I dashed this post off during a rare lull in sales yesterday. The store was full of holiday shoppers, mostly all of whom were in good moods finding all that they wanted and more. As I run the numbers for what’s been selling, I am surprised anew at how well regional titles do during this time of year.
Our bestselling titles (after the now infamous parrot pen) are skewed towards local authors. The beloved neighborhood vet’s memoir Exotic Tails has sold more than 20 copies since the beginning of December. The Spare Room by Jenny Land is a great Vermont historical fiction title for kids that has enjoyed brisk sales since it came out after Thanksgiving. The last regional title, Steamboats and Subchasers: The History of the Shelburne Shipyard, has found a niche with older customers who remember the author from his days running the shipyard.
In the kids’ world the bestselling books continue to be Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7 and Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer, which is literally flying off the shelves. The Mercy Watson series has been a great go-to book for early readers. It’s actually been really sweet to see kids recommend them for cousins who are learning to read. A sleeper hit has been Natalie Babbitt’s Jack Plank Tells Tales, which is a popular favorite for the eight-year-old set.
The hot book for older kids is John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars which needs a bit of hand-selling to skeptical adults, who think a book about kids with cancer isn’t a great gift. To which I respond,,”Oh, but it’s sooooo good.”  Last year’s runaway bestselling Daughter of Smoke and Bone is doing even better in paperback with the sequel enjoying a similar run.
There are no clear bestselling picture books this year. This section always has the most range as picture books are not quite as bestseller driven. I have found that picture books tend to be much more individual than books for older kids. Perhaps because the depth of our selection allows for a book for just about every passion a kid might have. And folks really try to get picture books based on interest more than anything else. Having said that, Jon Klassen’s books have done quite well this holiday season as has Mr. Willowby’s Christmas.
As we head toward the final weekend before Christmas it will be interesting to see how, or if, this lists changes. Here’s hoping everyone find the right books for all the people on their lists.

December 17-24 is the most harrowing week of the year at the bookstore. Gone are the leisurely shopping ventures of recent weeks; now customers start pouring through the doors with an air of stress and exhaustion. (We’ve all been those customers, haven’t we?) It’s the start of the full-blown panic mode that strikes shoppers when they realize they only have six more days to get their shopping and wrapping and cooking and prepping done.
This is an indie bookseller’s strength; this is what we’re here for, to help. But we’re getting down to the wire here in terms of being able to order what isn’t on the shelf, and customers want specific books, often books that have been touted on NPR and are subsequently in such high demand that warehouses have run out and titles aren’t due back in until — December 26. Or January 3. At any rate, too late for under the tree. (Note to publishers: next fourth quarter, if your book is due to be on NPR, or in the New York Times Book Review, or has six or seven starred reviews, it might be in demand at holiday time, so take a chance and print up a few extries! Pretty please. Okay, okay, I know no one can predict what will catch fire and what will sit unsold. But guess better, wouldja? There must be book psychics out there somewhere, right?)
This is the week we play cat and mouse with inventory, checking the popular titles and bestsellers and indie bookseller recommendations and staff picks and local bestsellers several times a day to see what we’re likely to need to restock before the weekend. Since some restocking orders reach us overnight while others take two or three days to arrive, today is essentially our last day to make those best guesses about quantities. Do we have enough of The Art Forger? The Last Lion? Behind the Beautiful Forevers? The Meacham Jefferson biography? The Smitten Kitchen? Help, Thanks, Wow? How about The Fault in Our Stars? The Last Dragonslayer? Malcolm at Midnight? Seraphina? This Is Not My Hat? Forget about Code Name Verity; that was one of the NPR casualties. Which is GREAT news for that fabulous book; not as much fun for the booksellers who have to disappoint customers. Now, we pride ourselves on being able to suggest great substitute titles for anything out of stock, but — especially this last week before Christmas — people want what they want. I can understand that. My best hope is that I can also fulfill it.
So I’m signing off. Time to go make our last, our almost last, orders before weekend.
Good luck, everyone! And may you have the joy and luxury–amid all this craziness–of slowing down, taking time off, being with family and friends, and doing memorable, fun, meaningful things together.
 

