Category Archives: bookstores

Irony

This past weekend I was at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Trade Show in Portland. (PNBA) While there I did a workshop on using social media as an author, bookseller or publisher. I had every intention of live tweeting the event and even began with a picture and tweet about Amber Keyser and her new novel The Way Back from Broken.

And then a funny thing happened. I went to some sessions that really expanded my thinking about the book world, including one with a very detailed explanation about exactly how books earn money and why some of them don’t. I sat in on a conversation about how the PNBA book award is chosen. I fell into one interesting conversation after another. I found booksellers and shared ideas for promoting my upcoming novel. I met publishers and talked about the kind of author who is the best fit for an event at Annie Blooms Bookstore. I found books that I wanted to immediately put in the hands of librarians from my school district.

And I completely forgot to tweet. Didn’t post a single thing on Facebook. I know. Missed opportunity.

Here’s what I didn’t miss. The joy of seeing a friend who is passionate about books absolutely in her element and making her dreams of becoming a publisher come true. Dozens of short conversations with publishers about the books they are passionate about. A long leisurely conversation over dinner with a new author friend, and a rather raucous late night conversation with a table full of booksellers. Not a single one of those experiences would have been enhanced by pausing to tweet, post, pin, or snap.

So thank you to the PNBA for an amazing weekend. I’m enriched. I’m exhausted. I’m going to spend every possible minute in the next week reading the amazing books and ARCs I brought home. And thank you to my northwest bookselling community for the mentoring and the inspiration.

Things Amazon will never do

Today is Indy Bookstore Day and neighborhood bookshops nation-wide are doing things to celebrate. I thought I’d mention, not what Annie Blooms, my neighborhood indy, is doing to celebrate the day, but what Annie Blooms does every day and has done for more than three decades. Things Amazon will never do for you.

Make you a cup of coffee.

Even Amazon’s much anticipated drone delivery is not going to deliver you a piping hot cup of coffee. Its true that you can buy a latte at the in-store coffee shop at Barnes & Noble. Powells was the industry leader in bringing a coffeeshop into the bookstore. Guess what? The coffee here is free. Always has been. Pour yourself a cup. Settle in. We’ve got all day to spend with you.

Entertain your children while you shop

Our rocking dragon has been keeping toddlers and preschoolers happy for decades. There’s a bin of toys under the board book shelf along with kid sized tables and chairs. It’s safe, it’s clean, and there’s not a single video screen or electronic gadget to distract your kids from the important business of play.

Provide window art for the neighborhood.

We support a regularly rotating visual feast on your walk to the dog park, a new theme every other week or so. Here we are celebrating Black History month and honoring the Charlie Ebdo victims.

This visual feast is brought to you by our very own bookstore artist, the amazing…drum roll please… Kate Stone!

Support local schools and libraries

We are always happy to welcome teachers to our store. Glad to chat with you about that special book for a particular student. Love to give you a heads up on the newest book from your favorite author. And if you are using the book in your classroom, there’s a teacher discount. Though Annie Blooms has not done this in the past, many children’s bookstores will help you host an author visit to your school. Oh yes, and your local bookstore pays taxes to support your local school district and public library. Amazon? Not so much.

Host live author events

We host about a half dozen author events a month. That’s an hour worth of entertainment with some terrific talent both local and distant. We feature authors of fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, adults books and children’s, debut authors and veterans of 50 books or more. Do we charge for these events? Nope. We’re happy to celebrate the books and author we love.

Offer meeting space for your book club

Have you always wanted to start a book club but dreaded the work of having a crowd of people over to your house? We love crowds of people! Our cosy loft is ready and waiting for the book club of your dreams. And when you’ve settled on your next title, we’ll gladly order everyone a copy and extend our usual book club discount.

Send presents for you child’s birthday

Hoping to instill the love of reading in the children and grandchildren in your life? Us too. Sign up for our birthday club and we’ll send your children a birthday postcard and gift certificate every year until they turn twelve.

Special Orders

Having trouble finding a book? Can’t quite remember the title or the author? No worries. We’ve got several data bases and a staff full of avid readers who probably know the book you’re thinking of. If it’s in print we can probably get it for you.

Presents! Oy!

Need some help brainstorming the perfect gift for the quirky child in your life, the persnickety aunt, the edgy nephew, the grandpa who’s read everything? Let’s talk. There’s a just right book for everybody and we’ll help you find it and wrap it up. Dashing to a last minute birthday? Call us and we can have the perfect picture book wrapped and ready for you!

But best of all

We are here. In your neighborhood. Every day. Stop in. Chat. Browse. Pet our store cat Molly. Not just on Indy Bookstore Day but every day.

Becoming a Bookseller

A few months ago I opened a new professional chapter in my life by joining the staff of Annie Blooms Bookstore. It’s a wonderful indy bookseller with a 30 year history of bringing great literature to Portland. I’m really honored to be one of them, for many reasons. But what I think I love most is their passion for freedom of speech, and their willingness to go to great lengths to help a patron find the book they want. So in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris this was my bookstore’s response. I have a lot to learn about bookselling but here are some things I’ve learned in the last few months.

1. Customers often have a specific goal in mind. And when they are looking for the book they’ve set their heart on, no other book will do. So much as I’d love to persuade them to buy a different book, I’m better served by cheerfully finding them what they want and hoping they come back hungry for another book.

