Oh, Murphy, You've Done It Again.

This is exactly the kind of thing I need to join and get involved with. When I saw the link, and read about the first gathering, I started making plans to go. The booksellers involved in this are names I've known for a long time - they've always been heavily involved in the bookselling community and own/have worked at incredibly successful indie stores.

"I shall go," thought I, "and glean knowledge from giants."

Then I realized I'm away that week.

If there are any good cloning programs out there, someone let me know.

For now, I'll have to hope that the first is a success so there'll be a second.

Too Long

Just realized it's been a month since any kind of post on here, and even though there isn't a whole ton to report, I was aiming for something a bit more regular.

Of course, this is the time of year when most New Year's Resolutions have fallen by the wayside. It's probably helpful that Lent falls around now - so those of us who gave up our resolutions can use the forty days while we're waiting for the bunny and the dying on the cross to happen (not to mention the rock rolling away from the tomb) to pick back up on the things we've let lapse.

Or something. I haven't given anything up for Lent this year. I figure, instead of dropping bad habits, it might be better to pick up good ones. (And come on, am I really going to go forty days without swearing? coffee? Chocolate's always a wash - the best damned candy of all only comes out this time of year. Cadbury Mini Eggs, o heaven, o stars...)

So, better habits, then. Continued thinking and planning about the future-store. Writing, writing, writing. Possibly poking at my resume, since I'm not entirely convinced I'll still be here in a year (hooray for my incestuous industry. We're #5, which means #1-4 are always eyeing us and our distributees like vultures).

At the very least, for positive things, I was able to pay off two bills at the beginning of the month. Neither of which were very big, but both being gone will let me throw some extra cash towards the larger ones. Faster those are gone (or more manageable, anyway), the sooner I can start saving more towards the grand opening party.

Which, even though it could fall in January, will have Cadbury Mini Eggs.

Bookseller Mnemonics

All right, enough of this easing into the new year. It's nearly February.

Robert Gray writes an article for Shelf Awareness about the strange kind of free-association booksellers have to hone when finding books for customers.

You must be able to play "the game" to work in a bookshop, and here's the first rule: When a customer has a specific title request, assume (but never let the customer know you assume) that the information provided is flawed. In any three-word title, at least one word will be incorrect; sometimes two; sometimes all three. I've heard titles that were close (Snow on Shingles for Snow Falling on Cedars) and not so close (Peggy Sue and the House of Hair for Patty Jane's House of Curl).

It's one of those skills that sets good booksellers apart from great booksellers. It's not a matter of figuring out the right title in the blink of an eye, or even getting it right every time, but being willing to give it a shot in the first place.

When you're around books day in and day out, you tuck away little bits of information even if you're not reading every title. You know which books are in the news (because even if you don't see the news report, you can bet a customer will come asking about it). You know what's on the bestseller lists, what's on local school reading lists, and which book Sawyer was reading on Lost last night. You learn cover art and author photos and subtitles, and where customers will "reshelve" books they decide not to buy. (Could you kids please stop putting The Necronomicon next to the Bibles?)

There are doomcriers out there, suggesting that with the advent of Amazon and other online bookstores, bricks and mortar stores will become obsolete. The actual experience of walking into a bookstore and simply being surrounded by all those pages is another rant. What's relevant here is the advantage that flesh-and-blood booksellers have over every search engine out there.

As Gray says: "A lot of time and money is invested in some very powerful search engines, but even high tech logic often meets its match when confronted with the low tech intangibles of consumer bewilderment and impatience."

One night near closing time, a gentleman came into the store and did the circuit of the shelves. He wasn't walking like he was browsing - he was scanning, looking for a particular title, but determined to find it himself. Eventually, he gave up and made his way to where I stood beside the inventory computer.

"I know this sounds weird," he said, "but I'm looking for a book that was on the bestseller lists a couple of years ago."

We went through the usual - no, he didn't know the title. No, he didn't know the author, or even the subject matter. He couldn't even tell me what color the cover was.

"All I know," he said, looking chagrined, "is that there's an E in the title."

Before I could even start wracking my brain for likely candidates, my co-worker Ted looked up from his pile of shelving and said, "The Celestine Prophecy?"

I thought the customer was about to hug him. That was it exactly.

Try Googling that.

