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Image courtesy of https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/source\/theeducatorsmarket.com\/<\/p><\/div> A bookseller’s tongue-in-cheek lament about paying for all of the fabulous fall releases \u2014 before they’ve sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe year’s cash flow for many bookstores dips just after summer and before the holidays. This is unfortunate timing. Fall\u00a0is the biggest book-release season, so by the end of October and November, we have received\u00a0hundreds of new books and thus owe\u00a0a boatload\u00a0of money to publishers in the two months *before* holiday shopping picks up. As I sat in my office paying bills the other day, a line from Poe’s famous poem, “The Bells,” began rolling through my brain, but instead of Poe’s “tintinnabulation of the bells, bells, bells,” I\u00a0had a slightly different take. With apologies to our lyrical pal, Edgar A.,\u00a0here goes:
\nThe Bills\u00a0(dedicated to my colleagues in bookselling)
\nI.\u00a0FALL
\nHear the rustle of the bills\u2014
\nStacks of bills!
\nWhat a world of penury their pattering foretells!
\nHow they crinkle, crinkle, crinkle,
\nIn the office’s\u00a0bright light!
\nWhile the halogens\u00a0show wrinkles
\nAnd the calculator twinkles
\nWith a digital delight;
\nKeeping score, score, score,
\nOf the statements we deplore,
\nAnd the tab- tab- tabulation\u00a0that\u00a0can spell a small store’s ills
\ndue to bills, bills, bills, bills,
\nBills, bills, bills \u2014
\nDue to hideous\u00a0Net 30 terms\u00a0of bills.
\nII. DECEMBER
\nHear the busy\u00a0cash drawer ding
\nGolden ding!
\nWhat a world of happiness its frequency\u00a0can sing!
\nThrough the roar of retail day
\nHow\u00a0that ping can pave the way
\nTo\u00a0a season full of books
\nAnd lovely gifts,
\nWhile the\u00a0customers in nooks
\nPore through pages new and classic as\u00a0they look
\n(Don’t shoplift!)
\nOh,\u00a0the cash wrap counter thrills!
\nWhat a ping of ecstasy that little ring instills!
\nHow it trills!
\nHow it fills
\nUp our spirits! How it spills
\nInto paying all those bills,
\nInto\u00a0timely, comely paying
\nOf the bills, bills, bills,
\nOf the bills, bills, bills, bills,
\nBills, bills, bills \u2014
\nInto timely, comely paying of the bills!
\nIII.\u00a0WINTER \/ SPRING
\nSee\u00a0the\u00a0big December bills \u2014
\nHorrid bills!
\nWhat tale of terror, now, their\u00a0magnitude\u00a0foretells!
\nIn the startled\u00a0office\u00a0night
\nHow they\u00a0telegraph our fright!
\nAll too\u00a0numerous to count
\nThere’s a\u00a0harrowing amount
\nPiling up.
\nLike the snowflakes heaped in drifts upon the hills outside our door,
\nOr the countless specks of cinnamon in cider that we’ve poured,
\nHeaping higher, higher, higher
\nWe’ve a desperate desire
\nAnd a resolute endeavor
\nNow\u2014now to pay or never,
\nFrom\u00a0the bank we’re dialing up.
\nOh, the bills, bills, bills!
\nThey are such a bitter pill
\nTo taste!
\nHow they stack, and mass, and\u00a0mound,
\nAs our furrowed brow we pound,
\nAnd we rummage for the checkbook we’ve misplaced.
\nYet the eye, it fully knows,
\nBy the crumple,
\nAnd the rumple,
\nWhat\u00a0no bookkeepers\u00a0disclose;
\nYet, the\u00a0ear distinctly tells,
\nIn\u00a0the grumbling
\nAnd the bumbling
\nHow our ledger\u00a0sinks and swells,
\nWith\u00a0the sinking or the swelling in the balance of the bills\u2014
\nOf the bills\u2014
\nOf the bills, bills, bills, bills,
\nBills, bills, bills–
\nIn the\u00a0rising and the redress of the bills!
\nIV. SUMMER
\nSee\u00a0the manageable bills\u2014
\nSummer\u00a0bills!
\nWhat a\u00a0sense of\u00a0pleasant balances this\u00a0sunny time\u00a0instills!
\nIn the busy buzzing days
\nWorries vanish in\u00a0the blaze
\nOf the hustle and the bustle of the sales!
\nNow\u00a0everybody reads
\nEvery family member needs
\nA great tale.
\nAll those readers\u2014ah, the readers\u2014
\nThey’re our industry’s\u00a0shy leaders,
\nAnd our Grail.
\nAnd their poring\u00a0poring poring
\nOver online sales prevails
\nSending\u00a0bookseller\u00a0hearts soaring
\nAnd our bank accounts are hale.
\nBut the bills, oh they are scheming\u2014
\nDuring summer they are dreaming
\nOf their due\u2014
\nAnd they\u00a0stealthily yearn
\nFor the pennies that we
\nEarn\u2014
\nThe\u00a0triumph\u00a0of the bills!
\nAnd their paper bosoms thrill
\n(Though they’ll end up in landfill)
\nThat we’re heading\u00a0up that hill
\nKeeping score, score, score,
\nof the statements we deplore\u2014
\nOh, the tyranny of bills\u2014
\nOf the bills:
\nKeeping score, score, score,
\nof the statements we abhor\u2014
\nOh, the endlessness of bills,
\nOf the bills, bills, bills\u2014
\nThe eternity of bills;
\nKeeping score, score, score,
\nAs we still, still, still,
\nPay\u00a0these statements evermore,
\nOh, the cruelty\u00a0of bills,
\nOf these bills, bills, bills,
\nThe ubiquity of bills,
\nOf these bills, bills, bills, bills,
\nBills, bills, bills \u2014
\nAll\u00a0these bills we always will be paying for.
\n****
\nFor the real poem, please visit\u00a0the wonderful resource that is Poets.org<\/a>.
\n“The Bells” version I used to play off was from that site, and is from\u00a0The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, vol. II<\/em>, 1850.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"