It’s not often that I wax rhapsodic about a device, but I have to say the new credit card reader for smart phones has me over the moon. But first, some history about offsite book sales.
In the old days selling books offsite involved hand-writing receipts, doing math and adding tax (which can be a challenge for me as I’m dyslexic) and then ringing up the credit cards with one of the old-fashioned knuckle scrapers, as some call them. You’d position the paper just so and slide the top very fast over the imprinter. Invariably, not all the numbers would be readable, so you’d have to guess, and that’s never a good with banks. A phone number was essential to get as sometimes the cards were declined, but you didn’t ever know that until you went back to the store and manually entered all the sales and waited for confirmations from the credit card company. This system was expensive, as keyed in credit card numbers cost the store more to process. And if a card is declined and you don’t have a phone number, there’s precious little to be done.
Enter phase two of the offsite system: the laptop that allows a store to process sales in the computer without ever writing a sales receipt. But the credit card processing was only marginally better. We’d bring our store credit card machine and either hope for a phone line (we do not have an internet-based system yet) or swipe the cards and then run the whole batch when we got back to work. The problem with this is we’d never know if someone’s card had been declined until well after the event, and phone numbers can be easily forgotten to obtain at a busy event. It hasn’t happened often, but it’s so galling to get stuck with a declined card because of inefficient technology.
Well, along came the card reader and my life has changed. This seemingly simple device allow credit cards to be read from a smart phone. The device’s biggest drawback is its tiny size. I fear I’ll lose mine every time I use it. But the convenience of being able to swipe a credit card and have it fairly instantaneously processed is astounding. We used this little device the other night at an offsite book party for Alison Bechdel. People were thrilled when they were asked to  sign the phone with the tip of their finger, and it caused unaccounted delight in our Vermont customers. One person said, “I feel like I’m in New York City.” People were talking about it all night. I thought it was hilarious. The ability to email or text the receipt saves a ton of paper and more often than not, folks didn’t want them.
By Monday all the money had been deposited in my bank account with the very reasonable fee taken out. The part of this that made me happiest was I haven’t lost the reader. Yet.

Yesterday was a lovely day at the bookstore. School was over for everyone, so the kids were in great moods and the parents hadn’t started looking bedraggled yet. I had two lovely exchanges that just made me laugh.
The first was a grandmother and granddaughter shopping together. They were having a sparkling day. Each had something sparkly on: the little girl had the brightest, shiniest shoes that would have made even Dorothy envious; the grandma had a twinkling scarf. The grandma asked if I had Pippi Longstocking, which of course we did. Then she wanted to know if I had the book “about everyone having a rock.” She looked at me, expecting a blank stare. Instead, I leapt up and got the Byrd Baylor book, Everyone Needs a Rock, and handed it to her. She actually wiggled her feet in joy.
I went back to the counter and she shouted out, “You wouldn’t happen to have two of them, would you?” As a matter of fact I did. I rang her up and she was so happy with us for having all of her books she actually gave me a hug. My grandmas are long gone, so the hug was especially lovely. She was still marveling at us having the books as she left the store.
My next fun interaction was with a seven-year-old girl who had been told by her mom that it was finally time to spend some of her Christmas money from two years ago. The girl, Annabelle, apparently has difficulty making decisions and her mom had tired of indulging her. So, they came here. I could see the little one was struggling. Every time it looked she had made a decision, she would round a corner and get utterly distracted by other things, mostly non-book things. Annabelle was told to spend time in the middle grade section.
I sense that maybe I could help this poor child, because I was just like her as a kid. I hated spending my holiday money because I feared I was buying the wrong things. Annabelle kept saying, “But maybe there’s a better one!” whenever she had a book in hands. I saw that she had picked two very lovely books. One was a hard cover, Star in the Forest, and the other a paperback of Ivy and Bean. She had well over $30 to spend, but there was no rush, her mom just wanted her to buy something. So, we talked about the books and what she liked about them. She liked them both “the same.”
Now it was time for our magic Flying Pig decision-making tool that Elizabeth started. I took both books behind my back, mixed them up and had her pick one. Then I asked her how she felt about the choice, and she said she was disappointed. I told her that’s how you know you need to buy the other one. She was placated, but still stressed. She did really like the other book, too.
Ah, special order shelf to the rescue. I told her we could hold the book for her until she was ready to decide about it. I labeled the book and put it on the hold shelf after I rung them up. Three minutes later, Annabelle came skipping over to me to check that I had the book on the shelf. I took it out with a flourish and said, “Don’t you trust me?” And she fired back, in a way only a child can, “No!” I asked why and she said, “Because you’re a grown-up.” Ouch.
But I laughed and now we’ll see how long it takes her to come back to claim the book.

All of us booksellers rely on our sales reps for far more than helping us with frontlist orders. They often lobby for us with the publicity department about why a certain author should come to our store; they can help get our credit limit raised and make sure our event books aren’t being held up; they are invaluable to me and my store would not run as well without them.
Nicole Davies is my Penguin rep for kids’ books. I see her three times a year and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her over the years. I like that she comes to every morning meeting with still wet hair, like me. She knows her books and she really helped us make our 15th anniversary celebration more fun. But, this week, she went above and beyond and saved our bacon with a customer.
Last week, while Elizabeth and I were toiling away at Book Expo, a customer called the store on Monday and asked if we had Re-Zoom, by Istvan Banyai. Our staffer found the book and the customer, a teacher, explained that she was going to come in right away to pick it up and that she was using it as a very important team building exercise for the following Tuesday. The book was put on the back counter for her. Books that folks say they’re going to pick up immediately don’t often make it to the special order shelf, they just wait in the back to get picked up. Thursday rolled around and the book was still on the counter when another customer saw the book and wanted to buy it.
The book was sold. I should say, we hadn’t sold that particular book in six months, so it was strange to have so much interest in one week. Then, on Friday, the teacher, Beth, came in to pick up the book. Except it wasn’t there. Because we’d sold it out from under her. And she needed it by Monday. Frantic calls were made to every bookstore in our region. No one had the book. We even reached out, via the listserv, to every children’s bookstore in New England and nothing. Elizabeth suggested I call Nicole on the off chance she had the book at home.
So, last Friday at 5, too late for the post office or Fed Ex pick-up, I called Nicole and asked about the book. She said she thought she had the book and was going to call me back. I waited patiently, and not five minutes later, she called back that she had the book. I asked if she wouldn’t mind overnighting it to us for a Monday morning delivery. This meant she had to go to the post office on her time off, but she cheerfully said she’d be happy to do it. Really? I was thrilled.
We called the customer, who at this point was none too happy with us, and told her what was going on. I’ll believe it when I see it, was pretty much what she said. Everything was riding on this little paperback arriving in time. First thing Monday morning a slender mailer arrived at our door containing one paperback of Re-Zoom. All was not lost. We learned a valuable lesson: put all requested books on the special order shelf, away from other customers’ eyes (nothing gets folks more interested in a book than finding out that someone else wants it), and don’t ever sell a book that’s been promised to someone else, even if they’re days late picking it up. Nicole saved us from losing a customer for good and also made our mistake a teachable moment with a really happy ending.
We will be sending Nicole a replacement copy of the book as well as some Vermont goodies as a way of saying thanks for saving our bacon. It’s reps like her that continue to make us look good, even when we’ve made a mistake, who help make this business a little more bearable and fun. Here’s hoping we won’t ever again need her to raid her personal library on our behalf!

Coming home from BookExpo always means a deep plunge back into the bookstore and a rush of catching up with the many little fires that tend to flare in our absence, those few things that our extremely capable staff aren’t in charge of and couldn’t sweep off the decks if they wanted to, which they do, because they are fabulous. What this means for ShelfTalker is that I always have piles of notes and photos and great intentions for blog posts about the marvelous events, education, parties, and new books we encounter at the trade show — but then the urgent overtakes the important and BEA fades before I get to fully bask in its delights.
Before that happens, I’d love to share an entertainment highlight, a smart publisher giveaway, a few photos, and some other best-of moments from the show.

Best entertainment: In addition to the Children’s Breakfast, which Josie blogged about here, I’d have to say one of the all-time great moments of this year’s show was listening to Libba Bray belt out torch songs from the 1920’s at a party (held at a backroom speakeasy) to celebrate her enticing fall release, The Diviners. Backed by a professional accompanist — the man has clearly done this for a few successful decades — she wowed the room. That girl can SING, and if I were Little, Brown, I’d seriously consider putting up some mp3s or 4s of that performance. Can’t wait to read the ARC, too.
Best view: Penguin threw a fantastic party at the top of the Standard Hotel near the Highline in the meatpacking district of New York, and in addition to the stellar list of authors in whose honor the cocktails-and-divine-snacks bash was thrown, attendees were treated to a magnificent view of the city on all sides.


