B&N and Podunk Public Library

I enjoyed a wonderful lunch and visit with my buddy Kim yesterday. After we split a burger at Red Robin, we headed for B&N to have a look see and then shared a cookie. I walked away with a new urban fantasy by Jeri Smith Ready. Charlaine Harris blogged about Ready's book, Wicked Game. Charlaine rarely steers you wrong, so I picked it up with my extra 15% off coupon. I almost bought the latest Laurell K. Hamilton book instead, but decided to put that one on hold at the library and support the midlist author. Tough call for me as I do have all Hamilton's Anita books.

While Kim and I were chatting she mentioned she wanted to interview me for one of her blogs. The goal is to provide info on how books get into libraries, the back scene stuff from how the decision is made to purchase to when the book arrives on the shelf.

I really don't live in Podunk, USA. My town is on the outskirts of a metropolitan area and our population is over 40K at last count. Over 80% of residents have college degrees and the average household income is over 90K. I don't live in Stepford, but at times it does feel that way. This is not reality, folks.

So, the library tends to reflect our community. Heavy focus on kids, little and big. Not that the library doesn't have a great adult collection, but getting midlist authors on the shelves is not a major goal. Collection development is more quick and dirty than that. Lots of standing orders. Lots of preselected vendor lists used to encumber those development dollars.

If you want a midlist author's book, you have to buy it from B&N. Or talk really sweet to the adult librarian and get her to order the title for you. And that means work and time on her part.

The director has toyed with the library going to a bookstore model. Guess it is a new concept in library world. This doesn't mean the library will have more of the less known authors on the shelf, it is all about how the place is organized. A little focus on what is on the shelves in addition to how those shelves are laid out would be a positive thing.

Lots of random thoughts this morning, I may tweak this later, but you get the drift. Libraries are focused on serving up the "vanilla" if you want "bear tracks" best go to B&N.

everyone and their mothers, or the debut book by Patrick Rothfuss

Hubby and I ate dinner out Saturday night to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. Yeah us! After gorging ourselves we strolled over to B&N in an attempt to browse off all that yummy Italian food.

I made a beeline for the new paperbacks and was excited to find a big brand new fantasy novel. The beast clocks in at 722 pages. If that wasn't enough to give me pause, the number of blurbs this debut novel racked up sure as hell did. Everyone and their mothers blurbed this book for Patrick Rothfuss....from Terry Brooks, to good old Ursula K., to Tad Williams and Orson Scott Card. I bought it.

The novel in question is "The Name of the Wind." I haven't started to read it yet as I had to finish the third book in Westerfeld's series so the oldest could get to reading it today. Not sure if I will crack it open today. The abundance of rain we've received of late is holding off and I thought I might do a bit of weeding and some other outdoor gardening things. Once the rain moves back in, as it is forecast to on Wednesday, I will dive into this new voice in the epic fantasy realm and share my thoughts.

titles

Hauled the kids to the mall yesterday for the big 'dress' hunt that happens this time of year. We have a trifecta this year, Easter, Confirmation and 8th grade graduation. Going to get our money's worth out of this dress. Success was reached within fifteen minutes. I wisely steered the oldest into the Ann Taylor Loft....need I say more?

Our last stop of the day was at Barnes and Noble. I spied the latest Kim Harrison book, "The Outlaw Demon Wails." I just love the titles in her Rachel Morgan series, they are all tweaks of Clint Eastwood movies. Nothing better than catchy, thematic titles for a book series. It is sort of like recognizing the perfect font for some printed piece. It just sends me.

Even though I'm not a big fan of the Clique books the tweeners adore, I do have to give a nod to the titles. The latest, "Bratfest at Tiffany's" is clever. Middle kid bought that one.

Now, to the bad news....I really don't like titles where you are unsure of how to pronounce the word(s)....case in point, the third book in Paolini's fantasy series. "Brisinger" follows Eragon and Eldest. Is it with a long 'i' or a short 'i'....inquiring minds want to know? That sort of thing bothers me like a mosquito bite, I just keep scratching my head over it.

Today, of course, I'll be jumping into the "Outlaw Demon Wails."

news and reviews

Got a phone call on Monday from the editor of a quarterly magazine published by the big city paper near our small town. She asked me to write an article promoting our bookstore for their spring edition. I quickly did a poll of the other volunteers involved with the store to gauge what qualities about the store, beyond our low prices, best appeal to the magazine's target audience, folks aged 50-65. Sent off the finished product yesterday, she emailed back within an hour, declared it 'perfect' and said the photographer will contact me soon. I'm so excited.

