Robbing Peter To Pay Paul: the Cause Of the Where the Hell Is My Book Syndrome

Y’all make me so sad with this refusal to talk to a bookseller and this need to limit human-to-human interaction by introducing a computer kiosk into the mix. I may cry.

Or maybe I won’t. With no one asking me questions I will be able to get a lot more shelving and paperwork done. How would one go about setting up a computer kiosk…?

To answer Agent Kristin’s question (before actually getting to the point of this post), computer kiosks take room, they break down, and people have a tendency to pour stuff on them (not deliberately, but we all have to acknowledge our inner klutz), which makes them impractical in most situations. My store doesn’t even have chairs people can sit in. That said, even if there are computers, you will still need an easy to use booksearch system running on it. The Borders system treats title and keyword as interchangeable things, and you can’t subject search within that to narrow down the list. Something I learned recently while in a Borders is that there is another level of that system altogether that an employee must access with a password. While the main system might say a book is in stock, this second level may actually reveal that the book in question is still in transit from the warehouse and is just erroneously showing up as in the store on system one. I don’t think this glitch in the system is isolated to the store I was in, so be sure to ask someone to check it next time the computer swears the book is in the store, but it is nowhere to be found.

And speaking of books that are nowhere to be found, let’s talk about Peter, Paul and the price of merchandising up front while still shelving in the appropriate section. So say you’re a chain bookseller and you’ve just got your new merchandising manual, and it calls for Book X to be displayed in three different places due to a fantastic co-op deal the publisher worked out. On the day Book X is released you put out the twenty copies you’ve received: five on an end cap related to Book X’s genre, ten as a double face out on a display wall-bay and two on the employee recommends pillar because you read the ARC of Book X and it rocked your mind, your body and managed to rejuvenate your relationship with your partner. This would normally leave three books for an in-section face-out, only either a forklift ran through the box or someone dropped it, but one of the books is mangled and has to be returned.

With me here? Ten books on the wall-bay (so it looks all full and happy), five books (also for fullness and happiness) on the end-cap, and now only two (spined probably) in section (not so full and happy, but whatcha ya gonna do?).

Twenty books might not seem like a lot for a large store, but maybe the store buyer didn’t believe in it as much as the publisher did. Turns out that the buyer is obviously a husk of a human being, incapable of being moved, because everyone else loves Book X, whose author has been rocking the Indie news circuit, the internet, and Jon Stewart improving everyone’s mind, body, and relationship with their partner. Three books are bought off the wall display and one off the end-cap by browsing customer (who remembered that Jon Stewart had his world rocked), and two books are taken from section by two self-directed individuals (who may, or may not have used the internet or a computer kiosk to pinpoint the books exact location).

We are now down to seven books on the wall-bay, four books on the end-cap, two on the employee recommends column and absolutely no books in the section.
Oops.

But someone will notice right? A bookseller will just restock from the end-cap or the front of store, yes?

Er, not exactly. You see, first a bookseller has to figure out that there are no books in that section, something that will only happen if a customer brings it to their attention, or if they walk over to the section themselves and make that discovery. Even then they have to make the move in the first few minutes afterwards because each second that passes increases the rate at which they forget what they are thinking about exponentially. Add in an emergency or a call to the front counter, and the chances of that person remembering are almost nil. Not to mention that I rarely take people into a section if I know that book is displayed at the front of the store in quantity. Less search time involved if I know I can walk right to it.

For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that no one tells a bookseller that the book isn’t in section for a day (because you are stubborn, antisocial souls), and during that time Anderson Cooper (or someone else who has been gadding about lately) mentions during an interview with Jon Stewart that Book X (which he had seen on Stewart’s show a couple of nights previous) had rocked his relationship with his partner too. None of the booksellers see this because they’re all working closing shifts. There’s a rush on the book the next morning and seven books are bought from the front of store, and one more from the end-cap (by someone who was really browsing around). This leaves three books in the store, all on that end-cap.

Now for the sake of really messing with everything, let’s say that the person in charge of that section (and that end-cap) has the next day off, and the people on deck aren’t fully aware of Book X’s placement there, but they manage to find it after someone bitches them out. Somebody puts the titles in section, where they sell immediately.

That’s all the books, right? Nope, there are still those two on the employee recommends pillar. I even managed to forget about them, but you’ve probably had your coffee and are much more aware than I. Who knows how awake our intrepid booksellers are though. Did they have their coffee? And even if they did, will a customer think to ask them for help to find Book X or will they just think “hey, it’s not in section or up front so I’ll just drive to another bookstore or order from home and pay shipping)”?