2. But sometimes, and especially when the customer is shopping for a child they don’t know very well, they have no idea what they want. So then I need to have a few go-to books in nearly every sub-genre: a handful of sports books, a few animal stories, a couple of sure-fire scary books and so on. Which makes it very clear to me how authors get pigeon-holed and have a hard time selling in a new genre. When a kid comes in looking for a sports book I go straight to Lupica who has a half dozen strong titles kids always love. If he suddenly started writing dragon books, my bookseller-self would be rather cross that my reliable sports books are no longer in the Lupica section of the bookstore. (Sorry, Mike, not fair to you. I know. Just saying.) It’s not that I wouldn’t try to sell his dragon books or want them to do well. It just makes my job a little harder. I’d heard that publishers are the ones who want to pigeon-hole authors, and I can see now where that pressure comes from.

3. But maybe the most important thing I’ve learned is that coming to the bookstore is often not about the books at all. Many people stop by to visit our wonderful cat, Molly Bloom, seen above stalking the leash of a visiting dog. Lots of little patrons a just here to rock on the dragon. Some are looking for a warm dry place to sit down while they wait for the bus. People often meet friends in the bookstore and chat about the books for a bit and then go out for coffee. Some just want the peace of quietly browsing the shelves–an oasis in a busy world.

I’m sure I could have found a job that pays more but it’s hard to imagine one that would leave me feeling more satisfied at the end of the day.

Learning to Love your Book-alikes

When my very first book Heart of a Shepherd came out back in 2009 I met Suzanne Morgan Williams from the Class of 2K9 marketing group whose book Bull Rider was astonishingly similar to mine. It was all the more surprising because they were western stories about ranching families with family members deployed to the Middle East. Not exactly the most crowded genre. It was very tempting to think of this as a disaster, a head to head competition, a diminishment of what I had worked so hard on. But my husband pointed out that selling a book is not like selling a car. It’s not like a person buys a book and then doesn’t need another for 5 to 10 years. A very helpful perspective. The beauty of the book business is that the more people read good books the more they want new good books.

And the really terrific thing was getting to know Suzanne and working together to promote our books because we’ve found that if a reader likes one of our stories, they will probably like the other. They aren’t identical books after all. The main character in Suzanne’s story is a little bit older. Heart of a Shepherd is about the experience of having a deployed parent. Bull Rider is about the experience of having a brother return from war with a traumatic brain injury. We’ve done joint book store appearances, spoken together on panels and in workshops at writers conferences, and even sold our books together at the Reno Rodeo. And much to our mutual delight these books have flourished side by side.

But I’ve also known people who’ve worked for months, years even, and seen a book published which is very similar to their own manuscript, and then decided to drop their own project completely. It’s such a shame because there is often plenty of room for multiple

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books on a topic. I think of them as “book-alikes” and in some ways they can be an asset to your own work. If somebody has written a book similar to mine then it’s a great strategy to encourage my book to be grouped in with a similar book. Often teachers are looking for several books from a historical era so that there will be something to suit every reading level in her class. Many bookstores prefer to host multi-author events. The picture to the right is myself and Elizabeth Rusch (dressed as Nannerl Mozart) and Virginia Euwer Wolff. We are doing an event which drew dozens of vocal and instrumental performers and lots of families to a community center to celebrate our three music-themed books: Virginia’s Mozart Season, an absolute classic YA story of a girl preparing for a music competition, Liz’s picture book biography For the Love of Music about Mozart’s big sister, and my middle grade novel Second Fiddle.

I’ve learned to love my Book-Alikes over the years and have become good friends of people whose books are similar to mine. And in celebration of that here are four books who like my story Written in Stone are set in America in the early part of the 20th century. They are Crossing Stones by Helen Frost, A Whistle in the Dark by Sue Hill Long, Born of Illusion by Teri Brown and In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters.

Giving Thanks for Indy Booksellers

Having just finished more than 30 book-related events in the last two months, I have a renewed appreciation for the importance of independent booksellers. They have not only welcomed me to stores in 5 states and 3 time zones. They’ve recommended my books to local libraries and schools, and featured my author talk on local radio. They’ve been willing to place my middle-grade historical novel not just in the kids section but also in the regional interest section, in the Native American history section and the Mock Newbery section. Indy booksellers read hundreds of books, not just the blockbusters but the new voices, the books for tender-hearted readers and (my favorite genre) Vampire Free Fiction! They are on their feet all day long taking customers needs to heart and leading them to the book that the Amazon algorithm will never show them.

I could hire a publicist to try to generate buzz for my book, but I could never pay someone to do what independent booksellers already do for free–share their passion for the printed word and their dedication to finding just the right story for everyone who walks through their door.

Which is why I’m so excited to be participating in Indies First on November thirtieth. This project, the brain child of Sherman Alexie, pairs authors with local bookstores where they will spend several hours helping shoppers find the perfect book. More information here. I will be spending my time at the wonderful Spokane bookstore Aunties at 420 West Main Avenue. I’ll be there from 1-3. And I’m so proud to take my turn helping people find the story that’s just right for them. Stop by and say hi if you’re in Spokane, or go here for a list of which authors are coming to your local bookstore.

I have another reason to be grateful to independent booksellers. Just last week I got word that Written in Stone is on the short list for the PNBA’s Book Award. I’m honored to be included in an award which is not segregated by genre but considers all genres on an equal footing looking only for excellence, no matter the story’s audience. Thanks to the PNBA award committee for all their hard work.

And finally a big thanks to all the bookstores that hosted or helped me this fall including: Anderson’s in Chicago, Annie Blooms in Multnomah Village, Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise, Aunties Bookstore in Spokane, Village Books in Bellingham, Mockingbird Books in Seattle, A Children’s Place in Portland, Green Bean Books also in Portland, Klindts in the Dalles, The Book Bin in Salem, The Linden Tree in Los Altos and Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River.