WICKED WEDNESDAYS

A story to tell...



Once upon a time the world was a perfect place for authors. Okay, I admit, this is a fairy tale. But a moment of ‘Camelot’ did exist way back in the late-1990’s, pre-big box stores and e-books. When the Independents abounded and book lovers knew they could trust the advice given them by knowledge staff.

It was about this time that the Canadian Booksellers’ Association was in its prime and each year hosted the CBA event in Toronto. This later became known as BookExpo and even later, or rather more recently, ran out of steam. That’s sad and just another example of how the publishing industry has been turned on its head lately.

But in the fairy tale days, when publishers set up booths and gave away advance reading copies and free books, hoping that booksellers would place their orders on the spot, it was an exciting weekend frenzy in June. Well-known authors would be brought into town and booksellers were often invited to wine and dine with them. Authors just getting their publicity feet wet would sit at signing booths with publisher reps hovering around. Authors were feted and made to feel really special. Wow…must be a fairy tale.

And one year (or perhaps it was two), Random House of Canada extended an amazing invitation to booksellers to stay over one more day for a complete day of presentations of their upcoming seasonal line. This gets even better! They also included one session where the booksellers were asked to give their advice!! Imagine that, asking the people who are in direct contact with the customers and therefore have a pretty good feel for the marketplace, to tell the publisher what would work. A heady feeling and unfortunately, a rarity.

These days the reality is not quite so heady for authors; gloomy for independent booksellers and even less thrilling for publishers.

But the constant has been the reader. Mystery lovers still read in a variety of formats, choosing from a wide variety of types, and then go on to spread the word to others. Because it’s the readers that make up the numbers when it’s time to tally sales. And that makes everyone smile. So, there is a happy ending to this story.

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012
www.erikachase.com

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

A royalty or two.

My son asked, after taking a look at the cover for my next book, are the cats asking for royalties? So far, two cats have appeared on the covers. That's because the main character has two Siamese cats, as do I. I told him, they get treats.

The authors who make up the www.killercharacters.com blog site are brainstorming right now to create a new banner. We want something that says 'edgy and cosy'. One author facetiously suggested a cover with cats, dogs, goats and a cow...well, you get the picture. Stick a cute animal on the cover and readers immediately think, 'cosy'.

Which must mean, you can judge a book by its cover.

But we all know, that's not a great idea. If you're lucky to have a publisher who welcomes your input as an author when its cover conference time, then it won't go too far astray. But there are far more publishers who don't invite the author into the loop, until its too late. The author is presented with the cover. Too bad if you don't like it or worse yet, it doesn't really fit the story.

One of my biggest complaints as a bookseller was that publishers rarely asked the bookseller for advice. For a couple of years, Random House of Canada invited booksellers to a day of conversation in Toronto after the annual BookExpo events. At one session, we were shown an series of cover concepts for upcoming books and asked our opinions. Imagine!

They were really onto something there because who knows the customers better than booksellers. Forget those marketing departments. Booksellers talk to customers every day; booksellers observe what leaps out at customers from the shelves; booksellers know they have to work extra hard to sell a book with a horrid cover.

But I digress. Don't blame the author for a lacklustre cover but do let them know just how much you love a dynamite cover.

I love my covers. I'm lucky, I know. Here's wishing all authors a publisher who listens and covers that really tell it like it is.

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming this week!
from Berkley Prime Crime
www.erikachase.com

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Sometimes I wake up at night, thinking of the myriad of books that I, as a bookseller, have placed in the hands of strangers, with the the assurance that 'you will enjoy this.'

One of bookselling's main skills is recommending books to people who aren't sure what they want. But reading is an intimate recreation, and to suggest a book to a person you don't know from Adam, you need to be part psychologist, part seer, and a bloody good guesser.

The natural starting place is right in front of you - the customer. I do a quick physical scan: a frail, elderly woman likely won't want a lot of sex or violence (but be prepared to gracefully amend that opinion in a flash), and a big, bluff man probably prefers a plot-driven novel without too much description. But assumptions can be deadly, and possibly embarrassing.

Your first question: whom do you like? Their answer will jump-start your mind with its files of potential authors. You know violence is acceptable-after all, a corpse or two will have to appear-but what level is suitable? A tidy Agatha Christie murder? Or are we topping the scale with someone like James Lee Burke. Does your customer require plenty of fast-paced action? Do they love in-depth characters, such as Elizabeth George provides? Or just the facts, ma'am. Would some lightness be relished, or should we keep humour at bay?

