Who's Your Author? discussion
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Off Topic Rant
Your only mistake is not notifying management. You should immediately call and ask for the store manager. Tell them what happened, what date and time you were shopping, and what your clerk looked like. I'm SURE they would want to know, and make sure they understand you left without completing your purchase.
I've had clerks be very quiet while checking me out, and I've had some lovely ones exchange genre notes and preferences while taking my money. But I've never had a rude one make crass comments about my reading preferences or potential purchases.
I've had clerks be very quiet while checking me out, and I've had some lovely ones exchange genre notes and preferences while taking my money. But I've never had a rude one make crass comments about my reading preferences or potential purchases.
I can't believe that nonsense!!! Even if she didn't like the books you were buying, YOU were buying them, not her!! That is ridiculous and you in no way overreacted.Sometimes when I go into bookstores, and am buying a book that may have a slightly ridiculous cover, I'm always afraid someone will say something. But no one ever has. I agree with Denni, you should definitely call up the store and ask to speak to a manager. You should point out how much you were about to spend, and that they lost it because of some ridiculous clerk!
I agree with Denni, I would have said what you said and more (WAY more) and notified management ASAP. That bitch would have been lucky to have kept her job when I was through. lol.Wow, cant believe that happened to you /hugs
Oh boy just reading your rant has my blood boiling. I have to agree with the first poster you did everything right except notifying management. I think you handled yourself very well in that sitch whereas I would have probably thrown one of the books at her.
Not to mention... those were all damn good books!!!
Don't people know it is rude to give an opinion that isn't asked for?
Rude and ignorant considering she probably haven't read anything in the paranormal genre to voice those opinions, b/c if she did she would know that HTTG is an excellent book/series. This is why I rarely shop at bookstores anymore, I mean the weird looks alone makes me want to yell at them but to have my selections belittled without asking would just push me over the top.
i haven't had a problem buying paranormal romance books with weird or hot covers. but i do feel for u Kelley Anne. what is it to her what u buy. iam a cashier and i get floored when customers spend 200 to 500 bucks on useless things but i never say a negative word. i will tell them what i like about what there buying if i want to say anything keep it positive. what that lady did was wrong.. and i would of did the same and asked for a manager. she so cant get away with making u feel like crap.. huge hugs..
i hope u got ur books.. and i hope that never happens to u again..
i hope u got ur books.. and i hope that never happens to u again..
Thanks! I feel a lot better knowing that I am not just overreacting! When I got home, I was talking to my mom on the phone and mentioned what had happened and she thought that I should have just ignored her!Anyways, I have now called the store and talked to a manager. I'll tell you about the conversation later. I just got home from work and need some sleep!
Ohh update!! I am curious to know what the manager had to say about his rude employee.
Well that's a little harsh....Maybe she should be forced to read some of the books. :)
Alright, maybe I was being a little mean, but I hate when people insult other people's book choices. grrr. :)
Bonnie wrote: "Maybe she should be forced to read some of the books. :)"I like that. The punishment should fit the crime.
And I can't imagine not loving HTTG, so it would probably gain Frost a fan. (Though she sounds like she might be a little... uptight? so maybe not.)
She's probably one of those repressed women... thankfully none of the men and women in this group are repressed. haha.
Kelly, you certainly had a reason to be pissed off. I would be very upset as well, like obsessing about it for a few days upset. I'm glad you walked out on her. It certainly gave her something to think about. Hopefully she won't be so quick to pass judgment next time. Btw, I haven't read all those books, but Halfway to the Grave & Kitty books were awesome ;*
i hope it went well when Kelley Anne talked to the manager cant wait to hear all about it.
I laughed out loud as I read your account, from shear familiarity with the scene.I'm a gamer, and in the past I have actually had a teller at a Walden books call me a Satanist for buying D&D books.
And, sadly, Twilight is the flavor of the month, so all paranormal/urban fantasy/vampire books are going to be judged in comparison to it for the next couple years. Just like all fantasy/magic themed books were compared to Harry Potter for a while.
