Thursday, March 09, 2006

Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering, Pinky?*

I’m trying to set up a poll for those of you who tried your hand at handselling, not to mention working and trying to eat healthy, so needless to say it’s been a busy week. Instead of me trying to come up with something to write about, why don’t y’all do it for me!

Yessss, I like this idea.

Bring on your questions, your areas of inquiry, or just topics you think it would be fun to have me bitch about (please mark those ideas with the note “possible bitchery” so I know that you are inviting mockery and disdain), and I will do my best to answer everything.

Or at least think about it.

So question away? Please?



*Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Whoof, oh, I'd have to say the odds of that are terribly slim, Brain.
Brain: True.
Pinky: I mean, really, when have I ever been pondering what you've been pondering?
Brain: To my knowledge, never.
Pinky: Exactly. So, what are the chances that this time, I'm pondering what you're pondering?
Brain: Next to nil.
Pinky: Well, that's exactly what I'm thinking, too.
Brain: Therefore, you are pondering what I'm pondering.
Pinky: Poit, I guess I am!

11 comments:

Bethany K. Warner said...

How do you sell books by new authors? Is it reviews? Cover art? Blurbs on the cover by other authors you like? Do all new books get the same kind of placement/treatment?

Nalini Singh said...

Everything that Bethany said and one more: What impact to do press-releases about upcoming books have on you as a bookseller?

Anonymous said...

Can you please explain how "co-op" works, where publishers get to place books in more visible or prominent areas of the store?

Joia said...

I have absolutely no meaningful comments for you, except that I'm now giggling over all the "Pinky & The Brain" quotes. Tehe!

Pinky: Egad! You astound me, Brain!
Brain: That's a simple task, Pinky.

Kate said...

I think so brain, but what if we can't pay Yanni's bail?

I think so brain, but I'm not sure we have enough marshmallows.

Kate said...

oh! I remember why I came over here. I read an old Neil Gaiman Sandman graphic novel and FINALLY GOT IT. I finally understood why people like those things. I mean I read Maus, but that didn't grab me the same way.

That's all.

Watch out though--when I finally get it (whatever it is) that's a sign that the trend is waning. As soon as I latch onto a Big Thing, it starts to fade into So Very Yesterday.

Douglas Hoffman said...

Assuming that the subject matter is interesting, what would sell better: a memoir from a nobody, or a novel fictionalizing the same material?

BTW, thanks for the Bartimaeus recommendation. My son is looking for something new to read, and he's finished Harry Potter and His Dark Materials.

Anonymous said...

How do you decide where to shelve a book (romance or general fiction?- mystery or general fiction?) How do you decide who gets front of the store display? And what are you views on writers who sneak in and rearrange their books on the front table in a tragic and desperate desire to get attention?

Kate said...

dammit, doug I was the one to recommend Bartimaeus! ME...and before they got popular. (And now I'm reading Septimus Heap -- for slightly younger kids but still fun)

Anonymous said...

Um . . . what did I do?

Suisan said...

If a customer special orders a book, is the store more likely to stock it?