Best swag: As some of you know, I am swag-impaired, which I blogged about a while back here. However, I can swing some swag if invited to a party where they just hand it to you so you can’t miss it — and that’s exactly what happened at a Macmillan lunch, where, after a delicious meal and interesting conversation with guest authors and tablemates, the publisher handed out one of the smartest promotional gift items we’ve ever seen: a sleek boxed ballpoint pen whose upper cap hides a 4G USB stick — cleverly preloaded with Macmillan’s tasty fall catalog, a folder of cover art and sample spreads, and a Macmillan publicity directory with publicists’ names, titles, and contact info. There are still plenty of gigs left on the drive for your own use, too. Great gift – fun, useful, lasting. Thanks, Macmillan!

Best Date: Speed Dating with Children’s Authors. If you haven’t been to one of these events, it is wild and well worth attending. This year, nineteen authors made the rounds of tables filled with booksellers; they each had just three minutes to wow us with a book “pitch” about their upcoming fall releases. It’s got to be exhausting for them, doing that nineteen times, but they were energetic and interesting from first to last. In an upcoming blog post, I’ll share all 19 authors and tidbits about their books with you. I love this event and was so delighted when it was introduced at BEA a few years ago.

Best Relaxing Author Chat: Tea with Children’s Authors. This is the antidote to the whirlwind of Speed Dating. While that one gets you revved up in the morning, the Tea allows booksellers an hour with just one author per table. I was at a table with the lovely, effervescent Shannon Hale, who spoke about her upcoming Princess Academy sequel, Palace of Stone. Conversation at the table ranged far and wide, from a discussion of ethics in the novel (favorite line from Shannon: “Yeah, that’s how to get the kids to read this book; tell them it’s all about ethics!”) to censorship to jacket design to Colin Firth. Oh, and there were baby pictures. (Shannon’s family is absurdly photogenic.) The opportunity to talk with an author at length about her newest work is a treat to be treasured, and booksellers at every other table with other authors felt the exact same way.


Best Shirt: Paul O. Zelinsky has an excellent tradition: each time a new book comes out, he makes some piece of clothing to wear incorporating the art from that book. For Swamp Angel, he actually carved a bowtie from wood (!). For his newest, Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, Paul turned several drawings into textile art printed on fabric. Paul was dandied up here for the ABC BEA Children’s Book Art Auction, which featured more than 100 pieces of artwork from the finest illustrators in the field. The auction raises funds “for ABFFE and its defense of the free speech rights of young readers.” Haven’t yet heard how much was raised, but it’s a worthy cause and always one of BEA’s highlights for anyone in the children’s book field.
Fellow BEA attendees, what were some of YOUR favorite delights? Feel free to add links to blog posts and pix in your comments.

It’s that time of year again: the end of the school year. I’m still baffled why this is such a crazy busy time for folks. I never had the sense of craziness when my school years ended. We just calmly packed our cubbies and went home to do nothing for the rest of the summer. I mentioned this to several customers and they just laughed at me, all saying, “You were a kid!” I don’t have kids, so I guess it’s a little naive of me to think there should be no stress about shifting the kids from school to summer.
Here in Vermont, and perhaps elsewhere, the last three days of school bring a flurry of activity to the bookstore. People are waiting for us to open in the morning and racing in at closing for those last-minute teacher gifts. I suspect we are not alone in the sheer of volume of gift cards sold in June. We even have our signboard facing the schools and it says “Teachers love books (and gift cards).”
I love that we are also suggesting actually picking out a book for a teacher. There is something lovely about a student sharing his or her favorite book with a beloved teacher. We have one family to whom the teacher books are so important, they order them in March, just to make sure they’ll be here in time. That kind of thoughtfulness is touching and speaks to the quality of teachers these kids have that they care so much. Gift cards are also good gifts, although I do worry sometimes that they won’t get redeemed, and the family will have wasted money on them. But from a cash flow perspective, I’ll happily take the $3000 bump in gift cards from the last week.
Some kids have summer camps starting right away, so they come in to stock up on books to tide them over the slow camp days. One boy was picking out books on Sunday with an eye towards trade-ability; he was trying to figure out which books would be more valuable at camp. I just loved that approach and knew that this kid was going to be the camp wheeler-dealer. I suspect he’ll be the kid who always has Pop Tarts in his trunk.
So, here’s hoping everyone gets a chance to relax, buy books and just read.

