Archive for the 'book thoughts' Category
BEA: Saturday (comics–oops, sorry–graphic novel breakfast)
Comments(0)For once, papers were where I thought they were, allowing me to bring you these quotes in a timely fashion!
Art Speigelman:
“Roy Lichtenstein did no more for comics than Andy Warhol did for soup.”
“I learned to read while trying to figure out if Batman was good or bad, which is something that Frank Miller is still trying to figure out.”
“Picasso: the first cartoonist who could pass for a painter.”
Again, on this panel, for the third time in three days, I heard the phrase “comics are a gateway drug.”
Mike Mignola, on the difference between cartooning and Hollywood: “In Hollywood, you can spend a long time working on something and have absolutely nothing to show for it.”
Jeph Loeb talked about his first job for DC, where he was asked to write Challengers of the Unknown, and where he first worked with Tim Sale. Still accustomed to the medium of film, he kept making Tim re-draw pages over and over to get the angles the way he wanted them. On the first issue they did together, Tim drew a total of 72 pages, meaning that there are 64 unused pages of art floating out in the world somewhere. Jeph also said that he thinks that comic movies are not going away–they are a new, solid genre of film.
In the question and answer session, Lucy of Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, NY brought up a point that had been bugging me–there had been a fair bit of name-dropping of box stores and Amazon, but NO mention of independents (in my margin, I had scribbled, “looks like comics folk didn’t get the IndieBound memo yet”). Which, as she pointed out, was disappointing, since she was carrying Raw since before the box stores decided it was popular enough to include in their stores. Then Art Speigelman said, to applause, “There would have been no Raw magazine if it weren’t for independent bookstores.” Thanks, Art! Jeff Smith jumped in to apologize as well.
The only other note I can read on this paper is “I have never seen so many iPhones in one place.” Which is true, I never have. BEA was positively chockablock with iPhones.
Tips for local authors
Comments(2)“So, you wrote a book–now what?”
This is one of the best articles I ever read (thanks to Shelf Awareness for pointing it out this morning). Written by David Unowsky, who has a similar position as I do at a bookstore in Minneapolis. The timing is actually great for me, as I’m in the middle of setting up our Local Authors Day and so I’ve been thinking a lot about ways I could improve the store’s interaction with local authors. (For me, this basically means any author whose book was not published by a publisher whose name I recognize, including small legitimate publishers as well as self-published books, books from vanity presses, and print-on-demand titles. This is not because I take these books less seriously, but because it changes how I have to set up and publicize the event.) I feel that there are a lot of misunderstandings about independent bookstores and their relationship to local authors, and this article goes a long way to clearing them up. Sentiments with which I particularly agree:
“On average, I get about two calls or e-mails a week (100 per year) that start out like this: ‘Hi, I’m Joe/Mary Smith and I’ve just had my book published. I hope you’ll consider carrying it in your store and that you’ll also consider hosting a reading and signing for me.’” This is almost an understatement, I think 100 a year is actually a little low. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing–there are plenty of books and authors we love who we first met this way. But it does mean that I have a set way I handle these requests, and I tend to get peeved when people try to push another way on me.
This was my head buyer’s favorite line: “The first thing to understand is this: bookstores are not public service organizations.” Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes. She and I both feel that part of our mission is to be a place to host work from the community. But we can’t be that place if we’re not making money.
I really could just post the whole article in here with an empathetic yes. It is well-written and no-nonsense and lovely. His discussion of the economics of the whole thing is especially well done and crucial to understand if you are an author who wants your book in a bookstore.
But the conclusion is the best part, and simply must be quoted in full: “Once, I gave this advice when speaking to a group of self-published authors. One of the authors said she didn’t know any booksellers to talk to. ‘What should I do?’ she asked. I suggested that when she goes to a bookstore, she could strike up a conversation with one of the booksellers there and ask them for their opinion about her book idea. She then said that she never goes to a bookstore. ‘I do all my book shopping on Amazon.com,’ she replied. In that case, I suggested that she should place her book for sale with Amazon and have her reading there. ‘But how would a reading on Amazon work?’ she asked. ‘Doh!’ said I.”
This hit home especially for me, because I actually have the following policy: if an author tells me in their cover letter, on their website, etc, that I can buy their book on Amazon (or on B&N.com, or so on), I stop right there. I don’t read any more of the letter, and I definitely don’t bring in the book. In fact, many local authors tell me that Amazon is where they prefer that I get the book. Which tells me something very important: they don’t care about independent bookstores enough to know that amazon.com is our most direct competitor, and I don’t have time in my events schedule or space on our shelves for authors who don’t care about independent bookstores.