I must confess something. I don’t really like wrapping books. Of course we offer wrapping, you have to this time of year. As much as I don’t like to wrap, I do like to see the look of utter relief on customers’ faces when we offer to wrap their books. I wrap quickly, somewhat sloppily, and am forever not doing enough curling ribbon. This year I got smart and finally took up the offer from a friend to come in and wrap on the weekends.
Sue not only likes to wrap, she’s good at it. She came in at 9 on Saturday to wrap the books that folks bought to give to kids who are getting food shelf baskets. There were two completely full-to-the-brim boxes of books that customers had picked for a range of kids from babies to teenagers. I have to confess she did something that in the 16 years I’ve had the store has never occurred to me. She pre-cut sheets of paper. Our “wrapping station” is not one where the paper is hung on the wall in a cutting dispenser looking all tidy with ribbon hanging off a dowel ready to measured out — no, that would be too easy. Our wrapping station consists of massive rolls of wrap on the back counter and the floor that you need scissors to cut. Sue just cut about 20 sheets of the snowflake wrap, and then cut them in half (gift wrap often comes in 24-inch widths, which make it very wide for books) and set about to wrap in a very efficient way. I marveled at this and shook my head. It’s shocking to me how often the utterly obvious can just escape me. Pre-cutting and then cutting in half the too-wide paper made wrapping go very quickly. What took her an hour would have taken me at least twice that.
We’ve never had someone at the store whose main job was to wrap. So this weekend every customer was asked, “Would you like that wrapped?” and just about every customer said yes. Sue was flying most of the day. Having her wrap freed the rest of us to handsell books, which is really what we do best. I know I love getting my presents wrapped before I leave a store. It’s just one less thing to do during this very busy time of year. One thing I’ve heard over and over this year is how time seems to be sneaking up on people. Maybe it’s the lack of real winter weather, but folks appear to be behind this year. People are scrambling, and being able to help them get on with the rest of their shopping knowing that the presents are ready to go under the tree is a lovely thing.
David, our high school staffer, just learned how to wrap and he’s getting good at it. We were all talking about wrapping and he said in response to me saying I’ve been wrapping books for 16 years, “I’m 17. I’ve been wrapping since Wednesday.” That might have the best laugh I’ve had in weeks.

Dear Publishers and Distributors,
We know you’re logging crazy hours like we are this time of year. We know your warehouses are bulging and your fulfillment tasks are beyond imagining. We understand that you’re probably understaffed and overworked, and that you may have needed to call in extra seasonal help that isn’t as experienced and well-trained as your regular employees. We empathize with you about the ridiculous amount of stress the last few weeks of the year bring all retailers and wholesalers. And understanding all of that, we still need for you to take greater, not less, care with your shipments right now. At the moment we can least afford it, we are getting the highest number of damages.
This time of year, it’s safe to assume most orders from bookstores are full of titles intended to be given as gifts. Customers come in and special order expensive coffee table books, beautiful hardcover versions of classics, and sleek  new editions of fiction and nonfiction titles. They expect pristine copies, suitable for gift giving. So when shipments arrive with damaged books at holiday time, we booksellers are, to put it lightly, hosed. We can’t afford to order two or three copies of a $65 book to have “backup” in case one comes with smushed corners or a creased jacket or an unerasable smudge of who-knows-what across the cover art. A bent edge that might pass muster with a customer in May will not be purchased in December. So we are stuck with duds we have to return and replace, which costs time and money for both us and you.
Every day now, heaps of cartons of books are delivered, and in every shipment, there are damages. It takes precious staff time to replace these books; calling about damages leaches long minutes from your businesses and ours in a season where time is precious, not to mention the phone calls we must make to inform customers that the book they expected, say, to mail to Aunt Veronica on Thursday now won’t be in before next week, and may not make it to her by Christmas after all.
These book damages damage us, most notably our reputation for speedy, reliable service.
So please, dear colleagues in this detail-laden business of ours, please remind your warehouse folks to pick only undamaged books, and to pack them with extra care. That will be a holiday gift with benefits for all.
Thank you, and may your sales be brisk, voluminous, and final. Cheers!

