The Written Nerd

Sometimes these days I feel a little like I did at my high school and college graduations, watching my best buddies up on stage or leading the procession: man, my friends are some smart people. (True, I did get to hold the NYU banner for a moment to relieve the brutally hungover valedictorian, one of my best friends, but I was only a Magna, not a Summa, myself.) I feel that way this week listening to the conversation about e-readers and ARCreaders, let by my bookselling colleagues/buddies Stephanie Anderson (WORD, Brooklyn) and Jenn Northington (King's English, Salt Lake City). Both are fellow Emerging Leaders types, and they're leading the charge in embracing the possibilities and pushing the boundaries and fostering the conversation. That conversation has been going on for a while on Twitter . Jenn made a modest proposal on her blog a couple of weeks ago. And Stephanie brought it together with today's column in Shelf Awareness . The question is, generally: would it...

As you may know, I spent a brief but producctive stint working for BookStream , an independent book wholesaler for the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. It's a company staffed by smart, passionate, book-savvy folks, and dedicated to raising the level of discourse and profitability across the book industry. To that end, BookStream geniuses Carolyn and Ken have once again cooked up a fabulous TitleWave event: author readings, staff picks, lunch, and free galleys! They've got some fabulous authors lined up for the August 4 event in Princeton, NJ. It's almost a mini-trade show or Winter Institute, and a chance for booksellers to get a look at the books coming out in the next season and learn how to sell them better. I've included Carolyn's press release below with all the details. I'm encouraging all of my colleagues to go, to support BookStream's efforts, and to take advantage of this chance for professional development. And there's no arguing wit...

It's been brought to my attention recently that I've been remiss in updating the ol' blogroll with some of the blogs I actually regularly read, and some of the bookstore blogs that I'm just discovering. So I have gotten at last off my tush and added some of my favorites-- read 'em (at right) and weep. Book Soup has the best (obscene but true) tagline. Word has the best Brooklyn stuff, natch. Bookavore is a fellow Emerging Leaders type, a true book nerd -- her description of how she became a bookseller made me want to be her new best friend. Wordsmiths has the best ongoing narrative (home town store makes good, moves into the bank building, graphic novels go in the vault!) -- and awesome event photos; they're my newest model for how I want to run my bookstore blog. there is no gap is the thoughtful stuff you'd expect from Shaman Drum's Karl Pohrt. Archimedes Forgets is the off-hours (but still awfully booky) project of the ABA's lovely Sarah R...

I've been all about itemized to-do lists lately (whether I ever get to cross off every item is another matter). Here's my suggested list for you this week. Action Item #1: Send a letter (or two) about e-fairness. Okay, folks, I've been remiss in not focusing on this before, but here it is. Amazon.com and other online retailers, surprising as it is, are not required to collect sales tax on items sold (or else it's not enforced). Obviously, this creates a bit of a disadvantage for brick-and-mortar stores -- especially those of us in states like New York, who have to add a hefty 8.625% on to every purchase. It's not like we're making more money -- we're just collecting it to pass along to the state -- but from a customer's perspective, they just have to pay more when they buy from a physical store than from an online store, which can disincline some folks to buy local. And that also means that online sales aren't supporting infrastructure, arts inititat...

New year, time to update the ol' Blogger template, eh? In his December 26 post , fellow bookseller/blogger P.J. Grath muses "Is there a bookseller alive who can resist books recounting the experiences of other booksellers?" It seems the same is true of blogs. I've realized that my Google reader is increasingly populated with blogs by booksellers, and that they tend to be some of my preferred reading. In spite of many great blogs focused on a specifc genre, on developments in the book world, on the reading of a particular person or group of people, I find that more and more I want to read about fellow booksellers in the trenches. Those blogs tend to include reviews and news, but also stuff about the daily retail life. I'm feeling irresistibly warm and fuzzy thinking about this little community of us. So I've added a whole new category to my links on the right: Bookseller Blogs. These are just the few that I tend to read on a regular basis. Kash's Boo...