Here are important some of things you should know about booksellers:
1. The first time a customer takes a bookseller’s book suggestion seriously and buys the title the bookseller falls in love—in love with the book (again), in love with the customer, in love with bookselling and in love with the power of a positive hand-selling experience—love, love, love, love. Love. Yes, it is a many splendored thing.
2. Booksellers talk a lot—about books they’ve read, customers they’ve helped and authors who have entered the store. Call it talk, gossip, discuss—whatever—they do it all day and everyday with their bookselling coworkers, booksellers from other stores, and even with booksellers from other companies should they happen to cross paths. They like to tell a good story just as much as they like to read them.
3. Booksellers have very long memories. They have to, otherwise how will they know what that one blue book that was on the table near that one window about three months ago was. Why would they need to know that? Oh, because it is pretty much a guaranteed thing that a customer will come in asking just that, and expect an immediate answer.
4. Booksellers are always hungry. You would be too if you spent all day hauling books, shelving, and helping customers…in between all that talking, of course.
The inner psyche of the average bookseller is not a very dark or murky thing (and should you ever meet a bookseller with a dark and murky psyche, I would suggest you run away. Run away immediately), and there is no reason why you, the author, can’t turn this knowledge into book sales. In fact it is rather easy: just be nice to every bookseller you meet…and bring cookies.*
Booksellers will follow you over to your genre dark side in a nanosecond if cookies are involved.
What? We all know that snack cravings rarely ever coincide with actually scheduled break times. Enter an author with cookies, candies, sweets and a smile and you’ve got a bookseller who will suddenly start paying attention. They’ll see that this is an author that gets it. They’ll probably remember the author’s name. And when it comes to a time when the bookseller is in a genre, suggesting titles to a customer, who do you think will come to mind?
That’s right, the author with the bribe sweets.
Now, I’m not saying that the (Preciousssssss) New York Times Bestseller List can be yours through bribery by cookie, but it is a way to break through the natural barrier that exists between most authors and booksellers.
Namely that the bookseller hasn’t heard of you or had time to read your book. Maybe they don’t read your genre, maybe you’re new, or maybe their TBR pile is so huge that their roommates have to call in contractors to access the structural integrity of their house. Whatever the reason an author often has a small window of opportunity to swing a bookseller to their side, and giving them something to stuff in their mouths so they can’t talk back can only be a good thing.
It’s a classic cookie defense, my friends, and you should know how it plays out.
Step one: Author feeds bookseller a cookie, is cordial, and briefly (I’m talking elevator pitch here, people) mentions their book and who they are like.
Step two: the bookseller assess whether or not cookie is a bribe that could damage her bookselling career only long enough to realize, hey, that’s stupid. It’s just a cookie, and if she breaks it in half it will actually have less calories.
Step three: the bookseller will tell other booksellers how this great author came in and gave her a cookie. (Side note: it doesn’t matter if you actually sign stock in the store. Spread the cookie love to stores that don’t have your book. Spread cookie love to bookstores when you’re on vacation. Spread it to every store you come across.)
Step four: Booksellers who did not receive cookies (as well as those who did) will store knowledge of this authorial largesse away. It will sit tucked away in the back of their minds, waiting. Just waiting, until…
Step five: A bookseller is approached by a customer looking for selection from X genre. As the bookseller scans the shelves looking for titles, she’ll come across your book and a little cookie shaped light bulb will go off in her heads. Maybe she’ll have read your book by then, maybe she won’t, but more often than not I can guarantee that title will get picked up and handed to a customer with a, “I might the author of this, and s/he was wonderful.”
Is it a commentary on the cultural significance of your book? No. Does it delve into the depths of your literary soul? Of course not. It just means that because you gave a bookseller a cookie, they may get someone to buy your book.
And that’s a damn hard thing to get people to do these days.
*It should be noted that you can substitute a smile and really listening for a cookie, but it does not have the same chocolatety goodness, nor the ability to decrease the growls emanating from the vicinity of the bookseller’s stomach.