For the past four years we have hosted a reading for the children who participated in our local PBS Go! Kids Writing Contest. This year we had about 15 kids come to the bookstore and fill our event space with proud families. This is one of my favorite events of the year.

Picture 15 eager, nervous young writers, who now must be readers, on a beautiful Saturday morning. They streamed in. Girls in fancy dresses, boys in shorts, and in one case mis-matched socks. Ranging in age from first grade to third, they read their stories out loud to a room full of adults. Pretty terrifying stuff, if you ask me. They were great. Some spoke sofastyoucouldbarelyunderstand them and one boy practically forgot to breathe. One second grade girl had written a remarkably beautiful story about a race horse and a Morgan horse becoming friends, which was surprisingly poignant. There were lots of pictures in these stories and every illustration was shown to the audience in a slow arc around the room.
The stories covered a huge range, from a non-fiction animal guide to cows in space. One young boy announced before he read his story, “This is dedicated to my brother Jeff.” They were both beaming with pride. One child had seven, count ’em, seven family members there in support. For an hour not one younger sibling interrupted the proceedings. One boy got a massive case of stage fright, so his sister volunteered to read his story for him.
This was families at their best celebrating literacy and I was thrilled to be part of it.

After a whirlwind BEA we are home. Blisters are healing and galleys are neatly stacked on the dining room table. Exhausted, but happy, I’m thrilled to be back at work.
As if I didn’t already love my staff before, they cleaned the back room! So, I came in to an office with space, which I’ll fill with galleys shortly, but for this brief time, I’m in love. I hope everyone has gotten home safely and has time to get some rest.

Yesterday was the first Children’s Institute at BEA and it got off to a rousing start with the Children’s Breakfast. I love the breakfasts, although I found it a little hard to get out of in bed in time for the actual meal because of the fun had the night before at two very entertaining publisher parties. (I will say the Penguin party at the Top of the Standard afforded attendees stunning views of New York City; the Little, Brown Speakeasy for Libba Bray was glorious. Libba, who has a wonderful, bluesy voice, treated us to a five-song set. And there was something very clever about having our drinks in coffee cups a la prohibition).
Chris Colfer, the actor from Glee, hosted the breakfast and he was poised, charming and warm. John Green was the first speaker and he was really funny. He started by saying he looked up Chris to learn more about him and all he found was fan fiction about the two of them, together.  John spoke with passion, hands moving quickly all the time, several times knocking the mic. John mentioned that until he was 10 he thought everyone, including his family, were aliens and he was the only human. It was through stories that he learned his family was human (I know this sounds bizarre, but it’s true). He went on to speak about the power of story because it trumps everything. Yes, the Internet is fun, he said, but reading is an immersive event that demands your full attention and through it you learn about empathy.
Lois Lowry was the next speaker, fulfilling the BEA tradition of two male speaker and a woman. (Why can’t there ever be two women and a man? Maybe next year?) Lois started really funny. There’s a new TSA regulation that exempts folks over 75 from having to take their shoes off at the airport. She said she did the math and she figures Chris Colfer will be taking off his shoes for another 53 years. Lois spoke about writing and suggested that you should write, not about what you know, but what you’re wondering about, what keeps you up at night and what you don’t know. She started The Giver because she was wrestling with the question that her Air Force pilot son asked her during the first Iraq war: why do people do such horrible things to each other? Young people believe they can fix the world and her characters feel the same way. The Giver is about memory and she has the memory of an American flag draped over her son’s coffin when he came home. If we weren’t moved enough by her talk, at this point most of us were in tears. And the main character in the new book Son gets to vanquish evil. We all leapt to our feet and gave her a rousing ovation.
Chris Colfer, bless his heart, came up to introduce Kadir Nelson, but before he did he said, “‘It’s good you don’t have to take your shoes off, because they can’t be filled.” Kadir spoke about his struggle to find a way in to illustrating Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream. He embarked on his own trip to D.C. to see everything for himself. He wanted to know what the trees felt like that provided shade on the hot summer day of the march. I loved that Kadir needed to have his own photo references for the book and wouldn’t just rely on source materials. The depth and details of Kadir’s paintings were gorgeous. I have seen an F&G of the book and it’s quite stunning. Kadir has really captured the spirit of King’s speech. You feel like you’re there and can feel the passion of the speech. To hear him speak of the struggles he had illustrating the dream part of the speech was truly fascinating. These are the things that as a lover of picture books, but not an artist, I never think of. I just enjoy the work.
After the breakfast I went to the Bowker session about Children’s Digital Media. Kelly Gallagher, from Bowker led us through 40 minutes of slides about the latest breakdowns about kids’ books and digital content. I found the presentation interesting and heartening. The news about children’s books and ebooks is not as bleak as the rest of the industry. Yes, there is explosive growth in the adult market, but kids’ books are very much lagging behind. The really good news for children’s bookstores is that the large percentage of purchases made by adults for kids from 0-6 are from browsing and seeing things that catch their eye. Interestingly, kids from 7-12 often come in ready to choose their own books. One thing I found fascinating was the number one reason coming into a store for making a purchase was seeking a specific character or series, which is a huge motivating factor for kids purchasing a book. The next thing that motivated a purchase was illustrations. That delighted to me to the core.
One thing I forgot to mention was without a doubt my favorite part of the show is seeing my bookselling friends. We’re all limping and complaining of aching backs, but we’re having fun.