This isn't to say that Twilight is bad, per se, but that this tendency of the non-reader general public to think only in terms of the current big thing is annoying and somewhat damaging.
I may be ranting now. :p
Anyway, yeah, that cashier just needs her brain reset manually. Like a faulty computer monitor, you just have to slap it until it starts working right.
Tiwaztyrsfist wrote: "Twilight is the flavor of the month, so all paranormal/urban fantasy/vampire books are going to be judged in comparison to it for the next couple years. This isn't to say that Twilight is bad, per se, but that this tendency of the non-reader general public to think only in terms of the current big thing is annoying and somewhat damaging."Sooooo true. There's nothing wrong with Twilight; it's an entertaining, addicting and very sweet little vampire love story. I'll admit to having read the whole series twice. But it is not the standard by which to judge the entire genre.
There are a lot of rabid Twilight fans out there that I'm pretty sure have never read a book in their lives. And it's great that Twilight is getting people reading, but sometimes it's irritating to hear the way they rave and rave and rave when they haven't ever sampled the myriad of other great books out there.
Oh, and Kelly Anne - anxiously awaiting to hear about your talk with the manager!
Nichole I totally agree with you.. as I am glad the twilight series is getting more people to read.. but I tired of people acting like its the only thing out there thats good.. and am definitely tired of people judging other vampire stories because they arent *like twilight*.
I think people assume that all the vampire books or werewolf books out there are supposed to be like twilight when in fact, the majority aren't like that at all! I mean, I love the books, but there's so many different types of sub-genres out there.I think the majority of Twilight readers are kids who aren't interested in the other types of books. And some of these books shouldn't even be read by kids lol, there's a lot of sex in them.
Sorry! This has been an absolutely CRAZY week and I just haven’t had much time to do more than peek at a few things on Goodreads. Ok, so about my call. I got a manager on the phone and started to explain to him what had happened. As expected, he started out as Mr. Politically Correct. Didn’t want to say that one of his employees had done something wrong, but also didn’t want to call me a liar. So, trying to appease me, he said that he was sure that it was just a misunderstanding and that he was sure that she hadn’t meant to offend me in any way. I let him know that I was offended. I also told him that I don’t really care what others think about my book choices, but if you are a sales person at a book store, and you don’t like my books, you need to just be quite and ring them up. The manager told me that he would be more than happy to assist me if I wanted to come in and purchase those books. I don’t think that he was happy when I said that I had already gotten them from their competitor. He claimed that he would have a “chat” with the employee. And that was it! Personally, I didn’t feel too appeased. I just think that customer service in this country is HORRIBLE!
Anyways, that’s it. Who knows if he actually talked to her. And if he did, who knows if she will make any changes. But, honestly, when it comes to a store and customer service, I tend to hold grudges. I probably wont be shopping there too much longer. My membership expires next month, and I wont be renewing it. I would much rather go somewhere else!
Sorry again that it took me so long to respond! I have been trying and trying to find the time to do lots of stuff on here. I think that I have about 20 books that I still haven’t even added to my bookshelves. Oh well, maybe this weekend!
I hope that he said something to her, and I personally wouldn't have been very appeased by what he said either. He basically didn't offer you anything except for you to spend money in his store. How ridiculous. I definitely wouldn't shop there any more either.
Wow, what a let down. An example of the importance of good on-site manager, even for a major national chainstore. Is there another B&N nearby? I'm lucky to live about equi-distance to 3 B&N, 2 Borders, and a HPB. And yes, management makes a noticable difference...one B&N is late getting out new releases, one is kinda snobby, and the other is usually just right!
But definately take your shopping dollars to the store with best customer service. Judgementalism is never appropriate when applied to the reading materials, hobbies, food, etc. of others!
But definately take your shopping dollars to the store with best customer service. Judgementalism is never appropriate when applied to the reading materials, hobbies, food, etc. of others!
The one that I went to was the most convient for where I usually shop, but there is another one pretty close to my house. As well as one Borders. You are lucky to have more than 1 borders nearby! I think that we have a total of 3 in my state but one of them is about 10 minutes from my house.
