The Written Nerd

Note: At last weekend's meeting of the board of NAIBA (the regional booksellers's assocation of which I am an executive board member), secretary Eileen Dengler "comissioned" a piece for the upcoming NAIBA newsletter. This is something I've had on my mind lately, so it was a great motivation to write out my thoughts, and Eileen graciously agreed to let me cross-post it here. Your comments are most welcome. Bookstores in Bad Times At this particular moment, it’s a challenge to be an idealist and an optimist: two labels I’ve embraced as I’ve found my calling as an independent bookseller. Newspaper headlines, daily sales totals, and our own tightening belts tell us that things are tough, and getting tougher. As we head into the holiday season, where most of us make 40% of our yearly sales, it can seem logical to throw up our hands and wait for the apocalypse. But booksellers are tough, and relish a challenge. And somehow I keep finding reasons to be optimistic. For ...

Sorry, I'm already getting in the Halloween mood, so that was my Transylvanian impression. Today is full of interesting links, though. - - - After L.A., BEA is gonna change. The Publishers Weekly article here catalogs some of the discontent and/or desire for progress. And show director (and stellar human being) Lance Fensterman talks about being on the inside of those changes here . I love how he describes meeting with disgruntled publishers: "The conversations have been frank, straightforward conversations - the kind you have with your parents when you are 17, came in an hour after curfew and clearly have vomit on your shoe." Personally, I'm looking forward to the revamped education roster. It's always interesting to see what happens when a longstanding institution gets re-imagined from top to bottom. - - - Other changes: some publishers are giving away books for free. Michael at Books On The Nightstand talks about Concord Free Press's intriguing book...

Duh, the answer is yes. Anyone who has been to Winter Institute , the ABA's bookseller education event, in the last three years has come back raving about the intense experience of professional development, camaraderie, new book discoveries, and just plain fun -- it's one of those mountaintop high experiences that brings you back to the bookstore with a huge morale boost and an arsenal of new tools to make the store better and become a better bookseller. When we Emerging Leaders Council members met with the leaders of Ingram Book Company back in August, we agreed that one of the best things we could do for our constituency -- that is, younger booksellers still working on creating a career in bookstores -- was to get them to that experience. It's one of the ways to empower the next generation to keep bookstores growing and thriving into the future. And Ingram, which believes in that future, put their money where their mouth is. They have agreed to sponsor six full scholar...

Today's links are mostly courtesy of the ALP , who has been more on top of breaking news than I have lately. More interesting stuff later this week... First, an interview with one of my favorite authors, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket); I couldn't sell the fabulous The Basic 8 to save my life, so I'm glad he's a bestseller now... One blogger dares to put a number on what constitutes good sales for first-time literary fiction. Agree? Disagree? (I admit my guess about the number was way off...) The Guardian collects their top ten books about whaling -- because they can. Bookninja points us to perhaps the coolest private library in the entire world . And some topical links (because as the publicists keep telling me, it's hard to get people to think about books in an election season): What better guide in choosing your elected representatives than classic works of science fiction ? The New Yorker speculates on the Republican relationship to words , or "v...

Can I truly ecap the amazingness that was NAIBA-Con 2008 in a blog post on a day when I have a million errands to run? Nay, I cannot. But I can give you the highlights. THE BUS: NAIBA generously chartered a bus for us NYC folks to get to Cherry Hill. It was a small but talkative crowd, and I felt a little like the best parts of high school field trips -- not for the last time this weekend... THE EARLY BIRD SUPPER: Brian Selznick (author of Hugo Cabret and more recently collaborator on The Runaway Dolls ) is freakin' hilarious. He got co-author Ann Martin (of Babysitters Club fame) involved in a very silly scripted speech that had everyone's face hurting. Ask any bookseller who was there for his impression of a doll speaking into a microphone. THE EMERGING LEADERS COCKTAILS: There were so few of us, and Workman's sponsorship so generous, that we invited all the seasoned booksellers to join us young folks for after-dinner cocktails, which was actually awesome -- it...

Through no finagling of my own, I find myself with Friday, Saturday and Sunday off (it has to do with some shifting of manager schedules at the store; things get back to normal next week). As you may have noticed, I've been a tad busy lately, so I am thrilled about the opportunity to take it easy -- especially as it's rather cold and gray in Brooklyn today, so I'm cozying up with the ALP and doing some serious mental health time. Okay, I'm also poking around on IndieBound.org -- we learned more about how the social networking part works at NAIBA last weekend, and I'm friending folks left and right. I'm booknerdnyc, of course, if you wanna friend me... I'm hoping for chronicles, news, reviews soon. Off to the weekend!

I'm still reeling from the amazing Fort Greene bookstore party on Tuesday (look, ma, I'm in the New York Times! ) Much follow-up to be done with the wonderful booklovers who put their support in writing, which Rebecca and I are furiously working on. But bookselling life goes on, and how. Wednesday morning I spoke on a panel with Lance Fensterman and Ruth Liebman at the Association of American Publishers ' Intro to Publishing course. It was a cool conversation about selling books all the way through to the consumer (i.e. through editorial, publicity, marketing, sales rep, etc.) and what that implies for cover design, flap copy, blurbs, etc. Lance is the most self-deprecating, energetic powerhouse of a book person I know, and Ruth is incredibly gracious and one of the reasons indie bookstores get the cred and attention they do; I was humbled by both of them. Hope the assembled young and eager publishing folks got something out of it; they're the emerging leaders of t...