As Gary Frank, former owner of the Booksmith, San Francisco, Calif., says, "It's hard for a long-time bookseller to stay out of the business entirely."
Since selling the store last June, Frank is unveiling a project that has been two years in the making: creating Shelfwiz, a holder for shelf talkers that is "easy to read and easily moveable, while still allowing customers to remove and replace books on shelves." The idea is to present shelf talkers neatly and avoid a kind of messy post-it look while capitalizing on the merchandising value of shelf talkers. "They just needed a bit of an upgrade," he adds.
The result is a sign holder that has a Plexiglas area measuring 5 1/8" x 2 1/2" to display the shelf talker. The holder attaches onto the shelf with a simple aluminum clip. There are two clip sizes available--for 3/4" and 1" shelves. The clip is thin so that it doesn't disturb the books above it, and the sign itself flips up and down easily so it doesn't block access to books on shelves below it.
Shelfwiz provides paper to fit the sign size and has formatted some shelf talkers for Book Sense picks. Booksellers can create and print their own shelf talkers on Shelfwiz's website and download them in PDF or Word form. Booksellers can also continue writing their recommendations by hand.
The April Book Sense red box includes samples of Shelfwiz, and the company ran a promo in the SIBA newsletter requesting booksellers who wanted a sample to contact it. "We got a big response and sent out samples to bookstores all over the country," Frank says. "Many of those stores, after receiving the samples, placed orders." Reaction from booksellers in general has been "overwhelmingly very positive."
For now, Frank is marketing Shelfwiz mainly to booksellers and librarians but soon plans to approach wine stores, where shelf talkers have been a vintage part of merchandising for a long time.
For more information, go to shelfwiz.com.