The only Borders around me are in Long Island.. but that doesn't bother me too much since I don't really like Borders. I think B&N is better.
I used to be a B&N girl, now I get to become a Borders girl. I moved. "My" mall is now the Mall of America. I can't really imagine going there every Tuesday, so Borders it is. As I didn't have the best shopping experience there tonight, I'm a bit iffy as far as my how my future in book buying is going to go.Your story about the judgmental employee made me laugh a little. After 4 years as an employee in a bookstore, I'm used to the judgmental customers. I can be as good of an employee as I want to be. However, reading EVERY book in existence is not in my job description (personal goals however...). These customers don't yell at me for what I was reading, but rather for what I was not reading.
EDIT: As a side note: I wonder what that employee does when people attempt to buy sex books from her?
Liz - she probably would refuse to take the customer!!
Simply refusing to take the customer would be a poor way to impart her belief system to them.
I have a new rant today, and what better place to talk about it then on this thread? So, about a week ago, someone on goodreads asked to be my friend. I didn't know who she was so I looked and she only had a couple of books. I just figured that she must be new to goodreads and probably saw me on either a group that she's joined or else from a comment that I made on a particular book. Well, I'm not too picky about the friends I make on here, so I accepted her invitation. In the last 3 days, she's invited me to join 23 different groups!!! It's getting annoying and I plan to remover her from my friends list today. I mean, if someone either just starts a group or finds a group that they truly think I might be interested in, I LOVE to get invitations for them. But when someone is inviting me to join all of these crazy groups, it's a bit annoying. Some of the groups that I was invited to are:Selena Gomez Fans (Who's Selena Gomez)
Fans of Bella!
The purple team
The blue team
We Love Taylor Swift
The Crazy People (yeah, she belongs in that group!)
Original Bobby Jack fans (Who's Bobby Jack)
Purple Stuff Rocks!!!
Silver and Gold Rocks!!!!
You know, I love that you can find a group on goodreads basically no matter what you like. But don't invite me to 5 million groups that don't have anything to do with any of the books that I've even listed! Or that's anywhere near the genre that I read! I mean, "purple stuff rocks!!!"??? What kind of group is that?!?
Anyways, thanks for letting me rant!
Sounds like a teen to me.I had someone send me a very odd message, no books at all anywhere, just wanted to be friends. Needless to say I didn't.
That is a crazy story! I would have been ticked too! You should have said "no normally I buy books about Satanic Worship but I'm feeling like a little light reading so I'm gonna try some vamps instead of the devil (then hissed like a vampire)." Then watched for her reaction.
Lol@KA that is why I always check the persons profile before accepting an invite
lol, I know! I thought that she was just new, but I guess that I should have looked and seen that she is a member of about 75 groups, most of them really odd ones!!! Oh well, I learned my lesson.
Lol still trying to figure out what Team Purple means
Just for the fun of it, I just pulled up the group. There are 2 discussion topics:* ummmm.....Top Favorite Colors! (Besides the lovely purple if you would like)
* How much do you like purple?
That's it. Oh, and there are 2 polls.
* Do you like purple?
*Who would like the world to be purple?
Wow! Someone is real creative! lol! I'm being sarcastic in case you couldn't tell!
Lol wow ! It's a shame I loved the color Black or that would be the perfect group for me.
Kelley Anne wrote: "I have a new rant today, and what better place to talk about it then on this thread? So, about a week ago, someone on goodreads asked to be my friend. I didn't know who she was so I looked and sh..."Kelley Ann, the same girl asked to be my friend as well and been bombarding me with the same group invitations! They are so stupid! I have been getting like 5 a day if not more. It is really annoying.
Rant? Oh I can rant! Get this, my name is Brien Jones and I have a publishing company, Jones Harvest Publishing. I have 800 clients and a PERFECT record with the BBB. Yet if you google Brien Jones or Jones Harvest Publishing there is all this terrible stuff about fraud and not printing books etc. ect. Why? Because one disgruntled ex-employee and one author are spreading it like wildfire. Of course all the self-publishing blogs didn't actually ask anyone anything. They just picked it up and ran with it!
Kelley Anne wrote: "Just for the fun of it, I just pulled up the group. There are 2 discussion topics:* ummmm.....Top Favorite Colors! (Besides the lovely purple if you would like)
* How much do you like purple?..."
That's why I now have a question that is asked when people request to be my friend. Then I look over their profile and look at their books and their groups.
I've had too many weird people try to be friends with me.
LOL the purple group... that's too funny. People can be quite strange.
Nichole wrote: "rave and rave and rave when they haven't ever sampled the myriad of other great books out there. "I was in one of the twilight groups the other day and one of the topics were Vampire Cop-Cats! I went on there and what they were saying shocked me! One girl said that Vampire Kisses copied twilight! I had a big go at her because V.K came out 2 years BEFORE twilight!
There next topic was: Do people hate twilight because of the characters, I went on. And halfway through they started saying things like 'people who dont like twilight cant read' and 'there just jeoulse that edward doesnt like them' And of course being me I had another go at them for it too, and now its getting ugly!
Anyway theres my rant, sorry but they annoyed me so much!
On the bookstore situation, I would not have been able to refrain from making a scene. I would have been getting my loud and bitchy on, with some sarcasm thrown in to make her feel two feet tall. And, I've never read Twilight, but doesn't sex pretty much result in cannibalism by baby? Hmn, yes. Certainly a moral standard I hope all books live up to. (Not bashing Twilight, but that is some pretty extreme and gruesome imagery.) Even more hilarious since Frost's covers are pretty tame. Cat is generally fully clothed and not all tramp-stamped.
I've found that B&N in NY generally employs open-minded people. Or at least indifferent folks. When I turned two of my friends on to the Dark Hunters, they both ran out to buy the series. They went to two different stores, and both of them had the experience of the cashier gushing over their own personal love of the Dark Hunters. If anyone had treated us the way you were treated, we would have had the woman's head on a platter. And written to corporate.
Grrr.
As for the random friending, it does sound like a teen. I'm a big fan of the "compare books" button. It's a useful tool.
And for the publisher with the bad rap, I certainly hope you've written emails/formal letters to the bloggers and asked for removals or retractions, or at least the chance to counter the accusations. Terrible how one person's vendetta can affect your overall portrayal.
Ah, life. This is why I just hate everyone equally and go along my merry way.
:)
Oh my god, I love purple!!But...what else is there to say. I don't need a group.
I raise my granddaughter whose 11, so I get a liberal dose of disney radio and tv, thus, I know who all those people are (except billy jack). the only billyjack I know of is the white guy who was a big wanna be indian in a 70s rebellion show.
Wierd stuff. Im guessing the person who friended you is a "tween'.
Shrug, what can you say.
Ellen - loved your comments about the Twilight group! I mean, personally I loved the Twilight series. It was the series that first got me hooked on vamps and werewolves, but since then I've read so many fantastic UF/PNR series that I wouldn't say Twilight is my favorite. The problem with Twilight is that so many teen are obsessed with the series and they just can't seem to think rationally about other people's reactions to it! I can easily see how your comments caused quite a stir. Actually, if you'd let me know which of the million and one Twilight groups you put the comments on, I'd love to check it out. Back you up a bit! lol! Michelle - I'm glad that the bookstores in your area seem to hire more open minded people. Honestly, most of the people that I have encountered at bookstores are either indifferent about what I'm getting or else like you said, comment about how good the book is. Unfortunatly though, were I live (although I love it in many ways!) there are a lot of judgemental people that assume that it's their responsibility to comment on everything! I really should have written to corporate, but I didn't ever get the ladies name.
Lily, that's about all that I can say about my favorite color too, which isn't purple, it's pink.
Do haters go into that group, screaming in all CAPS that purple is for wussies and black beats purple's butt?Bizarre.
lol. I've had different experiences in bookstores. I guess it depends on the open-mindedness of the cashier. Sometimes they just ignore me (because why should they care?? lol), others say oh that's good, and I have also gotten the covert looks and widening of the eyes.lol Michelle I like your comment that you dislike everyone equally. I agree. I don't like people at all.