The robbing Peter to pay Paul aspect of all of this comes from the placement of multiply displays. When the front of store gets low, you refill from the section, but that means the section display might be reduced down to as few as one copy of the Book X. Add in customers who go straight to the section, and it is quite easy for a book to end up in the wrong spot. Add to that a splash of someone picking up Book X, but smashing it in somewhere else, and you get a whole new dimension to the puzzle.

Bottom line? If you can’t find the book but the computer or your spidey sense tells you it is there, then ask someone. Maybe they will be able to help, maybe they won’t, but they can at least try to tell you if it is in the store. It can’t hurt and you just might find what you are looking for (not to mention alert a bookseller to the lack of books in a section).


Links completely unrelated to this column that you should check out are:

• POD-DY Mouth interviews Will Clarke, self-pubbed dude gone big time. It made me laugh, cry (I want to be able to interview like POD-DY Mouth), and want to read his new book, The Worthy, or at least go pull Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles from my TBR pile.


• Daniel Wilson is the author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and I hear he’s has been making the rounds on the Discovery Channel to talk about what else but robots. If you think your computer has been eyeing you with a little more animosity lately then you should check out this article a friend showed me.


• Everyone else has commented on this, but I thought I would link to it anyway: JK Rowling has been out and about, talking about book seven of her series and how two characters die just in time for the paperback release of book six! Goodness, such timing. Of course now when customers come in and see our sign for the paperback they never even get past her name before shouting, “Book 7 comes out in July! Can I make a reservation?” Sigh, people truly only read what they want to read. For the record, the earliest I see this thing coming out is next year late (like November), or July-ish the year after.


• If you are a Winnie the Pooh fan, or just loved him as a child, you should check out this art exhibit link (stolen from Fuse#8). Ah, the interpretation of words into pictures that are then transformed again.

No Room at the (Book) Inn

Over at Romancing the Blog today, Sylvia Day has a column up (that you should read, because it applies to all books, not just romance) about her inability to find certain books and authors at the large chain bookstores. Not due to items being mis-shelved, but because of “shelf confusion” or the books just not being shipped to the stores to begin with. She defines shelf confusion as “too many books, making it difficult for readers to decide what to buy.”

At my store we have another word for this phenomenon: book blindness. Book blindness happens when you have a sea of spined books with absolutely no face-outs to act as a reference point. The sheer number of books in similar colors makes it hard for you to distinguish one from the next, let alone find what you might be looking for. Not only does it make it hard for the customer to find the book they want, but it makes it hard for the bookseller to recognize the title as well. Throw in some funky or hard to read fonts and you’ve got a migraine in the making.

But why so many spined books? Shouldn’t there be face-outs in each wall bay or even face-outs on each shelf? Yes, ideally there would be a face-out on each shelf, and it would be a new title, or an old favorite that someone likes to hand-sell. Often face-outs also act as place-holders, with the books flipped out to keep titles from flopping over into empty space. The face-out would then be reversed when more stock arrives, making shelving fast and painless.

Shelving has not been fast or painless for me in quite some time. Where at the beginning of my book career I had lots of room in my sections I now have none, and each time I shelve I must pull other titles to make space. Where at the beginning of my book career I had no overstock—in fact, it was forbidden, you’re just not trying hard enough to create space—I now have so much that I’m unable to cycle down any of the older books; too many new books have arrived to full the spots of the titles sold.

With mass markets now being released in the new “venti” or premium size I’ve had to re-situate my shelves to make more room, losing valuable space. With the increase of Trade titles I have to resituate again, losing even more shelves. My end-caps are packed to capacity with five titles across (and four books deep) to allow for some relief, and still face-outs are limited to titles of which I have so many copies that I need to create a barge on the shelf (a barge is when you place one book face out then the next book face down—like a plank—and then face out the rest of the books on top of that book, allowing for a larger quantity to be shelved in one place). Not the most professional looking presentation. I never thought that I would be so hard pressed for book space that I would be hoping—no, praying—that a sister store would just go out of business already so that I could get some of their large gondolas to increase the shelving potential in two of my sections. But here I am, so desperate that I hope they close before the end of summer so I can get the square footage my Manga and Romance sections desperately need.

Where did all these books come from? Part of it I’m sure has to do with ordering glitches, where stores receive too many books for their size. For the most part, though, this book overload has to do with book sizing and a greater availability. Where before we carried books from X amount of publisers, we’ve now increased to carry from Y. Where before mass markets reined supreme, now we have ventis and trades in their place. Display bays, while they make a nice sight break and section indicator, take up space that could be spread throughout the section.