A customer came in yesterday, brandishing a holiday card with a photo of two adorable girls. “I can’t help showing this around,” said our customer. “You must get this all the time.” We don’t, actually, but it is always a happy occasion when we do. “I need books,” she continued. “Cora and Emiline have decided they’re pirates.”
Opening the card, she showed us two self-portraits the little girls had drawn. The five-year-old had done an impressive job in ballpoint pen, rendering herself with an eye patch, a huge grin, and a twinkly gold tooth. The three-year-old’s picture was understandably more free-form, but it was definitely human-shaped, with a face and hair, and you could see that one eye had been drawn with a fiercer pen pressure: her piratey eye patch.
We happen to have quite a few pirate books, in our section labeled “Fairies, Princesses, Mermaids, Ballerinas, Pirates, Knights, Dragons, Trucks.” And there happen to be several that feature or at least include female pirates. Hooray for progress! So I pulled out a big stack for our customer to look at; some, I explained, would be a little beyond the girls’ current ages. “That’s the beauty,” she said. “They can grow into them!” Have I mentioned how delightful a customer she is?
She settled down on one of our soft cube chairs to look over the stack, and I headed off to help another customer find a book about the Red Sox. Next time I saw our Pirate Aunt, she was at the counter, ready to be rung up. She handed a few titles to Sandy at the register. “These aren’t quite right for the girls just yet,” she said politely, then handed Sandy another stack. “These are perfect.”
And which were the perfect plunder? Well, thanks to their thoughtful and fun aunt, Cora and Emiline will be swashbuckling their way through Christmas with Lilly and the Pirates by Phyllis Root, illus. by Rob Shepperson, Violet and the Mean & Rotten Pirates by Richard Hamilton, illus. by Sam Hearn, The Barefoot Book of Pirates by Richard Walker, illus. by Olwyn Whelan, and Pirate Handbook, by Monica Carretero. I can’t wait to see what next year’s holiday card will bring.
I’m thinking ninjas….

Yesterday, I got an email from a lovely young man, Jeff, who had been a customer of ours until he moved to NYC after college two years ago. Jeff had been been shopping at our store more than a decade before his move. He and I even wound up taking Chinese at the same time at the University of Vermont. I suspected, like most young folks who move to the big city, that we’d only really see him on the few occasions he was home visiting his folks and happened by the bookstore.
We’ve always made good book recommendations to Jeff, and his mother usually lets me know how he’s liked a book. His email yesterday was for book ideas to make the subway to work easier  “…need to get immersed to distract me from the terribleness that is the nyc subway. I can’t thank you enough for all the good books over the years.” I need to point out that he’s only 23. What a lovely note to get. He had just finished and loved Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (recommended by Elizabeth when he was in town over Labor Day) saying, “Magic College is for real.” I adore this kid. I emailed back with suggestions.
I really thought about what a young guy starting out would want to read while on the subway. Having lived in New York and commuted on the subway myself, I thought for a while about what to suggest to him.
Clearly, he liked magic and fantasy. I mentioned there was a sequel, The Magician King. I also thought he would enjoy The Passage, Discovery of Witches and Brooklyn Follies. That’s all I wrote back because I didn’t want to overwhelm him with choices, as I can do sometimes. He wrote back almost immediately — clearly, the book need was strong — and said he was going to space out reading the sequel and venture to something new. He’d already read The Passage and The Twelve. He liked the sound of the two other books and said he would order them.
My heart sank reading that last line. I just assumed he meant he would order from Amazon. He didn’t. Twenty minutes later (clearly Jeff was having a slow day at work) an order for Discovery of Witches and Brooklyn Follies came in on our website. I fulfilled the order and shipped it out today. I was so touched that this young guy living in New York, with access to a myriad of bookstores and on-line sources, chooses to stay in contact with his childhood store for his books. It reminded me that making a personal connection with someone over a shared love of books and the joy of reading can be a very lasting one.
And, Jeff has already let me know he’ll be home for Christmas and is in need of more books.
 

Every year we sell stocking stuffers. Lots and lots of them. Our store is literally overflowing with all manner of doo-dads and trinkets for everyone. From wooden rattles for babies to high-tech accessories for iPods, we’ve got a lot of everything.
We make a sign board that announces the arrival of these lovely items. Currently, it say “Cool Stocking Stuffers for Everyone.” This to me, is a fairly benign sign. Announcing that we sell stocking stuffers seems to be a good way to get people to actually buy them. This signboard has never been a problem before, until Saturday.
A clearly agitated woman came in and asked to speak to the owner or manager. I hopped out of the office with my Santa hat on to speak with her. I had no idea I was about to get lectured about Santa and the nature of stocking stuffers. The woman just started in practically demanding that I take the sign down. I asked why and she counters with, “Santa brings the stocking stuffers.” Um, really? Apparently, her child, who was old enough to read, had seen the sign and started to wonder about Santa’s retail habits. Clearly, our store is not in the North Pole, so there was some explaining to do as they drove away from the signboard.
I tried to counter with a humorous comment about Santa shopping local and supporting stores in as many states as possible, but she was not amused. Other shoppers were laughing a little under their breath and I just tried to keep my cool. I held my ground on not removing the signboard and offered her a sugar plum and suggested that Santa can be anywhere at anytime.

Our bestselling stocking stuffer and funny little Chanukah gift is a pen shaped like a parrot that allows people to record a little message. We first discovered this item a few years ago at Kenny Brechner’s bookstore in Maine, DDG Booksellers. We ordered a couple of boxes from PlayVisions, sold out, had to re-order, and sold out again. Each year we’ve upped our initial order to match the total of pens sold the year before, and each year, we still have to order more before the holidays. We were a little late getting our order in this year, and the pens just arrived today. Josie put them out this afternoon, and by closing time, she’d already sold 14 parrots.

While Josie is the undisputed queen of the parrot pens, it must be said that these things do happen to be among the easiest — or at least most fun — handsells on the planet. The pens are nicely made, brightly colored, and have a function (the pen part) as well as a fun extra (the recorder). We keep them by the counter so we can demonstrate how to record the little message. Every staff member has her own default demo recording: Josie croons the first words to “Happy Holidays;” I chirp, “I’m a great stocking stuffer!” in a voice meant to be a human imitating a parrot imitating a human.
We invite customers to try one out, and people are fairly evenly divided–adults and children alike–between grabbing the pen like a microphone and becoming their own instant lounge act, or clamming up like someone with terminal shyness facing a crowded stadium. What’s most adorable is seeing the littler kids hold the recording button down and just stare at the pen, not saying anything; then they are surprised that the parrot is silent when they press Play. (Don’t worry; we give them recording lessons.) Less adorable are the occasional curse words that middle-school kids occasionally amuse themselves by recording. This only happens about once a week, if that, but still, we have to remember to check the demo parrot on really busy days to make sure some lovely grandparent or tender three-year-old doesn’t hear “Rudolph SUCKS!” or some similarly ‘hilarious’ message.
The parrot pens have also provided one of our strangest anecdotes in the history of the Flying Pig. A longtime customer, Carrie, brought in a woman she knew from Boston. “This is my friend, Anna,” she said, introducing her. “She’s got six grandchildren.” I showed her where to find books for various ages, and then left to help other folks. Carrie and her friend browsed for a while and then wandered to the counter to look for stocking stuffers. “Have you seen these parrot pens?” I asked, plucking the demo parrot out of the display. “You can record a little message to your grandchildren.” I held down the tiny recording button, but instead of launching into my usual “I’m the best stocking stuffer!” line, I paused, and then found myself saying, “I love you, Colton.” Now, I had never uttered the name Colton out loud before, but there it was. We chatted a few more moments, and then the Boston friend casually said, “I have a grandson named Colton, but he’s too young for the pen.” Our jaws dropped. I asked if maybe they had been talking about the children by name in the store’s other sections as they browsed, thinking I’d subliminally absorbed the name, but they said they hadn’t mentioned any of the children individually. I submit to you, people, that Colton may have been too young for the pen, but that if there were ever a sign from beyond that someone was meant to have that pen, this was it.
If Josie had been the one behind the counter, the woman would totally have bought it. I may need to start crooning, “Happy Holidays” as my parrot mantra, and wearing a Santa hat.
 

We all know that the holidays can be enormously stressful for customers and bookstore employees. After being in business for 16 years, I have some insights to share that might make the holidays go a little more smoothly for everyone involved.
– First, and foremost, do not take things personally. Emotions can run high during the holidays. There is inherent stress in shopping for everyone in the family. Sometimes customers are buying books for nieces and nephews they only see once a year and they feel bad about that. This feeling can come out at the bookseller in the form of irritation when books are recommended. The customers are not mad at you, they just can’t answer the question because they don’t know the kids. Roll with it and state with confidence that the books you’re recommending are great for that age child.
– Feeding people is always a good idea. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, having candy around is generally helpful for shopper’s moods. It still amazes me how happy a little nibble can make shoppers at the end of the day.
– Booksellers should remember to actually have lunch around lunchtime. Too many holiday workdays find us eating lunch after three. This is a recipe for disaster for the poor customers who shop between noon and the 10 minutes we allow ourselves to inhale protein. We keep a massive jar of peanuts in the back room and we just zip back and down some quickly before we hit the floor from hunger. But not getting too hungry is always a good idea.
– Patience with overwhelmed customers is essential. I come from a tiny family and am often stunned by the sheer number of people some folks have in their families. Often the overwhelmed person is often the one in the family known for getting the perfect gifts. That kind of pressure can be very hard to live with and it’s our job to help them maintain their track record.
– Patience with the bookseller is also helpful. We are running flat-out all day and sometimes our brains can’t keep up, especially at the end of the day. We are not stupid, we are exhausted and doing our very best. Our goal is to match all the gift recipients in your life with the perfect book and occasionally we falter, but we always regroup well.
– Listen, listen and listen some more. A good bookseller should be able to start handing out recommendations within seconds of the customer explaining who the gift is for. Resist the urge to think your job is done if you’ve handed someone a stack of books. Often the first pass misses the mark and it’s the clarification chat that can really be instrumental in getting the right books.
– If you’re not connecting with a customer for whatever reason, ask for help from a colleague. Usually a fresh set of eyes and ears can make all the difference.
– Take breaks. This goes for shoppers as well as store staff. You’re no good to anyone if you haven’t gotten some fresh air all day. Take a quick walk around the building. Run to the post office. Offer to go on a coffee run to refuel everyone.
– This ties in to the above: don’t drink too much coffee. While you might feel more alert with two cups of coffee, four cups can render you unintelligible to customers who are not operating at your speed level.
– Be kind to everyone, even if they are making you crazy. This goes hand in hand with the first list item. A little extra kindness during the height of the holiday shopping can go a long way to help someone’s mood. Offer to help take books to someone’s car or read a story to a toddler while a parent shops for the kid.
– We have a staffer here who zips out to the Shelburne Country Store to get “vitamins” which are really penny candies. I know it’s been a rough day if the back counter is littered with little bags of candy.
– Don’t forget to bond with your co-workers. Work is stressful and I think we need to resist the urge to fly out of the store when the day is over. Sometimes it’s great to share a meal or a drink with folks who’ve had the same tough day you’ve just endured.
– Finally, I find that wearing a Santa hat really helps the day go better.

As booksellers we all strive to have promotional material that customers will use. Much thought is given to how things are produced and where customers can access these materials in the store. This year, for the first year in 15 years, we have not had our in-store newsletter. Technology foiled us and it just didn’t happen. However, we were not left without anything.
This year we inserted the NEIBA catalog in two of our local papers in November. This effort reached almost 10,000 people, far more than we could reach on our own. The catalog is produced by several regional trade associations which helps to reduce costs. Each store received several hundred free and if your store choose to insert the catalog in any papers, NEIBA would reimburse you up to $300. This seemed like a winning idea.
We set up a special display of the books in the front of the store so the books are easy to find. I will say that so far in the season, the books are doing quite well. The hardest part about this catalog is guessing which books will be asked for. There are almost 150 titles in the brochure, and it’s impossible to stock quantity of each title. Every week there are adjustments to the restock order of the books.
The catalog has been a favorite among customers, including this young boy, who actually read through the catalog and picked out two books. Now, that’s what I call effective marketing.