You mine everything they say for clues, while scanning the shelves for inspiration. Size them up a bit before raving over that new book you loved - would it appeal to this customer? I'm wary of promoting too heartily - we've all plugged a book to a friend, only to have them turn away and mumble something about how it wasn't quite their cup of tea when asked how they enjoyed it (and you thought you knew them). Yes, bookselling is a subtle art, like alchemy, but the point is, to sell a book!

Then there is the customer who is buying a book as a gift, adding a further obstacle; now you're the third party in the preference assessment - a stranger is asking you to suggest a book for a mother, spouse, or sick friend. You ask questions, and hope for a moment of genius.

Equally tough is recommending within a genre you're not as keen on; you're less familiar with the books. Strict objectivity is necessary here; you want to put the right book in your customer's hands. People are counting on your expertise, and you don't want to let them down.

When I worked at Prime Crime, I kept extensive lists: historical mysteries, hard-boiled detective stories, murder-by-country (all of Scandinavia was hot!), even by state and province, for those moments when an unexpected question muddies your brain: I'm going on holiday, do you have something set in Spain? (or Hawaii, or Timbuktu). Or the customer who loves knitting, and wants a craftsperson as a detective. My lists were invaluable, and I was rarely stumped.

Of course, you have the 'regulars' with whom you have a running dialogue: "I liked this, but I wasn't really taken with that." You build a relationship, and recommending gets easier. Or the lovely person who comes in and says, "I was in months ago, and you gave me the best book - what else can you suggest?" But for the most part, we never know. Did that businessman go on to read everything by Giles Blunt? Did someone's ailing auntie like the Susan Hill? How about the fourteen year-old - is he now deeply into Sherlockania?

It's a real pleasure to see the answering flash of recognition when you mention a favourite author - ah, a kindred spirit. And you have to bite back indignation when you mention a cherished writer only to meet scorn: oh, I hate his books. Fair enough. Stuff the wounded feelings back inside, and see if this one suits. But you feel for the dismissed author: it's not toasters we're selling here.

I picture all those bedside tables with 'my books' on them, either waiting for the eager reader to return, or pushed aside in disappointment. It would be interesting to know your on-base percentage - booksellers rarely get to know how it all turns out. All in a day's work for the true sleuth of the book world - the bookseller.


Sylvia Braithwaite has been in the book world in one way or the other, her entire life: fanatical reader, bookseller, publicist – and occasional writer. This summer, she is spending a lot of time in her garden, which also involves plenty of reading in the shade, and dreaming up plots as well as tending them.

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

I have always been a glass-half-full kind of person – especially if the glass is a wine glass. Those who see the glass half-empty have been sounding the death knell of books and bookselling for almost as long as I can remember now.

Bookselling is not the same as it used to be, that’s for sure, but it’s also nowhere near dead and gone. It’s just different. That March wind outside your frosted window this morning is also a wind of change. And, as a book lover or as an author, if you tap into that difference or change, well, really, the sky’s the limit.

Independents have closed down, chains have grown, on-line businesses have emerged, and books have appeared at the drugstore and grocery store. Some of these changes have been very painful to watch and some surprising. But as in many kinds of changes, it can also mean more opportunities – or at least some different ones.

More years ago than I can comfortably count using all of my fingers and toes, I started in the book business, working as a bookseller and manager for one of the big chains, which wasn’t so big then or seen as so evil, and then much later switched to another chain as a manager and buyer.

Even when there were sales reports and payroll to do in the office, the highlight of every day was being on the sales floor chatting to customers and being asked for a book or author suggestion. And I remember stealing one great idea to put out bookmarks that said, “If you like Sue Grafton, then you’ll like these 3 authors too.”

My favourite job was a busy airport location, where customers had limited pre-flight time to grab an interesting book before inching through security. So many of these frequent flyers were huge readers and of discriminating taste. (I thought they were discriminating, as they took my suggestions!) There is nothing more satisfying to a real bookseller than a return customer begging for more, “Loved the L.R. Wright, what else can you suggest?”


