Author Events

We are having an author event at our store this weekend. I'm hoping it goes better than the last one we had. Here's why:

At the last author event, it was a local author. This means, she called us up and asked if she could set up a table with her books for a signing. It was NOT set up through her publisher's PR person. This means we are letting her come out of the goodness of our hearts. We are doing her a favor by allowing her to be there since we, the big commercial book store chain, aren't getting much out of it. If this is you, dear authors, please come ready to promote your own book and make sure to treat your booksellers with a lot of respect. If you do not, like this woman, then, well, we are not obligated to go out on a limb for you. If we like you, we'll do more for you than if we don't. We'll also do more for you if we've read your book. So, if we haven't received an ARC, then perhaps you should drop off a copy beforehand so we read it ahead of time. I know you don't get a lot of these, but come on, buy your bookseller a copy for pete's sake. It's for a good cause, believe me.

If you do these things then the bookseller is more likely to make announcements, letting their customers know you're there. In addition, if they know and have read your book ahead of time, they'll be telling their customers to look forward to your visit. Believe me, lots of good things can happen when you do nice things for your bookseller, like you could have people actually come to your signing! This author didn't do her research. She had no idea what to expect and was miffed that we didn't have a sign for her or anything. We only do signs for those events that are set up through your publicist, but if you were to bring your own, and we like you, then we'd be happy to oblige.

Now, if you are lucky enough to have your PR person at your publisher set up your visit then you get oodles of advantages. Usually there's a lot more press materials, you get a press release that sometimes can make it to the papers, you get signage and it's just a much bigger deal. We, as booksellers, are then obligated to put up signs, pass out your postcards, etc. etc. You should still be nice to your bookseller though :)

So, moral of the day:
If you can, have your PR person set up the visits and if not, be nice to your bookseller and become your own PR person.

Reading under

Today I had a mom and son come in. Her son really wanted Ricky Ricotta books. When I pulled them out for him, the mom was appalled.
"These are too easy for you!" she said. The son was in at least 3rd or 4th grade I'd say. Were they too young? This is a common problem, parents evaluating their kids reading levels incorrectly. Now, Ricky Ricotta is a chapter book series, equivalent to Magic Treehouse. For a 3rd or 4th grader, these are probably too easy, however, that is not always the case.
Nowadays, books don't always have the age range on the inside covers. Many parents rely on the bookstores to have labels, which they do, but these are always very broad. And they are always very broad because they are trying not to be insulting and also, to encompass as many readers as possible. I know some publishers have gotten away from putting age ranges on covers because for older kids, as soon as they see a book is too young for them they won't pick it up. But parents are pretty clueless as well.
This is why, as a bookseller, I always ask them what the most recent thing they've read is. Many times it's something in school, and from that I can get a good idea of where their actual level is. Plus, asking them if something is easy or hard also helps. Kids can tell you a lot. But, for me, this is the best way to determine what the reading level is. I am only able to do this because I've read a lot of the books in the children's department, but I can't get to them all.
So, what is the point of this post? Well, to be honest, when I'm interested in a book and I check out that author's website to learn more about the book, it might actually be helpful if they put what their opinion of the reading level is. Not in terms of ages, or grades or those special literacy indice, but instead, through other books. In other words, if I were to read the Ricky Ricotta website and it said, this is similar in reading level to Magic Treehouse, that would tell me a lot right there.
Ok, that is all for my reading level rant today.

Customer of the Day

So, today, I had one of those moms. You know, the somewhat overprotective ones. Here is the scenario:

Her daughter is 12. She is an avid reader and advanced (of course). She wants to get books that are more challenging for her so she wants to move out of the children's section (equivalent to MG) and into teens (YA territory). However, she doesn't want any books that have romance in them. No romance.

As of right now, this is harder than it looks. In my experience, if the parent doesn't want romance, she doesn't want very much else controversial either. In other words, nothing edgy. This mother also wanted to buy books that were going to be a little weighty. Her daughter loved Percy Jackson and had just read the Giver in school. So, she likes fantasy and adventure but also likes thought provoking books as well. Her mom didn't have a problem with books that made her think, but she did have a problem with novels with extra violence or that seemed "trashy".

So, what was the Bookseller Babe to do?

First I clarified her use of the word romance. Getting to the root of the matter, she wasn't opposed to romance per se, she was opposed to high school romance. She also didn't want anything just fun and frivolous, she wanted something meaty. What did I recommend?

She walked away with Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, Maximum Ride by James Patterson, Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson and Hatchet by Paulsen because she had been afraid to get it for her earlier and was now ready to get it for her.

Now, this mother also asked me my thoughts on Twilight. This is always a tough question because, IMO, Twilight is pretty harmless when it comes to what girls can be exposed to, however, tailoring it to this mom, I let her know it was, at its core, a romance. Interestingly, she said her daughter would have to get it from the library. This was interesting because ultimately, this mom was not opposed to letting her daughter read about romance, she was opposed to buying romance.

After thinking about it, this has become a trend lately. Many mom's, and usually it's the mom's, are trying to steer their daughters away from the typical romance novel that has become so popular amongst teens. Obviously they are still selling, the teens still want them, but the mom's are wanting a little bit more.

Thoughts? What would you have recommended to mom?

Why are you talking to us Bookseller Babe?

Yes, why am I writing a blog?

Well, because I saw this blog skin and loved it, that's one reason. Another is, well, I love the shelftalker blog at publisher's weekly, but it's from an indie bookstore perspective and I thought I'd give the evil empire perspective :) Evil Empire being the largest brick and mortar book retail giant still standing, not naming any names or anything though.

I'm also an aspiring children's book writer, so I thought the knowledge I've gained by working at said Evil Empire should be shared with all authors and aspiring authors out there since I have learned so much from their blogs! So, there you go, the reasons for my existence.

Here I will share the goings on at the bookstore and the goings on of my writing life and every once in awhile the goings on of some random person's life I guess, just to keep it interesting.

Birth of the Bookseller Babe

Tonight, the Bookseller Babe is born!