I finished two YA books this week, both were parts of a series. The first, "The Sweet Far Thing" is the third book in a trilogy from Libba Bray. I loved this series....and even though the third book plodded a bit in spots, I don't think readers of Gemma Doyle's adventures in the Realms will be dissappointed. I'm looking forward to more from Libba Bray. What a lovely strong YA voice for young women.

Another strong YA voice for teens is Catherine Murdock. I adored her first book, "The Dairy Queen," as did boatloads of other readers. It made the ALA list the year it debuted. Her sequal, "The Off Season" continues DJ Schwenk's journey. Murdock writes a sentimental book, but never falls into the sappy swamp trap. She keeps it real all the way through. I'd love to see more of DJ, but the book seemed to tie things up in such a way that I doubt she'd write a third. I will investigate to see what her next project might be.

So, good news all the way around for a Thursday. Yeah!

the bookstore model

Rumors are swirling at our local library about a coming change in how libraries are arranged. Some nonacademic libraries are moving to what is called a bookstore model. What this means is that books are not arranged in typical library fashion according to a dewey classification. I'm not sure how this will impact fiction, as those books are in alpha order, but for nonfiction, this will be a major change.

My problem with this trend is it does nothing to teach younger students how to use an academic library. Librarians already fight the battle of lazy patrons in local libraries. Once those patrons move on to college, their laziness will morph into ignorance.

What will this mean for library organization? Will nonfiction books creep into the fiction section? Will clear distinctions start to blur?

I'm guessing the motivation behind this rethinking of public libraries is the pandering to our shopping culture. Folks know how to shop in Barnes and Noble. They don't know how to find a 'how to draw' book in the nonfiction stacks because they don't or won't use the computer catalog. The catalog will become a dinosaur. What sort of road map will patrons use?

For me, this is yet again, a dumbing down of our society.

new and used

I finished the Lee Child book I picked up in the bookstore last week. "Persuader" was filled with tons of action, amazing feats of daring do and lots of bullets, blood and bad guys. Those books have to be bad for a reader, just like eating too many donuts is bad for anyone.

The bookstore is sailing along and our first three weeks is complete. We sold over $1750 in materials, a total of 1500 items walked out the door. And the donations keep rolling in, this project hasn't put a dent into our inventory of books. I'm off to drop coupons at the school this week. We're giving the teachers a free small paperback, of course in hopes they come in and buy more. I think I've got about 400 coupons to distribute. I'm so curious to see how this 'promotion' is received. If we get 100 back, I'll be amazed. I need to put my marketing cap and on come up with some other ways to promote our store. My brain is filled with a few sketchy ideas, but some time to really sit and think them out is a priority for next week.

My mother in law arrives today, so I have to take care of another neglected household duty before the wheels of that jet touch down. Yes, I off for Sam's Club. Time to restock the pantry as this buying ingredients one meal at a time has me a first name basis with the stockers at the local grocery store.

ribbon cutting

Here we are cutting the ribbon for our Grand Opening. I wield a mean scissor!! Next to me is our Friends president and next to her is our town mayor.

whoa, it's friday?!

Yesterday's blog covered the whole choices conundrum I'm in right now with my writing. Oddly enough, while I was at the library yesterday to hold my last bookstore training session, I was offered a job. Yep, they want me back as the part time adult reference library associate. I toyed with the idea for a few minutes, asked if they would triple my salary, joked with the director (who's a good friend) and then declined.

I want to go back, but the time isn't right. I know that in my gut. I have to get this bookstore off the ground and functioning in some sort of routine. The hubby is traveling quite a bit. The kids are more busy than ever.

Sometimes forces outside of ourselves nudge us along. Sometimes decisions are clear cut and easy. Sometimes we flounder. This was an easy one to turn down.

My time will come again to man that ref desk and help folks find that perfect book or navigate the Dewey decimal system.

free donuts

Ya know, there is something to be said for tooting your own horn. Heck, when I let the owner of my favorite donut shop know it was my b-day today, I scored a free donut! It was totally yummy and the perfect thing to start off a good day. I'm 42 today...and damn proud of it.

Speaking of horn tooting, I read a neat post on how to toot your own literary horn on two different sites this week. The gist is that if you have a book out there, pubbed or not, it is important to let people know. You must market yourself. You must put yourself out there and tell folks what you are doing. I think for many writers this may be a difficult task. Afterall, writing is a solitary thing. Plus we are programmed not to be brags.

Of course the internet has done wonders for horn tooting. You can blog, you can have a website, you can post on other people's blogs. In short, you can create a cyber buzz of self promotion. Then you can duplicate that buzz in your real world. Don't be afraid to approach reporters, speak to groups, offer to put on programs at your libraries or even schools. Don't be afraid to toot your horn! You might just end up with more than a free donut.