Those requests are the most satisfying. They test your knowledge of the world at large and your intimacy with your store and bookselling as a whole. And when you match your customer with the book, you know exactly why you're in this business.



(Robert Gray's blog is Fresh Eyes Now, and his Shelf Awareness articles are here.)

4 Years, 361 Days to Go

The holidays sort of broadsided me this year, hence, the unexpected hiatus. I could wax all poetic on Christmas in a bookstore, but I'll hold off on that. Christmas is over. It's January, which means resolutions.

Although, I thought I gave up making New Year's resolutions for Lent a few years ago. Hmm.

Ah, well. Semantics making all the difference, I won't call them resolutions, but instead...housekeeping.

1. Time to take a serious look at finances - I know that I have three years to go on my student loans and almost two on my car, and then comes everything else. Things aren't getting paid off any faster through sheer willpower (wouldn't that be a great superpower, though?) - what can I put more money towards, and what can I start saving?

2. Suck it up, get out a highlighter and a cup of tea, and start reading those books I bought on small businesses.

3. Mailing lists. Newsgroups. They're out there, filled with booksellers talking shop. I just have to find them. "Shelf Awareness" and "PW Daily" are great starts, but bookselling is about communities. If you're going to make it, you need the support of not only the community in which your store is built, but of other bookstore owners as well. I could, very easily, ask two or three of my buyers to mentor me. When I'm closer to actually opening the store, I will. But for now, a place to lurk and see what other indie storeowners are saying would be good.

4. It follows from #2, but... write a business plan.

5. Attend BEA or a regional show as a bookseller, not a publisher rep. Go to the workshops and classes for booksellers. The question is whether or not my work schedule will allow for that. This year? Outlook seems hazy for BEA. Soon, though.

Just a handful to get working on. I'm sure there are more things that will occur to me, but I don't want to get overwhelmed, either. Number 1 is scary enough as it is.

However - I can dream of the future and sigh over old memories all I want, but not much will happen if I don't start doing something tangible.

Sometimes, the Right Thing Just Takes a Little Longer to Get Done.

Bye bye, Judith Regan.

Just a Little Further North...

Le sigh.

If only a town around here would put out a call like this (from "Shelf Awareness" 12/13/06):

Town Seeks Bookstore, Must Be Independent, Energetic

Haddonfield, N.J., which has 12,000 people and is 15 minutes from Philadelphia, is looking for an independent bookstore "to enhance their downtown business district," the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association reported.

Haddonfield has "outstanding demographics, one of the best school districts in the state, parents who care deeply about education and a growing population of young families. Not to mention the fact that virtually every woman in town over the age of 25 is in some kind of book group!" Lisa Hurd, retail coordinator for the town, wrote to NAIBA. There is a Barnes & Noble 20 minutes away; Haddonfield's Cabbages and Kings bookstore closed some five years ago.

The Partnership for Haddonfield, a business improvement district for which Hurd works, offers "significant financial incentives to targeted stores [which would include a bookstore] that take the form of rent subsidies and fit-out grants."

Chemistry, Luck or Savvy, Probably Need a Little of Each

I'm sitting at my desk, trying desperately to find my list of speed-dial codes for our fax machine so I can show the new girl which buttons to push, when I come across an old print-out. It's five - no, wait, almost six years old, printed on one of the dot matrix printers from back in my customer service days. So old that it has my maiden name on the to: line, and the domain name for my company was actually the name of the publisher, not the parent company who was just about to merge with us.

It's from a friend of mine - "Top Ten Ways to Celebrate Your Birthday" - and suddenly I'm waxing more nostalgic about the bookstore than I have in a long time. Because goddammit, I miss you, Matt.

One of the best things about Booksmith was its crew. Somehow, we always managed to hire people who just clicked together. There was the occasional employee who never quite found a niche, but for the most part, you could look at the schedule any night of the week and think, "that's going to be an excellent shift." Seven years later, and a lot of my favorite people have scattered across the country, in pursuit of other dreams. But when they're in town, I know we can go get a cup of coffee, and suddenly it's just like they've never left. Most of them are people I'd never have met if we hadn't shared those years at Booksmith.

There are very few jobs where your coworkers are also your friends. If Books That Don't Suck gets big enough for employees (aka, people who aren't related to me), I hope I can find that same sort of formula for my own crew.