So what does a budding author do, with so many of the small, friendly neighbourhood bookstores rapidly disappearing, and with them those traditional experts at handselling one by one, their new favourite mystery? And what does a booklover do who counted on those same experts to connect them to their next author discovery?

Handselling is still around, it is just dressed differently. Instead of having so many bricks and mortar destination choices to discover the next Cold Mountain or Angela’s Ashes in, we just need to see things differently.

Years ago, several of us book types attended a Parliament Hill literacy fundraiser. While the rest of us were sipping the free champagne and ogling the array of political and literary celebs, our budding mystery author friend was charming and working her way around the room while collecting MPs and Heritage Ministers. As Randy Jackson would say, “And that’s how it’s done!” There are opportunities everywhere; the key is to see them and to recognize them, even to create your own buzz.

Women are astonishingly good at doing this, as we love to get together, to form groups, to sip wine and share the scoop, and really to find any excuse to get out and to get together. We form book clubs, work groups, sports groups and social groups (I belong to The Pink Bra Society, a great example, as it is a glorified reason to eat all the food groups, sip wine together & laugh. Also to exchange books).

And readers find each other on-line as well, on places like Good Reads, the Word-of-Mouth page on Book Reporter, Facebook, and even Oprah’s Book Club. Through all of these groups, readers share a new found author or book discovery, and it then spreads like wildfire. That is how The Secret Daughter became a Canadian bestseller. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

I recently invited a diverse group of friends from my book club, from work, and from my neighbourhood, to my second annual Author Evening. I invited my mystery author friend, who now has many published books under her belt, to come and speak and read to my friends while we all sipped wine and nibbled dessert (we fed my friend too!). She struck a chord, signed her books and made connections with each of the women present, and some went home to read late into the night in the excitement of discovering a new author.

It is the savvy author who can network their books through the use of all of these new and perhaps not-so-new ways of connecting those who write with those who love to read. So sit back, put your reading glasses on and fill up that half-full glass of wine. That March wind of change is bringing spring with it and all of the newness of life and new books that it always brings.


Catherine Lee (Cathy) is a college textbook buyer in Ottawa, has been a bookseller and book buyer by trade for most of her life, and is a member of 2 book clubs. She became a book lover on her parents’ knees at story time & by flashlight under the bed sheets. One of her greatest pleasures is sharing great books with friends, of course while sipping wine.

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Whence Doth It Go?

By the 1820s, newspapers were plentiful and inexpensive and people thought that it would mean the death of the book. In the 1870s, magazines were now becoming common and everybody knew that the book couldn’t survive. By the 1920s, it was radio and pretty soon everyone would have a radio and the book would be a goner. In the 1950s, television came into living rooms across the continent and there would be no way that the book could survive. At the turn of the 21st.-Century, it was the Internet. It was everywhere: in the offices, in the homes, in the schools, and even on mobile telephones. Now, it is the electronic book reader: iPads, Kindles, BeBooks and eReaders and certainly the death knell is being sounded for the book.

But when you look back, the only thing that has changed is the carrier. From paperbacks, back to hardcovers, back to vellum, back to papyrus scrolls and finally back to stone tablets. So, when was the last time you read a papyrus scroll?

In my opinion, before the book bows out and exits, stage right, it will be the booksellers who will be gone. After more than a century of having to deal with the ultimate ‘middleman’—the retail bookseller—the publishers at last have achieved their most sought-after goal: being able to sell their product directly to the public.

Without having booksellers eat up 40-60% of the total retail price of the book, think of how much more the publishers will be able to keep for themselves. For a $30.00 hardcover, an independent bookseller buys that item from the publisher for $18.00, meaning that $12.00 is all his, just for the job of ordering, stocking a selling the item. If that retailer is a ‘big box’ store, like WalMart, Target, Chapters/Indigo, etc., they only pay $12.00 for that item…and get to keep $18.00 for themselves. Yikes!

The reward for the actual creator of the damn thing? Well, if your agent is on the ball, 15%, if not, then as low as 8%. That’s $2.40 to $4.50 per book when the bookseller gets $12.00 and the ‘big box’ retailer gets $18.00 and you wrote it!

So what will the publisher do with that extra $12-18.00 they no longer will have to fork over to the bookseller? Give it to the author? Oh yeah, that’ll happen! When pigs fly! No, the publisher will, in all likelihood, keep that bonanza as well as the other savings.

