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March 18, 2009
From Buzz to Sting
A few days ago, I was watching a twittersation for a while from the sidelines. The conversation was about the variable performance of a big-house literary novel from store to store. One bookseller had issued a lament that the book in question had not moved well. Several of others responded that, because the novel had struck a warm chord in the heart of one or more staff members, their stores had, in contrast, been able to sell the book in strong numbers.
There was a subsequent discussion (which I was more directly involved in) about the relationship of buyer enthusiasm and the actual performance of an individual title. We didn't talk about the myriad cases in which a buyer's enthusiasm doesn't make it to the floor—a function of time more than distance, I think. But during that exchange it was suggested that handselling opportunities are limited. One serious limitation, it was said, is imposed by the demographics of the community a store serves. This makes good sense to me when we’re talking about nonfiction. I understand, too, that some communities might be more easily drawn to genre fiction, say, than to quieter, less-formulaic forms of storytelling. One twitterer pointed out that edgier fiction (or poetry) just isn't going to sell in every community. And I can certainly see that there are places where handselling a literary novel just won’t work.
Still, what came clear amongst hands (as my grandmother would have said) is that if selling a particular novel matters to someone on the bookstore floor, then that book simply has a better chance of moving through. Again, I’m talking here about a novel that doesn’t have a celebrity author, a novel that potential readers might not come into the store specifically to find. That is, it came clear to me that in these days the emphasis everywhere in bookselling needs to be on active selling. I guess that's obvious. And, of course, successful booksellers know this instinctually and by long experience. But this independent publisher must be retaught every changing season how to help the process along for our buzzing books. Social media do seem a promising tool for accomplishing this (at least for this season or two or three), but already it’s awfully loud in Twitterland.
We all know that reviews no longer do it. In any case, there aren’t many reviews anymore. And off-the-book-page coverage is awfully rare—because it's harder to find pages of any kind these days. So, what is the situation for fiction right now? Especially for debut fiction. As the once-strong Axis of The Big House / The MSM / The Chains focuses more tightly on what they (collectively) think of as The Sure Thing, must every other novel, even in the independent store, actually be handsold? Eventually, the narrowing focus might cause the full-blown rebirth of browsing in the indies. But are we there yet?
Pondering all this I was reassured (again) that if enough stores are handselling the same novel, then independent booksellers can still “make” a book. One of the enthused booksellers in the original conversation had moved 33 copies of the novel in question. Multiply that by the members of the ABA with sizable adult fiction inventory and, fed by what the twitterers were calling "staff love," the influence of independent booksellers on the world of fiction publishing would only grow and be constantly refreshed—just by focusing with enthusiasm on what readers might not yet have heard of.
As I said, I'm never sure how an independent publisher might help foster that multiplication. But we'll keep trying.
I do know that a handseller can’t sell just any novel to just any customer or handsell every book at hand (as it were). And I know it would be foolish for a buyer to stock only books that he or she loves. But just looking and listening to the most engaged booksellers around, I re-learn daily that bookselling now is a more active (and difficult) profession than ever. I guess nothing comes easy right now. And certainly it's a hard row when—with the exception of a tiny handful of titles each year—a store must consider itself fortunate to sell a copy of a novel that no one on the floor has actively sold.
So here's to the enthusiasm of booksellers. It's a pleasure to watch them at work.
Posted in: Publishers Blog, | Keywords: publishers blog
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Comments
Indeed, watching booksellers at work is one of my favorite things ever.
One of the smartest buyers I know told me that he buys not so much on what he likes or what he thinks the community will like, as much as on what his booksellers can sell and recommend. I think that’s an important difference that is often overlooked.
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Bingo! Few communities are so homogenous that there aren’t 10 readers in any given community for most books. The question is, is there a staff member motivated enough to be the one to do the communicating on its behalf?
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A book buyer once told me that his floor sales staff once complained that he “bought to much.” His reply was “you don’t sell enough.” I love working on the floor when I get the chance to get out of the office. There is nothing more satisfying than putting one of my favorite books in the hands of someone who’ll appreciate it. It also gives me the chance to see if I’m buying “too much” of the wrong stuff (things I think will sell) vs. what the booksellers are actually trying to handsell- the “right stuff.”
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Posted by Drew Goodman 03/18 07:31 PM