Perfect Partnership

In January, Borders will be closing 200 Waldenbooks, including the one located in Bay Park Square Mall in Green Bay. Luckily, there are still great independent bookstores located in and around the area. If you aren’t sure where your closest independent bookstore is located, this IndieBound link can help.

Tomorrow would be the perfect time to discover these local treasures during National Bookstore Day. There is a list of participating stores listed by state, but here at BayShore Books LLC we are offering a discount on purchases as well as a chance to win a book bag filled with best selling titles.

If you are looking for some great book choices, check out Buy Books for the Holidays. They offer great ideas throughout the season, including this list of mystery authors you may like.

Better yet, while in your favorite independent, find the Indie Best Seller Lists which will be prominently displayed. Four of these lists will be published by NPR beginning on November 13th. The book info pages on IndieBound now feature audio content from NPR's book coverage.

Perfect partnership!

The Decision Makers

By now I’m sure you have all heard about the book price wars. I decided to leave it alone. These mass merchandisers are gaining more than enough publicity and I have no desire to help them out.

However, after a customer recently asked why she couldn’t purchase a book online and then bring it in to be signed by the author, I felt the need to speak up. I refuse to mention the names of the retailers in question, you know who they are. I refuse to mention the price they are offering; those of you who drive thirty minutes to save a nickel or pay $3.99 shipping to save a dollar have already tracked down what you believe to be the best deal.

Whatever I say you may say to yourself, “she is just saying that so she can stay in business”. Why would you believe me? So, don’t listen to me.

How about John Grisham's literary agent, David Gernert: “If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over..I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted bestsellers take the consumer's attention away from emerging writers.”

Or how about Stephen King: “It’s time to give the smaller bookstores a little breathing room.”

David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, publisher of James Patterson's I, Alex Cross, said that he would like the U.S. to follow France's prohibition of selling books for less than the cover price. "I do think this massive devaluation of the industry's crown jewels could very quickly be extremely harmful...And I would not be alone in thinking that."


Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson said the price wars "will prove damaging to publishers, authors, booksellers, mass retailers, and ultimately consumers." Because these online retailers are “systematically conditioning consumers to expect these lower prices,” Although consumers may appreciate lower prices in the short run, "they are not good in the long run if authors and publishers are no longer willing to assume the risk of creating and producing the kind of quality and selection consumers currently enjoy."

The American Booksellers Association sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that it investigate practices by the retailers in question that it believes constitute illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers. “If left unchecked, these predatory pricing policies will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to maintain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public, and will allow the few remaining mega booksellers to raise prices to consumers unchecked.”

Bill Petrocelli, co-owner of Book Passage in San Francisco and Corte Madera, California explains, “Predatory pricing is a means of driving other booksellers out of business. When this happens, the choice of books is one of the first things to suffer. Some readers think that if their favorite store closes they can always buy the book they want somewhere else. But that's a dangerous delusion -- the books they want may not be there at all. In fact, these types of disruptions in how books are sold or distributed have a profound effect on what publishers decide to publish in the first place.”

Now it’s time for you to make a decision. What is best for you, your reading habits, and your community? Isn’t it bad enough that these online retailers divert sales from your local businesses and wipe out the sales tax your community so desperately needs? Do you really want them deciding what you can and can not read in the future?

My Life in Video

I missed posting last week and for this I apologize, although, given the choice, I would do it all over again. For years my sister attended the Women of Faith Conference in St. Paul, MN. This year she wanted to share the experience with me. Two days away from the store and my family! This was a big step for me, but one I reluctantly took. And I’m thankful I did!

There was a terrific lineup of speakers and musicians including Steven Curtis Chapman , Patsy Clairmont , Lisa Harper , and Marilyn Meberg. My sister especially enjoyed Sheila Walsh as she discussed letting go and is currently reading the book.

I admit, after hearing Lisa Whelchel, The Facts of Life theme song swam through my head the rest of the weekend, but the performance I most enjoyed would have to be by Anita Renfroe. She really hit home. In fact, the way she described her life, it could have been my life. You’ll just have to watch and see what I’m talking about.

Library Community

The Concord Public Library, like many other libraries, couldn’t afford to purchase all the books they wanted due to budget cuts. So they began thinking outside the box and came up with a creative idea. Why not post a wish list so that patrons could purchase books to be donated to the library? It would be convenient for the customers and the library would receive the exact books they needed.

Great idea! If only they would have spent a little more time thinking about how to implement it. According to the owner of Gibson's Bookstore, Michael Herrmann, “The reason they had the problem was budget cuts, which are due to less revenue coming into the city…" Kind of a no-brainer, right? Apparently not.