“Other savings, Gracie?” I hear you ask.

With no actual physical book to sell, they will no longer have to design elaborate covers, thereby saving even more and no longer employing either art directors and cover designers or even having to pay actual cover artists. Since the book won’t be printed, they won’t have to get a printer to buy paper for the text block, paperback covers and dust-wrappers and cardboard for the hardcovers and the printer can say ‘good-bye’ to a nice chunk of their business and they can downsize, releasing an equal chunk of their employees.

The lumber companies will cut down and therefore plant fewer trees to be used for the paper to make books and that will affect the forestry industry. Since the publishers will no longer need to stack physical books by the pallet-ful, they too can downsize from their large warehouses to just offices, saving them even more cash and allowing their warehouse personnel to find employment elsewhere.

Will it just be forestry, the printers and publishers who will be laying people off? Nope. How do the printers get all those thousands of pallets of books to the publishers? Trucks. Likewise the publishers use trucks to deliver boxes to independent booksellers and big box retailers. So they will lose maybe 10% of their business and might have to lay off even more people.

So technology again moves us forward, making reading more affordable than ever when an ebook is selling for about ten bucks (with occasional sale items, loss leaders and day specials). What percentage does the author get from ebooks? If they place it on Amazon themselves…70%! If their publisher does it…20-25%. Double Yikes!!

If the bookseller can very easily be removed as a middleman from the author-to-publisher-to-bookseller-to-reader chain, just how long before the publisher is a similar casualty? I can see authors’ websites having all their books in digital form, pret á lire, ready to read. You pay the author directly either through your credit card or Paypal or other on-line payment system and there you have it, James Patterson’s most recent book…the next one will be ready in a couple days!

Now I have, by choice rather than necessity, made this a gloomy future perspective. In reality there will be many shades of grey in this black-versus-white question but the black may descend if not by 2015, then maybe by 2025, or 2050, or 2100…

The only survivors of the electronic book wars will probably be the used and out-of-print dealers selling actual books (their own versions of 33s or 45s or 8-tracks) to a gradually diminishing readership or even smaller pool of collectors.



Al Navis is the owner of Handy Book in Toronto for the past 28 years, a used and out-of-print independent bookstore. He was chairman and host of Bouchercon: The World Mystery Convention in 1992 and 2004. He has also been on and off Toronto radio for over 30 years. Books are his business and first passion. Other passions are most sports (except basketball), most music (except C&W and rap) and radio. More recently he has gotten back into editing and writing as well as appraising book collections for insurance or for loss.

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Independents Matter!

Have you come across this group, Independents Matter, in your Facebook travels? It's from the Canadian Booksellers Assoc. and all about the book selling business and keeping the reader informed about news and events that can affect their reading opportunities.

It's one slogan I support 100%. The independent bookstore does matter and it's very much alive, I'm happy to report. Last night I attended a booksellers' dinner hosted by the Ottawa Regional Booksellers Assoc., which I belonged to until closing Prime Crime Books last March. I'm now invited to attend their dinners held twice a year, as a "Bookseller Emeritus" -- an honour! These dinners are held during the ORBA Book Fair, which is held in a local hotel, an event where publishers' sales reps book appointments with booksellers and present the new season of books. Orders are usually taken, advance reading copies are joyfully accepted, and enthusiasm for the printed word abounds.

At last night's dinner, the turnout was amazing. Our portion of the restaurant was packed. Booksellers are alive and well...and enjoy getting together. The fact that food and wine were involved, is beside the point. We were entertained by four authors whose books are on the new list. They each told us enough about themselves and their books, to make use eager to read them and go on to handsell them.

I was delighted to be seated next to John Brady, whose Irish roots are evident with each word he says, and whose crime novels have always been a favourite of mine. He'd come from Toronto to share his newest Matt Minogue thriller, The Coast Road. It, like the nine previous Minogue books, is set in Ireland and the country, which I so enjoyed visiting a few years ago (except for the stress of driving -- will never do that again!) comes alive in the pages. I'll review The Coast Road at a later date and am really looking forward to the read.

The message is simple -- Independents do matter. Bookselling is alive and well. Readers, be happy! Authors, breathe a deep sigh of relief. Now, we just need to spread the word!


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase