any other booksellers out there?

[Sparky]

whoa.
I'm a moderator?
I thought this would be a cool way for those that work with books to network about books! and with each other. To read books is human, to sell them, divine. Well, maybe that's going too far. I hope people find this and sign up!

[Peggy]

Hi Sparky! I'm a bookseller in Texas. Where are you?

[Beth]

Hi Y'all! I'm also a bookseller in Texas (Dallas). Has anyone ever been asked who wrote the Diary of Ann Frank? (It happened to me, no joke.)

[Sparky]

hey ya'll! I'm originally from the Florida gulf coast, but I've lived in Bloomington for four years. I worked at a small local bookstore for 3 years and then quit more or less to work at my current job. No, I've surprisingly never been asked the "diary of" question, but we did get a shirtless man asking if we could "kick down" a t-shirt for him to wear. I'm new on here, and excited to see people who are interested in the actual selling of books. As a job, it can get pretty weird..more than other people might expect. Let me know what you guys want to talk about, or if you just want to share something that happened in your day. I just wanted to see where this might go if I created a space for it. <3

[Peggy]

I'm in Austin, and I've been with this bookstore (a large independent) for 13 years. I worked at a different bookstore (mall chain store) for 2 years before that. I've never gotten the diary question, but I have had a customer who, upon hearing from the front desk by the doors that the book he was looking for was on the second floor, asked, "What floor am I on?"

[Ellis]

Best question I ever received was "Do you guys have that red book here?". I kid you not! And believe it or not, I actually knew what he was asking for. For the life of me, I can't remember the title (this was in 1992 or 93) but it was a book that had been featured in the local paper. It was a book about sex and for days people had been shyly buying it or asking about it. But of course I had to play dumb and ask if he could remember what the book was about, who the author was, any of the words in the title... I know, it was mean, but a girl has to have SOME fun at work!!

[Beth]

Hahaha. That's funny. My friend got a phone call once around back to school time and they said "Do you have the Bible by James King?" I wish it had happened to me...

[Melissa]

Hi all - My name is Melissa and I'm a bookseller at a Borders in Boston. We get some crazy people too. Last week we got a call from a guy with this really thick accent who wanted us to find the latest Almanac. Did he want this put on hold? No...of course not. He just wanted us to find out the population of three different countries as it was sure to be in it. He tried four different booksellers before finally someone got fed up and transferred him to a manager who told him never to call the store again.

[Beth]

hahaha

[Megan]

Hey everyone. I'm a bookseller at an independent feminist/progressive/kids' bookstore in Minneapolis. My favorite request was a customer looking for a book that was maybe about love...

[Lisa]

I have been a bookseller at an independent bookstore in Upstate New York for more than 20 years. I try to impress upon new hires that the customers' info about a book is almost always wrong. It is not written by someone whose name starts with S, it does not have the word 'love' in the title and it is a memoir not a novel! That being said, I love the look on people's faces when you hand them said book despite the erroneous info.

Actually my favorite part of the job by far is turning someone on to a title they would never have found otherwise. Water For Elephants was one of those as was A Girl Named Zippy.

[Erin]

How about a book with a blue cover? Where would those be? I swear, sorting the store by cover color is an ingenious idea! That or by television program appeared on. God forbid we sort by genre and author! That is crazy!

[Suzanne]

Hey everyone, I am a member of the AK Press publishing/distro collective in the bay area. (Hi Sparky!) I also used to work at a couple of bookstores in Minneapolis (Hi Megan!). Awesome.

[Nia]

Hi!

I'm a bookseller from Germany (Munich). It's really funny to read that american customers seem to be not very different from german ones. Always searching for books with blue covers, too. *g*

[Abbeville]

Hey all!

We're a NYC-based independent publishing company looking to network with some independent booksellers. Mainly, we'd love to feature your bookstores in our blog, but would love to do more if that is at all possible.

I, myself, enjoy independent bookstores and would love to find out about more locations, for both Abbeville and my own interest.

If you're interested, do drop me a line here on GoodReads.

Thanks!

[Mary]

Hi! I'm a bookseller in Ohio. Our shop celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year! Sorry, can't contain the glee...

Gotta share this too: have you all seen my favorite online comic strip, www.unshelved.com ? It's set in a library, but you know they feel our pain... They were at BookExpo this year too. Nice guys.

[Stacy]

Hi everyone I've worked at A Borders in Fresno Ca for over five years now. I love those vague questions.
Here's a great one that happened a while ago:
"Where is that book you had in the front of the store about a year ago."
"Do you know the title or author"
With an attitude "NO"
"Do you know what it was about"
"I think it was about Abraham Lincoln"
"I'm sorry I really can't look something up unless I have a little more information. I can show you the section where we carry books on Lincoln."
"This is ridiculous I'm going to Barnes & Nobel."
a few minutes later I got a call from Barnes & Nobel and they were helping that person and they asked me the same questions the customer did. It was funny because you could tell they were just as irritated as I was. I don't think the customer found their random stupid book on Lincoln.


oh one more thing this was totally me being spastic too. I showed a gentlemen, a very nice one too, to the history section. I had my hands held in front of me and showed him the section he wanted. he was standing a little behind me and to the side. I let go of my hands in front of me and swung them back when I was getting ready to leave. (My hand was totally in a cupped form)My arms swung and I totally smacked his ahemmm with a cupped hand. Yeah I was mortified and I said I'm sorry I'm sorry he was really cool and he just smiled and sad thats ok. Yeah I was made fun of at work for almost a month after that. I also got a customer service award. I go above and beyond to service my customers heehee.

[Lisa]

90 Book-related events a year? I am impressed! I love handselling one-on-one, but I hate doing events. Events at our original store are never very successful though our 2nd store which has a very different demographic does well with them. That is mostly because the owner's daughter (now partner) runs that store and she is an enthusiastic dynamo. Geez, am I getting old or what?

[Lisa]

I have been reading a new book by a bookseller about a bookseller and am really enjoying it.
HOUND by Vincent McCaffrey (Small Beer Press)
Henry Sullivan is a used book dealer working out of his apartment via the internet. When a series of natural deaths turn his mind to the subject, he begins to re-examine his life. Then a former lover and high powered literary agent is murdered shortly after Henry has been with her.

McCaffrey juggles a number of sub-plots smoothly while never losing sight of the engrossing main thread. His characters are utterly believable and behave believably. I hate when the main character in a mystery does really stupid things to try and solve the mystery undermining the police investigation and putting themselves in danger. Henry takes a much more intelligent approach.

I loved this book!

[Sheila]

Hello everyone. I'm no longer a bookseller, but boy do I remember what it was like. I hope it hasn't changed to much in the last two years. And if it has I hope it was for the better.