The library director chose to post their wish list, not at the local independent bookstore, not even at the nearest chain bookstore, but online at the biggest competitor of these locals. “Their strategy to combat (the budget cuts) was basically to send money out of town. There seemed to be a real disconnect there…” Herrmann sent in a message to the people on his store's e-mail list, “In requesting donations through a national retailer, the city had neglected its traditional community partners while promoting a rival who neither pays city taxes nor employs city workers… In short, if you try to support the library by buying books from (online retailer), you are actually harming the library in small but significant ways."

Herrmann found another solution. He included links to the list of desired books in the e-mail and asked for potential donors to choose the titles they would like to buy. The list, which was posted online for a month and sold four books, was completely filled within 24 hours through Gibson’s. Herrmann then sent out a list of books requested for the Penacook branch and those were sold as well. Not too surprising since the customers of the local independent bookstores and the patrons of the local libraries are most likely one and the same. As librarian Brian Herzog points out, “Library communities are not just the people who come through the door, and certainly not just the people who visit the website. When libraries reach out to the community, we have to go to where the community is, and not just wait for them to come to us.”

After the feedback the library received over their decision, they now include the local bookstores when posting their wish lists.

Have a Little Faith

It's finally here!

Mitch Albom’s first non-fiction since Tuesdays with Morrie was released this week and it does not disappoint. Have a Little Faith begins with a request from his childhood rabbi that Albom deliver his Eulogy. Needing a deeper understanding of the man behind the mission, he is brought back to the world of faith he left behind years ago. Albom also meets a convict turned pastor and soon realizes there are more similarities between Christian and Jewish faith than he thought possible. This is not a book about religion, but about the comfort of finding something to believe in. I am a fan of all this author's work, and this one is no different.

"That's why I do this!"

Tracy Ertl, publisher and owner of TitleTown Publishing, hand delivered my order of Torture at the Back Forty and Bodyguard to the Packers for the Mike Dauplaise’s book signing next month. Now that’s what I call customer service! One independent business taking care of another.

We had a very informational and enjoyable conversation about publishing, selling, and the book business in general. I was curious how Tracy, a former police reporter and current public safety dispatcher, began her career in publishing – especially specializing in the true crime genre. I must admit, I have never been a fan of true crime. How can authors exploit the victims and their families in that way? Boy, did I have a lot to learn! Tracy, a survivor herself, has made it her goal to educate about crime and the survival of it. Her purpose, and that of the authors she publishes, is to help readers come to a deeper understanding of the victims and make sure they are never forgotten.

The true story of the pool table rape and murder of Margaret Anderson. Left for dead, practically beheaded in a manure pile, Margaret fights for life. But in the end the single mother leaves behind a son. Author Dauplaise practically makes Margaret blow a breath at readers as he recreates the night she was killed. He then takes readers to the place she was trying to escape back to, her home state of Montana and finally on the investigative hunt of a lifetime as this America's Most Wanted drama ends with the capture of her killer five years later.
From the back of Torture at the Back Forty


What did you think of the inside cover of Torture at the Back Forty? Tracy wondered. Sheepishly I admitted not even opening the book. I had a few copies pass in and out of the store, but really had no desire to more than glance at them. Without reproach she slit the carton in front of us, placed a copy in my hand and expectantly watched as I read the short blurb. “That’s why I do this!” she exclaimed with pride as the goose bumps ran up my arms, “Isn’t it amazing that a book can have that kind of impact?”

No, I am not going to tell you what the single sentence said, you’ll have to pick up the book, but I will tell you that I just got the same reaction reading it again.

Shh...

I’m currently engrossed in a book that has captured my attention so completely that I came into work an hour late twice this week. Well, late for me, still an hour before we actually open. It’s a book I’m psyched about discussing and sharing. So, what’s the title? I can’t tell you. . . or I may have to kill you.

Not really, but sometimes it feels that way. You see, the book hasn’t been released yet. Many publishers send booksellers advance reading copies to generate excitement. Once in awhile a single book will arrive in the mail that I feel honored to have in my possession before anyone else. More often than not they include a note from the publisher or wonder of all wonders, the author himself! Unfortunately, they always misspell my name. My name is spelled with a C. Many acquaintances spell it with a K. You would think book people would be able to get my name right, but they never come close. Dear Reader or Bookseller isn’t even close to Dear Cathy! My excitement over the coveted title allows me to forgive easily enough.

The question I struggle with is whether or not to review a book before the release date. Who does that really benefit? Possibly the evil A, but not likely independent bookstores. Other than the Harry Potter and Twilight set, not many orders come before publication. Is it possible that customers don’t realize they can order from independent bookstores and receive that highly anticipated book on the release date without paying shipping? No! It can’t be! Not with all the promoting we do – signs in the store, blurbs in our newsletters, offers to order anything we don’t have in stock. There must be some other mysterious reason.

For now, I will keep my latest and greatest find to myself. At least until I finish the book to make sure the ending lives up to my extremely high standards. However, if you happen to guess the title of the November release, I may reveal the truth...