Thanks, moms!
Comments(3)Taking a cue from some non-book blogs I read, a post about lessons I’ve learned from my moms*–except I’m going to keep my lessons purely book and bookselling-oriented (otherwise we’d be here all day).
1. If you don’t like a book, don’t keep reading it, for heaven’s sake. Life is too short.
2. Read or die. (ganked directly from Mom’s FAQ, actually)
3. You might not judge a book by its cover, but plenty of people do, so keep that in mind when making a display.
4. Don’t allow a man (or a woman) to take you out unless he reads (and, for that matter, is a registered voter).
5. Book censorship is completely indefensible.
6. You sleep better if you read before bed.
7. There is no way of knowing for sure which books are going to be super-popular, so don’t beat yourself up when you get it wrong.
8. Enthusiasm sells books better than anything else.
9. If you don’t know how to do something, go find a book about it.
10. Kids like creepy, weird, strange books, because kids’ brains are creepy, weird, and strange.
ETA: 11. Loan out books indiscriminately. Books are happiest when they’re being read, people are happier when they have good books, and friendships are strengthened by conversation about good books (unless they’re not, in which case, good riddance).
It is my mom’s fault that I am a bookavore. When she was pregnant with my little sister and on bedrest most of the time, our life was getting grocery bags full of books from the library and lying in bed to read them all day. My earliest memories are of laying down surrounded by books. Is it any wonder that I feel at peace in a bookstore? (I also have early memories of everybody at the dinner table reading a different book rather than talking.)
*By moms, I include not only my actual mom, but also my step-mom (linked that instead of her home page so you can see how awesome she is), and countless maternal figures who have been in and out of my life, including the Head Buyer and Children’s Book Buyer at my current job.
You know you’re a bookseller when…
While reading Bookslut, you see a link to a story about a spray-painted ISBN on a bridge in Toronto. You look at the picture and note that the ISBN only has 9 digits, so it can’t possibly be an ISBN. You log into Baker and Taylor’s database from home and try the 9 digits with a 1 in front; no luck. You try with a 0, and it works! It’s in the warehouse, and there’s a good chance it’s already in the store! What a great idea for a small counter display! You give a little cheer and the cat in your lap looks at you askance.
(It’s the Dover edition of Walden, by the way.)
Authors I feel sorry for
This post was inspired by publicity info for Kate Mosse. I feel bad for her because even though her first book, Labyrinth, was a best-seller and, according to everyone I know who read it, completely awesome; and even though her new book Sepulchre is likely to receive the same attention and praise; Putnam has now twice in a row saddled her with ATROCIOUS covers. Just ugly, ugly covers. I just now said that out loud and a customer overheard and agreed with me. Seriously, click on the links, look at the covers. HOW BORING. Thank heavens she is a good writer, because otherwise nobody would pick up those books.
Then I started thinking about other authors I feel sorry for. At the moment, I feel sorry for anybody who publishes with a Perseus-affiliated publisher, because while they have always been aggravatingly incapable of getting our orders right on the first try, in the last month their incompetence has elevated to ridiculous levels. I don’t know what their problems are, and I really don’t care, I just want to be able to get correct shipments in here without having to make MULTIPLE follow-up calls. I know I’m not alone here! Booksellers who are so inclined, I welcome Perseus horror stories or empathetic murmuring in the comments.
Anyway, I feel bad for those authors because at this point, we are so fed up that we don’t want to have anything to do with Perseus, even through wholesalers. That would suck because that would mean shutting out a plethora of great authors and great independent presses. But Perseus is INFURIATING! We are considering doing a vendor of record program with a wholesaler and only ordering their books that way. Any other suggestions?
Linkage
I’ve been gathering links in a draft, and thought I’d post ‘em up.
One of the big stories in bookworld at the mo is HarperCollins’ newest initiative to move more money and attention to internet marketing and sales, to move to a profit-sharing rather than a advance-royalty author-payment structure, and to stop accepting returns from retail stores. This will only be happening in one, new imprint for now. I am curious to see whether it will work. As a potential long-term bookseller, I think the future of the bookstore lies in either ebooks or POD or both, and I wonder where this will fit in. Also, as the person in charge of returns to the publisher, I have to say I welcome a model in which we could cut most of that out, as long as it doesn’t mess up the store’s finances. They’re time-consuming and freight gets more expensive every month, cutting into whatever credit we do get for the books. (For those who don’t know, bookstores can send books back to the publisher, within certain time parameters, and receive a certain amount of credit towards future purchases for the return. For example, my store pretty much always sends back a hardcover when we get in the paperback, and I think that’s pretty standard.)
