AOL's Book Maven

Greetings, Online Book Fair participants and visitors, and thanks for reading my blog -- I hope you'll take a minute or three to visit AOL Books and AOL Coaches (for self-help books and life coaches), too.

I wanted to take a minute or three of my own today to consider something I've talked to many people in the publishing industry about over the past few years. Back in the day, when independent booksellers stalked the earth (and there are still a hardy and wonderful few left), we bibliophiles revered the "handseller," meaning the bookstore owner or employee who could personally and enthusiastically recommend titles. These widely and well-read men and women could often change a person's life with their suggestions.

While people tend to snicker inappropriately at the word "handseller" today, it's too bad we've lost them. But I think we may have replaced them to some degree with... bloggers like yours truly.

I want to add more about this, but first: do you completely disagree? Agree? I'd love to hear your opinions before I go on at length.

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• #6 Comment from katepeppr 
  10/6/06 2:44 PM | Permalink

  I'll weigh in as an author.  This is an interesting discussion with no easy answers.  I have found that "handselling" occurs wherever there's an enthusiastic, passionate reader who loves a book.  Yes, independent bookstores tend to be staffed by true readers who are eager to share tips on great books.  But I have also found these people on staff at major bookstores.  For example, every time one of my novels gets published, I get an e-mail from a manager at one specific Barnes & Noble telling me how she's displaying my book this time (her personal choices for displaying it, beyond whatever the publisher has arranged for "coop" space on the shelves), how the book is selling and what people in her store are saying.  So it's fair to say that she "handsells" my books, all on her own, with no one asking. On the other hand, I walked into a well-known and much-revered independent bookstore this summer and, finding none of my books in the store, introduced myself with the hope that they would stock some...and I got a really chilling cold shoulder from the young clerk.  Both situations might be a little unusual, but I wanted to mention them as a way of saying that it really is all about people, individuals, wherever you find them, in any kind of store, online, off-line, wherever.  But it's definitely safe to say that word of mouth is now and has always been the most potent sales force for any book, and bloggers have the best-ever tool--the Internet--to talk up (or talk down) a book.
  
  Kate Pepper
  ONE COLD NIGHT, Penguin/NAL, 2006
  www.katepepper.com
  
• #5 Comment from tlent 
  10/6/06 7:04 AM | Permalink

  Don't forget that librarians recommend books everyday!  And best yet, the books are FREE!  Seriously, the reason I became a librarian was to share my love of books with others and, 17 years later, nothing gives me greater joy than finding the right book for the right person!
• #4 Comment from bkpatrick04 
  10/5/06 4:24 PM | Permalink

  Amy, I do indeed answer questions from readers, and I apologize for never having responded to your emails. I just checked my email and found out that yours and several others had landed in my spam box, which I rarely check on the bookmaven2005 account. My apologies! Now, onward: I am going to send you a detailed reply about how I choose books, but want to make sure you know about this page on AOL:
  
  http://blackvoices.aol.com/black_entertainment/books_excerpts_reviews_bestsellers
  
• #3 Comment from livingbooklover 
  10/5/06 2:24 PM | Permalink

  My small hometown did not have a bookstore, so I never had exposure to "handsellers".  For the millions out there who do not live near a bookstore, bloggers and others who share on forums or email lists, are a total blessing.  There are many, many wonderful old books that I never would have known had it not been for someone online sharing about them.
  
  Our family currently has a library of 4,000 out-of-print children's books and a new bookselling business because of those online "booksellers".
  
  Even though it would have been nice to know a handseller in a fine bookstore, I would not trade it for the online world and its benefits.
  
  ~ Elaine Smith
  
  http://booksellingblog.com
  
• #2 Comment from terrywhalin 
  10/5/06 1:39 PM | Permalink

  Hello Bethanne,
  
  Maybe I'm a jaded book editor--but I AM a blogger--and I think blogs are great for exposure about books--but bloggers are NOT booksellers IMHO.
  
  I recall a book that bloggers were talking about recently in great detail. This novel rose above Harry Potter on Technorati for a day or two. Yet when I checked on the sales with the editor at this publisher--the results were dismal. That particular novel is not selling nor has it appeared on any bestseller list of any shape or form. So...a lot of talk on the blogs but that doesn't necessarily translate into sales for the author.
  
  But bloggers as the new booksellers? That's a bit of an exaggeration/ hyperbole or whatever other word you want to stick in there. It's sort of like P.T. Barnum calling people outside to step in and see the egress. Suckers were born all the time--and the people saw the egress--as they left the circus.
  
  My two cents--and I support blogging with over 500 entries on my blog (and searchable).
  
  
  
  Terry
  _____________________________
  W. Terry Whalin, Editor / Writer
  Scottsdale, Arizona
  
  Learn about Terry's Writing Life at:
  http://www.thewritinglife.ws/
  
  Author Book Proposals That Sell:
  http://www.right-writing.com/ways.html