Both Sides of the Bookshelf
by Jay Asher
If I should ever be lucky enough to turn this writing gig into a full-time career, I will still work (at least part-time) at a library or bookstore. On the long road to selling my first novel, I’ve been employed at an independent bookstore, an outlet bookstore, a chain bookstore, and two public libraries. As an author, those jobs were both inspirational and educational.
Here are some of the major lessons I took away from each job:
Independent Bookstore
I worked at a small store in a small town in the least populated of the fifty states, Wyoming. With limited shelf space, hard decisions had to be made continuously as to what to stock our shelves with. Since I devoured every publishing trade magazine, I stayed up-to-date on new releases and what the rest of the country was buying. It fascinated me to think that people in our community, if we didn’t carry a book, might never know it even existed. So we sought a balance when ordering inventory between what we knew customers would come through the door looking for and what we wanted them to know about. That last part made up the most exciting part of the game: Handselling! To watch a book that I shared with a few people start to build a local following was amazing. To have members of the community ask for my next recommendation was beyond heartwarming.
LESSON AS AN AUTHOR:
Love your independent bookseller. They’re the buzz creators.
Outlet Bookstore
When books don’t sell well, they’re sold by the truckload to discount purchasers who then divvy them up to outlet stores all across the country. Many of the books are hardcover versions of those recently released in paperback. Other times, sadly, the outlets are retirement homes for books that never built an audience. With a growing number of books coming out each season, all fighting for limited shelf space, books seem to spend less time on the shelves before they’re yanked. It was interesting to open the boxes we received each week to see which semi-new releases didn’t make the cut. Oftentimes, it was hard to tell why some very well written books never took off. Not enough press? Too many competing books? For whatever reason, I wound up shelving those books, which were then picked over by tourists looking for something they could take to the beach without having to worry if it got sandy or wet (obviously, I wasn’t in Wyoming anymore).
LESSON AS AN AUTHOR:
Don’t let “for whatever reason” happen to you. Market yourself! Market yourself! Market yourself!
Chain Bookstore
The exciting part about working for a chain was the number of titles surrounding me. Popular books, cult-following books, and mid-list books…we had them all. Waiting for that imminent smile after a customer asked me for a title and I plucked it off the shelf and placed it in their hands was the best part of any day. Generally, working for a chain required less handselling and more stocking, weeding, and rearranging areas of the store to keep the customers disoriented…I mean, perusing. And that perusal is what makes chains so exciting. Everyday, there’s a good chance readers will stumble upon books they never knew existed (say, new releases by debut authors).
LESSON AS AN AUTHOR:
If a big chain doesn’t carry your book, it’s going to be a lot harder to build an audience. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about it. So put the idea behind you that selling your book to a publisher was the hard part. Now market yourself! Market yourself! Market yourself!
Public Libraries
They’re free. Get it, parents? The greatest four-letter F-word in the dictionary…FREE!!! I am astounded when I talk to parents and they react to my saying that I work at a public library with the words, “Oh, they still have those?” The Class of 2k7 is a group of debut middle grade and YA authors, so our readers won’t be visiting libraries for story time. Instead, other than books, they visit the library for the librarian…the greatest nine-letter L-word in the dictionary. During school hours, we had teachers who brought their classes in at least once a week. We also had home-schooled children spend their afternoons with us. When not dealing one-on-one with children, those hours were spent re-alphabetizing shelves, covering books, or one of a million other duties that mere mortals have no idea goes on behind the check-out desk.
But after school, the fun began…and it’s the whole reason people want to become children’s librarians. Elementary school children wanted me to point them to other books “like this,” and they’d hold up their newest favorite book. Then I had to find out which part of that book meant the most to them. Did they relate to the main character? Was it the humor? The setting? The heavy-handed morality? (Yeah, right!) The teens, however, were very independent. If you’re still reading for pleasure as a teen, on top of studying for way-too-many tests, you don’t need anyone’s help. And yet, I’d still try. The teens always inspected our shelves of face-out books. If I noticed someone coming in regularly, and if I started to catch on to what inspired them, I pulled similar books and displayed them face-out. Then I’d float 1.5 inches off the ground whenever one of those books was checked out.
LESSON AS AN AUTHOR: Talk to your public librarian. They know what types of books children and teens are reading…and what types of books they’re not reading, if only because no one has written them yet.
I still remember the first children’s book I wrapped in clear cellophane while working as an assistant children’s librarian (my first book-related job). It was the latest Junie B. Jones and I felt silly for getting so overjoyed about what I was doing…simply preparing a book for circulation. If I got that excited about covering someone else’s book, there’s no telling how I’d react to someone picking up my book.
Thankfully, I’m about to find out.
Jay Asher is a member of the Class of 2k7 and author of Thirteen Reasons Why (Razorbill, Fall, 2007)