{"id":32063,"date":"2020-01-10T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=32063"},"modified":"2020-01-10T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T13:00:35","slug":"wrangling-the-chaos-a-booksellers-new-year-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=32063","title":{"rendered":"Wrangling the Chaos: A Bookseller’s 2020 Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, it\u2019s a resolution post. Here’s the truth. I am not actually a New Year’s Resolution person. But all week my colleague Eugenia keeps making jokes about “2020 Meghan,” because I guess I\u2019m unleashing a clean-out-the-closets perspective on the world. I don\u2019t know, I guess maybe I am just a walking clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true that after the bustling immediacy of the holiday rush, January tends to feel wide open. So why not embrace a dewy, wide-eyed optimism? So what\u2019s on deck for this (probably brief) window of 2020 energy?
\nFind a few extra minutes: <\/strong>At last year\u2019s Winter Institute I went to a fantastic session that Cindy Dach from Changing Hands presented about how to be a better owner, manager, buyer, or bookseller, and I came away determined to be more intentional about my time. Time so easily disappears in the manic crush of all the things that have to be done \u201cright now\u201d or slips away into all-consuming projects that could be accomplished more quickly with a bit more structure\u2014while bigger-picture, needle-moving efforts get pushed off the priority list. I\u2019ve found that blocking out time on the calendar for\u00a0that bigger\u00a0picture work\u00a0this past year has been an\u00a0valuable tool for finding focus.\u00a0Next up this year is undergoing a time audit to take a deeper look at the balance.
\nTidy up the digital closet:<\/strong> Google Drive has become an indispensable part of the store\u2019s work flow. Shared documents and grids pool our talents and resources, and searching the archives for half-remembered keywords you remember someone sharing with you once actually works a remarkable amount of the time. It\u2019s an incredible resource and an invaluable back-up, especially after staff transitions. There’s great stuff in there: vendor and\u00a0local author contact grids, book fair title lists, festival planning docs, event tracking grids, rolling meeting agendas, signage templates, shared brainstorming documents, and more. But the cumulative clutter makes it that much harder to ensure that final versions stand out from working drafts, that all the photos we take are easily accessible, and that all those genius interdepartmental tracking grids that are going to cover gaps and solve problems stay up to date. A system to organize our systems? Does anyone else\u2019s inner Type A nerd love the sound of that?
\nAnd clean out the actual closet: <\/strong>No bookseller ever has looked around and marveled at their over- abundance of storage space. We all maximize our shelf space and minimize our storage. But when your carefully curated store of lovingly handcrafted display signs can only be accessed by balancing 15 rolls of colored paper against your back as tattered display copies of pop-up books that aren\u2019t currently in stock fall off shelves into bins of Halloween decorations and crafting supplies, it\u2019s very possibly time to say goodbye to some things.
\nLoad up the reading list: <\/strong>When our systems work perfectly, we buyers read books in advance of the buy, disseminate the best ARCs to our staff, and clear out the shelves just in time to make room for the next week\u2019s shipments of ARCs like clockwork. In reality, this is just one of the many hats we wear as booksellers, and we\u2019re always playing catch-up. In my more petulant moments, I\u2019ve\u00a0been known to proclaim that my mail (which, of course I also love) is ruining my life. But it\u2019s January, so anything is possible! I\u2019m looking at you, impossibly far-off, and rapidly proliferating August 2020 releases!
\n(Also, streamlining the number of times I touch each ARC on its way from original box, into my own office, out into the hands of staff, and back for eventual donation is a nut I have yet to fully crack.)
\nBut be okay letting things\u00a0go:<\/strong> It\u2019s not in any bookseller\u2019s nature to admit defeat. But even though \u201cread everything\u201d is essentially right in the job description, it\u2019s impossible. And as difficult as it is to clear out the pile of \u201cto read\u201d ARCs from the previous year to make room for everything that\u2019s coming in, every January I do a little bit of a better job letting go. It\u2019s not like I can\u2019t go back and read something later. I can! I just can\u2019t actually fit every book ever written on the back of my desk (Undetectable Extension Charm notwithstanding).
\nWhat 2020 goals are on your<\/span> wish list?
\n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking the new year as an opportunity to streamline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}