PS Purple sucks!
Boy, do I agree with the people assessment! As the saying goes, the more I know people, the more I like my dogs!
Who's Your Author?
Books mentioned in this topic
My Sister's Keeper (other topics)The Kite Runner (other topics)
Among the Barons (other topics)
Pure Blood (other topics)
Among the Betrayed (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Sherrilyn Kenyon (other topics)Jeaniene Frost (other topics)
Carrie Vaughn (other topics)
Margaret Peterson Haddix (other topics)
Caitlin Kittredge (other topics)
Ok, so yesterday was payday. As I am sure some of you understand, if payday was yesterday, that means that it’s time to make a trip to the book store! Now the book stores in my area make a LOT of money off of me. I am not a fan of libraries, don’t like used books, and have never broken down and gotten a Kindle. So, anyways, I go to the book store, and had quite a good pile of books that I had grabbed: Pure blood Nocturne City by Caitlin Kittredge, Among the Betrayed and Among the Barons by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn and Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. Personally, I think that if I was a cashier at a book store, and someone walked up to me with that many books, maybe, just maybe, they are a good customer, and you should perhaps be nice to them! Now enters “Miss Judgmental”!
Now, first a note. I have worked a number of customer service jobs, in a variety or environments. So, I am usually extremely nice to customer service employees. But at the same time, I know the difference between good, bad, and horrendous customer service. So, back to my rant! I figured that I had enough books to keep me busy for a bit, so I take them all up to the cash register. There is a very friendly looking, smiling, middle aged women standing behind the register. The first thing she asks me is if I am a member of their membership program. “Why yes I am”. (This would be one of those programs that you have to pay a yearly fee for and you better buy a lot of books throughout the year or else it’s not worth the money. So, another hint to this “nice” cashier that I probably buy a lot of books!) So, I hand over my nice little pile, and Halfway to the Grave is sitting on the top of the stack. The cashier, “Miss Judgmental”, picks the book up and gives it this look. I’m not quite sure how to describe the expression that was on her face other than to say that it seemed like she couldn’t believe that she was even touching this book! With a sneer in her voice, she asked me if this was a vampire book. With a smile on my face, I tell her that it is. “Well, this certainly looks like a very different (stress different) type of vampire than the ones in Twilight,” was her response. I’ll admit that I was pretty speechless for a few seconds, not a common occurrence, as many thoughts went through my head. Are all vampire books supposed to be like Twilight? Since when did Twilight become the book that all other vamp books had to be compared to? Would I for even a second want all vamp books to be alike, let alone all like Twilight? I kinda hesitantly (mind still asking me questions) said “No, not at all like Twilight, but then, most vamp books aren’t.” “Miss Judgmental” comes back with, “Well, this doesn’t look like a very good book!” Hmmm….are we maybe, just maybe, “Judging a book by it’s cover”? I kinda look around for a second, thinking, I did walk into a book store, right. I mean, they are supposed to be selling me books, not telling me what NOT to buy! At this point, my patience with “Miss Judgmental” is getting pretty thin! She then has the NERVE to ask me (with a disbelieving expression on her face), “do you really like these types of books?” “Well, considering that 4 of the 6 books that I am ATTEMPTING to buy are about either vampires or werewolves, I’d have to say, Yes! I do like that type of book!” The disbelieving sneer still on her face, “Really?” My patience exploded! “Since you seem so much more interested in critiquing my book choices rather than actually selling me a book, you can just go right ahead and continue. Of course, I wont be here. I will be 2 doors down at the book store that will actually sell me some books rather than be judgmental bitches! You can go ahead and just keep those!” And I walked out.
I was shocked! I mean, give me a freaking break! Even if you are not at all interested in that genre, who cares! All that you have to do is ring the freaking things up and keep your mouth shut! I have absolutely no problem with people that don’t like my taste in books. And if you want to have a friendly debate on the merits of different genres and such, sounds like fun. But when you look at me and look at my books and act like that, that is crossing a huge line!
Do you agree? Did I overreact?