and Target, which were labeled essential, remained open. So when anxious consumers were stocking up on beans and pasta, they were also grabbing workbooks, paperbacks and novels -- and the book sales at those stores shot up. "They sell groceries, they sell toilet paper, they sell everything people need during this time, and they're open," said Suzanne Herz, the publisher of Vintage/Anchor. "If you're in there and you're doing your big shop and you walk down the aisle and go, 'Oh, we're bored, and we need a book or a puzzle,' there it is." Big-box stores do not generally break out how much they sell of particular products, but people across the publishing industry say that sales increased at these stores significantly, with perhaps the greatest bump at Target. In some cases there, according to publishing executives, book sales tripled or quadrupled. Dennis Abboud is the chief executive of ReaderLink, a book distributor that serves more than 80,000 retail stores, including big-box and pharmacy chains. He said that in the first week of April, his company's sales were 34 percent higher than the same period the year before. "With the shelter in place, people were looking for things to do," he said. "Workbooks, activity books and just general reading material saw a big increase."

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