Every day in bookstores across the land, folks call to order books. They order books that they’ve heard of or seen on radio, magazines or at a friend’s house. Sometimes they have all the information and it’s a simple process. More than likely, they have part of the title and then the fun begins.
The most helpful part of the special ordering process is the title, obviously. Oftentimes, though, people will call up with the publisher name, the date of publication, the author name, then the title and then the ISBN. Try as I might, I cannot get these folks to just tell me the title, which is really all I need. I know they think they’re being helpful, but searching by publisher is too vast, date of publication helps a little, but not really all that much. I hate to derail these customers at all because they’re so proud to have all the information. So I tend to wait patiently while they give me all the info and then scramble like mad when they get to the title. And, honestly, thank goodness for folks with the ISBNs, that does make it so much easier, except when they’re missing a digit, or more than likely, I’ve misheard a digit and have to ask them to start over.
The folks who have partial titles are the most fun. Someone yesterday ordered a book about running and said, “Run is in the title.” I couldn’t help but chuckle, just a tiny bit, and so did the customer. The customers who give me fits are the ones who can’t quite remember where they heard about a particular book. We try to stay on top of the latest media blitzes, so we can at least anticipate what someone might come in looking for. We also try to know what NPR shows air at what time in our local market. Folks often come in and say, “I heard about it on Vermont Public Radio.” VPR talks about a lot of books every day, so our job is to know the schedule because then we ask the customer what time they heard about the book and we can go to that show and look it up.
So, dear lovely readers as you prepare for the holiday season here are some easy tips for faster ordering:
– Try to get the title (I know sometimes this can be hard, but it’s so enormously helpful.) Try writing titles down, unless you’re driving. Even partial titles can be enough for us to go on.
– Know where you heard about the book. All bookstore staffers are also very good detectives, so any details are enormously helpful. Telling us you saw a book at your friend’s house is even okay, as we’ve actually called people after someone told us this.
– Allow us enough time to get you the book. Most books can come within a matter of days. Books often come overnight, but not if they’re ordered after noon.
– Lastly, be patient with your booksellers as he or she tries to get you the right book. There are a myriad of sources at our disposal and we don’t always get the right info from the first few places we look.
– And finally, please order from your independent bookstores this holiday season because we will take all the time necessary to find that book for you.