I noticed yesterday while I was walking the very crowded show floor that the size of the totebags being given out are just enormous. I am not a fan of large totes. Especially when the totes in question are half the size of the person carrying the bag. It seems to me that by 11 am the first day only the most ardent, galley grabbing show goers could fill their bags. And most of the bags I’ve seen were full, some ridiculously so.
I think the rule of thumb for tote giveaways is they shouldn’t also be large enough to double as a weekend bag.
I always marvel at the stamina of folks who can carry an overloaded tote bag all day at the trade show. I don’t pick up anything anymore, unless it’s unique. A tote with posters reveals a first timer to the show. Everyone knows posters become shredded paper by the end of the day.
So, on my first day of walking the floor I was struck by the bags, the sheer number of people, and the lack of books in many of the big publisher’s booths. As disappointed as I was by the lack of books, I was awfully impressed by how good the light boxes with covers looked.
 

Well, the first day of BEA ended with a sort of ho-hum reaction from many attendees, myself included. The problem was Monday was billed as the Day of Education and there was very little education to be had, and for many who came in very early in the morning, or stayed over an extra night in New York City, this was a disappointment.
I feel like the ABA has weighted all its educational endeavors in the yearly Winter Institutes. The problem with that lies in the attendance cut-off of 500 booksellers. So that leaves many booksellers who are still eager for learning opportunities. And there were very few to be had on Monday.
I arrived in time to hear Lynn Sherr interview Richard Russo about Why Indies Matter.  This was a very relaxed conversation, but it was not a galvanizing event. No one left fired up or feeling better about indies. I know I left thinking: well, Amazon is going to be the death of all us. Richard said that his new book, Interventions, was above 200,000 in its Amazon rank until this past weekend when Amazon sent out an email to everyone who had ever bought a Russo title. By Saturday, its rank was just over 1,000 (currently it’s 2,335). To hear an admired author talk about his success on Amazon was so disheartening.
But I loved it when he said, “Publishers need to find a spine,” as did the audience, judging by the rousing applause. He was speaking specifically about why publishers sell e-books on Amazon for $9.95 the day the hardcover comes out. Richard rightly likened Jeff Bezos to a schoolyard bully who everyone’s afraid to stand up to. I couldn’t agree more. But I also know how tight things are for publishers, so there’s no real easy answer.
There was a lot of free time built into the day, and that ultimately felt frustrating. I chose not to go to Indies Internationals, but I did go to the Roundtables and I tried to listen to the Creating Community Connections, but I could barely hear. There were three Roundtables in one room and it was a struggle for all of us to hear what folks at our table were talking about. I noticed that there were several empty rooms in the hall that could have housed each of the Roundtables and that might have been more conversation if we’d broken up.
I did learn at the Roundtable that World Book Night was extremely good for all bookstores and everyone is excited for it for next year. Another thing that has stores very eager for the summer is the Where’s Waldo promo that Candlewick is doing. I’ll have more on that later, we’re doing it and I think it’s a great way to get customers into lots of stores in your community. Some stores charge for all off-site events and they’ve found it really successful. This surprised me as some folks charge $10 in addition to a book. That seems like a lot to me, but more power to them for trying to not only recoup costs but make a little money.
If I were in charge of the schedule, next year I’d change some things. The first thing I would do is either not have the Day of Education as a separate day, or I’d fill it with multiple sessions that offer real education. The second thing I would do is move the Children’s Institute day to the first day, before the trade show floor opens, so children’s booksellers don’t miss a whole day of the show floor.
More tomorrow from BEA.