The truth is that even if I got a bigger store, I would only get more books. My shelves would be just as crowded and I would still be stuck trying to figure out whose backlist I can sacrifice in order to get newbie author #2,039 a spot on the shelf. And it’s not even like this person will get a face-out (unless they got some major love from the buyer)! Nope, they’ll be limited to being spined just like everyone else.

This is why building the buzz for your book is so important. You want them to want your title so badly that they’ll keep looking, or special order, or even go on Amazon. Hemmingway and Capote and others didn’t have to worry about this problem, they weren’t competing against titles from e-publishers gone print, or editors who churn out 20 to 25 new titles a year. You have to get your name out there, be remembered, so some bookseller like me decides to keep you when it comes done to deciding who gets stripped or returned today. You want your titles to be restocked from overstock, not left up there to yellow.

It shouldn’t have had to come to this. You should have been allowed to just write and not have to market yourself and your work on a non-existent budget. It shouldn’t matter whether or not you’ve made a name for yourself or that some booksellers have decided to hand-sell you to the extreme because once upon a time a browsing reader would have just stumbled across your book, faced out on a shelf to hold up other titles (or spined out, but sitting right next to that face-out).

In a perfect world the term “book blindness” would only exist as the punchline to a joke about bookworms.

But we don’t live in a perfect world and you are vying with thousands of other people to get your name out there and be heard, so be heard, think outside the box, and get the word out, so that people like Sylvia will order you from Amazon if nothing else (and your following can grow from there).

Doing My Homework # 5: New Books and Press Releases

On "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering Pinky" (which is still open for questions), Bethany K. Warner asked:

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?

I guess I should start with the last question first. No, all new books do not get the same level of treatment or placement. There are no hard and fast rules because there is an element of luck to any book choice. Say the company calls for two bays of books when I only have one available. When that happens we usually build the bay out of the best of both bays or with whatever we have in stock in quantity. I usually have to have three copies of a title before I’ll display it on a table, face it out in section, or place it in a bay. Anything less number-wise ends up spined (there are, of course, exceptions to every rule).

I do a lot of research before books come out. The Boss and I read PW, the NYT Book Review, various magazines, etc for information on upcoming authors, reviews, and cover designs. If the cover is intriguing and we think it will appeal to our customer base, we order it in. If the review makes it sound like something that our customers would be interested in, we order it in. Same goes for books that are getting heavy viral marketing on the internet or lighting up the review sites. If the book is something that we specifically order in (as opposed to just having it show up), it is pretty much guaranteed a place of prominence at the front of store or an appropriately themed endcap.

But what happens if your book just shows up in mass quantities with (or without) a street date and I missed all the buzz? I’m not perfect, I admit it. Take Rob Thurman’s Nightlife, for example (who, as far as I can tell, is a first time writer). Last week I received about fourteen copies of this book that I didn’t know anything about. It doesn’t help that I’m between SciFi/Fantasy booksellers at the moment so I couldn’t even ask anyone about it. What the book did have going for it was the blurb from Simon R. Green, the author of the Nightside series. Green’s newest novel, Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth, had hit the shelves the week before and was selling well, so placing the books together in the display bay gave us the Green novel and a convenient handsell in one place. “Hey, Simon Green loved it, so will you.”

Customers trust in blurbs or at least they have the power to make the buying public take a second look. If you have all these elements or just some them does it guarantee you book’s success? No, but they can help.

Nalini Singh asked:

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

Press releases give me a heads up. I can’t read every review, catch all the internet buzz, or find out about the newest in tie-ins without help. I’ll get help from customers, readers, and coworkers, but a well written press release may make you stick out in my mind. Or it may not. Will your press release make me put you some place up front? Depends on the press release (there are a lot of really bad press releases out there), the quantity of the title, and the alignment of Venus in the Age of Aquarius. I would have to really fall in love with a book to order it in by the recommendation of the press release alone.

It should be stated that in my store the press releases are given directly to the person involved in a certain section, and not passed around.

Doing My Homework: Question #1

On the post where I solicited your questions (which is still open so you should go ask some already, sheesh), several people responded. Thanks to those who asked their questions, y’all rock. To those who didn’t ask questions, you rock too, but in a quiet way that does not require typing. I’m going to cover the longer questions as their own posts or use them as jumping off points (to the shorter questions I just responded on the thread). Today’s question was brought to us by the letter R, Kate R that is, and she asked:

What do you do to authors who turn their books cover out if you catch them? what do you do to their books once they leave? do you mind driveby signings or do they make you crazy? do you feel used or appreciated when authors stop by with chocolate to try to bribe you to push their books? Is Hersheys enough or do
you only pimp books for Godiva? just wondering.

