{"id":25436,"date":"2018-05-04T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=25436"},"modified":"2018-05-04T08:00:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T12:00:49","slug":"the-postmouse-cometh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=25436","title":{"rendered":"Book Treats Brought by the Postal Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

As booksellers, the daily mail delivery brings all \"\"<\/a>kinds of good surprises.\u00a0A\u00a0lot of those surprises are from publishers sending us different kinds of materials to make our jobs easier\u2014from advance copies of books to collateral to storytime kits to whimsical tie-in promo items. These mailings are invaluable, so I am definitely not complaining. That being said, managing the mail can be a surprisingly challenging task. When a busy week rears its head (say, during the final throes of planning an upcoming festival<\/a>), it feels like I can blink and the walls around my desk are suddenly closing in. I always get asked about what mailings are useful to our store, so I thought I\u2019d take a little tour through the boxes after a\u00a0small build-up. What\u2019s inside, you ask? Well, let\u2019s see!
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Our mailman might not be this cute, but he’s certainly as busy!<\/p><\/div>
\nObviously we get a lot of ARCs. For efficiency\u2019s sake, aggregated mailings are great, but when ARCs are available off schedule, or a book is so high-profile or highly anticipated that we have multiple readers clamoring for a copy, extra individual mailings can make sense. I usually put those extras directly on the shelves designated for either the next kids\u2019 bookseller meeting or the Teen Press Corps, so those go right into distribution. An order for the store addressed to me instead of the receiving department and stashed under the rest of my pending boxes is less exciting to find\u2014although I can\u2019t really blame anyone but myself for that one.
\nStorytime kits are fun and go straight to our kids\u2019 events coordinator to be slated in as desired. The Pete the Cat box below is a particularly easy-to-use kit, with cat ears and stickers that can go straight from box to kid hands. A signed print, when we can get one, is obviously always a thrill. We typically use these for special storytime giveaways, because it\u2019s such a treat for kids to be able to take them home to hang on their own walls. It\u2019s always\u00a0helpful\u00a0to get cool stuff to give away to audiences at events, although they aren\u2019t always as nice as these high-quality patches that came for school events with Jennifer Chambliss Bertman.
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