One potential positive for the consumer here: many people believe that this unfettered return system has been partially responsible for the rapid price increases in books. Chain stores will buy massive quantities of books and put stacks in each store, and then if they don’t sell, send them all back. The publisher has to eat that cost, but you know they’re going to have to make up the difference somewhere–and so mass market PBs go from $5.99 to $7.99 over a short period, and trades go from $12 to $15. I think it would be good, from an economic and environmental perspective, to ween the industry off publisher returns, and I’m not just saying that because I find doing them tedious and mind-numbing. Though I will miss the credit memos. It’s like getting a tax return! Many times a year! I often put them on people’s heads, as hats. Come visit me at work and perhaps you too can have a credit memo hat. (But act fast! Who knows how much longer they’ll be around!)
And then a few more articles on the indie v. big box v. bigger boxes phenomenon. One from WaPo, one from the Boise Weekly. Because there’s no better way to end your day than with uplifting thoughts about how now Costco is moving in on your turf even more aggressively, and even super-dedicated book fans do not necessarily know that you exist. Whee!
O, what a depressing end to the post. Here, I’ll link one of my favorite Billy Collins poems so you can go forth with a smile. Don’t forget, it’s National Poetry Month–I will try to post pictures of my poet-tree in a few days.
The Westing Game
is one of the greatest books EVER. If The Phantom Tollbooth ever falls in my estimation, it will be either The Westing Game or The Grapes of Wrath that takes its place.
Which is why I was so glad to see that Jezebel finally wrote about it in their Fine Lines feature! And what a great analysis it is. Makes me want to go read it again for the hundredth time.
Forced epiphany for ya
Linked in today’s Shelf Awareness: “Did Borders kill the small, downtown bookstore?”
I appreciate the author’s honesty, as well as her epiphany at the end:
“Suddenly I’m overwhelmed with the thought that we all should have done more. Why didn’t I just head over to Ninth Street to pick up the books I needed instead of first driving to a huge parking lot and walking into a huge chain?”
Unfortunately she doesn’t answer her own question, a question we’ve all been asking ourselves around here. And we’ve seen people ask themselves this question over and over as good bookstores close, and every time people say “I wish I had known! I wish I had thought about what I was doing!”
So, anybody reading this who is not a bookseller, consider this your forced epiphany for the day: IF YOU REGULARLY CHOOSE TO BUY BOOKS FROM CHAIN/INTERNET STORES, YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE WILL CLOSE. THE INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE YOU LOVE, THAT HAS BEEN IN AND SUPPORTED YOUR COMMUNITY FOREVER, THAT HAS A QUIRKY SELECTION AND WELL-READ STAFF–IT WILL CLOSE. We don’t work for shareholders, we work for money. If we don’t have enough money to pay rent (or paychecks, or bills), we don’t hang our heads and wait for a scolding and infusion of capital from a hedge fund–we CLOSE.
So go buy a book from your local independent today, either in person or at Booksense.com.
Bookavore in Shelf Awareness!
That’s right, that was me you saw quoted in this article! Though I ought to clear something up. I would have LOVED to have posted pieces of my most recent IM transcript, but my computer ate it. :( It was with the incredibly talented and kind Jay Asher, whose first novel Thirteen Reasons Why should definitely be on your TBR list if you haven’t read it yet. I have yet to meet anybody who did not finish the book in under 3 days, because it is that difficult to put down. Anyway, the chat was great and I wish I could share pieces with you, but you’ll just have to trust me (and the reading group, who were laughing and having a good time through the whole thing). Next time, I will cut and paste the whole thing to a Word document immediately and save it in 3-4 places to be on the safe side.
Don’t forget to celebrate the first day of Spring!
What you should read instead of Love and Consequences
Have You Found Her, by Janice Erlbaum. March Book Sense pick. It is actually true, it is really really funny, and is one of the few books that, at one point, made me say “WHAAAAT?” out loud and do a doubletake. If you don’t believe me, go read this blog post of hers, which points out another group who suffers when it comes to fake memoirists: REAL memoirists.
