More Fodder for the Chain Haters April 4, 2007

From Pub Rants:

I had one interesting conversation with an editor from Farrar, Straus during my calls today. She mentioned that they had heard the news about a month ago that Barnes & Noble stores were not planning to expand their Young Adult section despite strong sales in that realm and a burgeoning need for shelf space to house the upcoming titles.

Consequently, they were being a little more cautious about what YA titles they took on because the main seller of YA is B&N and if the stores weren’t going to be accommodating titles for lack of shelf space, it could doom some releases.

Edited to add: Oops, hit publish a little too fast.  I can understand why B&N sells more YA than other stores. I mean, the last time I went to Borders, I got confused by all their Independent Reader, etc. breakdowns, not to mention the YA books wrapped around a shelf and ended right next to the Psychology section or something.  Don’t understand that floor plan at all. Getting back to the B&N news, though, all I can say is, “Huh?”

Let me see, we constantly read about the purchasing power of teens.  YA lit is selling well.  People are going to your stores to buy their YA books.  You’re in the business of selling books.  If the editor is correct, I don’t get B&N’s logic here.