What do we do if we catch them? Why boil them in oil, of course, and that’s after we make them wash the windows.

Just kidding.

I’ve never actually had anyone turn their books face out so blatantly that I caught them in the act. I’ve found out after the fact, but never during the actual re-shelving. If the face-out is a legitimate one (one where there were multiple copies on the shelf and the person simply turned them outwards without affecting the books on either side), then I probably wouldn’t do anything.

This does not seem to be a trend, however, from what I’ve viewed on the internet where people have posted about turning a friend’s book cover out. What appears to happen (and what has happened in my store) is that friends and authors turn their books out over other books. It’s my job to find books for customers and when someone has put one title in front of another it makes my job harder. Not only do most customers not look behind faced-out books (why would they), but people can be weird about asking for help, so I might end up losing a sale because the book my customer wanted was behind yours. I might even miss the book because the face-out looks legitimate. This type of face-out gets fixed immediately if I notice it, and makes me an unhappy bookseller due to the possibility of missed sales. There’s nothing like the feeling of kicking your own ass when you realize that the book the customer asked you for—the one you couldn’t find after several minutes of fruitless searching—was actually behind another book.

Don’t bother trying to face-out your title if we only have one copy because single copy face-outs not only look sloppy, but they lose their visual impact.

If you come into my store on a drive-by signing, and if we have a quantity of your books (always call ahead to see), chances are I’ll make the face-out myself either in section or in the new release area. Autographed books appeal to a certain section of the book buying population and it’s to our best interests to make sure that the customer can find that display.

I love drive-by signings, but only if the author actually shows up. We have a very nice publicist in town who always calls when she’s driving around an author. She always calls to have us pull the authors books for a signing, but then rarely shows up. To further make us crazy she never calls to let us know she won’t be showing up, so we sit on these books all day. I don’t know if it’s the fact that we’re on the end of her route and the author gets tired, or that we never have a large quantity of any of the authors, but it’s put a strain on our relationship with her.

I suggest you always call ahead to the bookstores you are thinking of visiting, giving them a couple of days notice. Find out if they have any of your books in stock, or if they would be interested in ordering some (don’t phrase it like that, but just let them know you’d be willing to drop by if they get some stock in). If you don’t call ahead, or if you arrive and they can’t find them/don’t have them, don’t throw a fit; the book business—and especially the book delivery business—is fickle. Instead smile, tell them how much you appreciate that they tried to get the title in (this is guaranteed to make them feel guilty if they haven’t tried for any reason), and leave them with some candy or something. This guarantees that you a.) sound like an understanding individual, b.) that you will stay in their minds as an understanding individual, c.) that they will remember that you drop by when you say you are going to, and d.) that you bring food-stuffs.

Food-stuffs are important. Bookselling doesn’t exactly pay the big bucks and trying to keep up the happy face for the general public requires calories, lots of calories. What you choose as your bribe doesn’t have to be expensive though. Chocolate works for the most part—Hershey’s is fine, I love the mini Hershey’s kisses—but you have to remember that this cuts out the people who are allergic or on a diet. One of the best little gifts an author ever left behind was a bag of Italian fruit candies. There weren’t a lot of them (there doesn’t have to be, just leave enough for the people you interact with), but they were lovely. Flavored as orange, mandarin, and lemon, we fought over who got to have them.

Did that guarantee that author front of store treatment?

No, her status as a NY Times Bestselling author did.

But did it keep her in our minds and guarantee some slightly preferential treatment in section, with handselling and reordering?

I think it did. I know that seeing her books make me smile and if I have a quantity I use it as a face-out instead of just overstocking most of the copies.

Candy isn’t a requirement; neither are ARCs (although I love them if I’m interesting in your writing or genre), bookmarks (Dear God No!), or magnets. And they won’t cancel out any bad treatment to the bookseller, which is the fastest way to get your book stripped, returned, or backstocked away from customer eyes.

If you really want to guarantee that your book will get some face time, and hand-sell love, it’s simple. Walk into the bookstore with a smile on your face and treat us like human beings. You’d be surprised at how rarely that happens: the treatment like a human being. I’m a cashier, detective, event planner, restaurant guide and mall map, but I’m rarely a person worthy of conversation. So if you want face time, give me some face time; open, honest and with a smile.

And I guarantee you’ll end up at the front of that store or faced-out in section.