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:grin:Yanno, I’ve been wondering about this very thing. As a reader, I’ve always used apple pie on the librarians. We homeschool and reeeeally need them on our side.:wink: It’s good to know booksellers are a related species.:lol:
So, what you’re saying is that while Machiavelli wrote “The Prince” to aid young nobles bent on regional dominance, you’ve come up with the author-equivalent called “The Cookie”.
Not bad.
LOL
That’s one truism in each and every business (yes, even when pitching in the executive suites)… Most people can be bribed with cookies.
I always brought in some sort of baked goods for my project meetings. Best return on investment I have ever received…
Very interesting theory about the cookies. After sitting through a poision workshop this weekend, I’m not sure I would accept a cookie from a stranger, of course I’m not a bookseller, I’m a writer with dark psyche and all.
I AM a bookseller (and an e-book author), and I can safely say that while we like the cookies very much, what will sell your book to us is having a correctly spelled and grammatically correct back-cover blurb. Oh, and a decent cover NOT made with freakish Poser People art. Tell your publishers: JUST SAY NO TO POSER.
And when you talk with the bookseller? Don’t be pushy, but don’t be passive-aggressive, either. Booksellers are shy and don’t like to be backed into corners.
DO offer to sign stock if they have it. We like putting the “Autographed!” stickers on things other than each other’s foreheads.
Ah, Sister Sara of the dark psyche… We put not poison in the cookies, but hypnotic drugs that gently encourage the bookseller do our bidding, up to and including locking the doors during peak business hours and refusing to let people leave until they buy our books…
And give them each a cookie, while they’re at it. Mwahahahaha!
Do you prefer Girl Scout, Mrs. Fields, or Famous Amos?
You get me, you really get me. If I had a cookie for every time someone asked me, “Do you have that book?”
“Which book?”
“That book. You know, with the purple cover.”
*raises hand* Fellow bookseller here and you are sooooo right about the cookie! And if cookies aren’t readily available then a smile is a great substitute.
Our store is in the boonies and we don’t get much author traffic, but I love meeting them when they do come in and you’re right, I have a verrrrry long memory.
And my favorite start to a conversation is…”I don’t know the name of the author and I forget the title of the book, but I think it’s red and has something to do with time….”
So far the closest thing I got was I need the book about fairy tails. Don’t know the title nor the author, but I know it’s big and red. At least, they knew fairy tails were involved.
I also think I meant to put tales.
Do you accept special delivery by a hunky UPS guy?
We do not have ‘cookies’ here in the UK in the same way - to most people here a cookie is a piece of tracking software loaded onto your pc, and is to be avoided - but mini chocolate bars, home made muffins for the staff kitchen, and mini donutes from the supermarket are always welcome. And you are absolutely right. A smile does go a long way.
Do you mean ‘I met the author’ rather than ‘I might the author’? I hope so. I think so, anyway.
Also, these cookies must be 100% vegeterian/gluten free to cover your bases?
This is valuable information! My first book will be in print this fall, and I absolutely love our local new/used bookstore and the ladies who run it. I’ve been trying to think of a way to approach them with my book, and cookies are an excellent way to start.
I have been a bookseller for years and I love meeting authors. A word of advice to authors - if you’re nice to booksellers, they will push your books even if they haven’t yet read them and they probably will start reading your books if they haven’t already. I have met so many wonderful authors and subsequently bought their books because I wanted to support them. On the flip side, I hate it when authors don’t respect us “lowly” booksellers! I certainly don’t mind telling customers that bestselling author so-and-so was quite rude when they visited our store. So thanks for your support of booksellers!
[...] In a recent guest column entitled The Proper Care and Feeding of Booksellers, and How It Can Work for You, blogger Bookseller Chick put out a call for authors to dispense cookies liberally when visiting bookstores. The theory here is that a bookseller will form a favorable opinion of the visiting author, and will recommend that author’s book next time they have an opportunity. [...]