From Inside the Bookstore

I mentioned in an earlier post that I work part-time at an independent bookstore. Along with helping with the book order, it's been an absolute delight to connect with readers and take part in the actually selling of books.

It never ceases to amaze me what draws a person in, what attracts them to the book, and what determines the sale.

Most book sales, in our store, occur when a customer walks in knowing exactly what book he/she wants. (Thank you publicity and marketing.) In conjunction with that, if I'm recommending a book it almost always sells if the person says, "Oh, someone was telling me about that one." (Thank you someone!)

The second most common book sale results from a customer checking out their favorite author and finding an unread book.

The third most common is a browser being attracted to a cover. The cover is looked at first, then the back. Less and less, I notice them actually opening the cover and reading inside it. This surprises me as I never buy a book without reading the first few paragraphs.

Another interesting phenomenon I see has to do with Christian fiction. Fans will come in and drool over top selling authors, swear their dedication, tell me about the books they've read by this author, but never actually purchase a book. Some of the top names in the industry haven’t sold a copy. The reason I keep hearing is "Oh, they've got it at my church library so I don’t have to buy it." (For some reason, Dekker and Peretti seem to be immune to this phenomenon.) This can be good for other CBA authors though, because their books are the ones shopped instead.

It's also interesting to see why someone refuses to buy a book. For example, someone turned away an incredible book (Year of Wonders) simply because it wasn't thick enough. She only buys books in excess of 300-400 pages, so she's getting her money's worth. It didn't matter that Ms. Brooks is a Pulitzer winner. It wasn't long enough.

My last observation, though I am uncertain who will be interested in this one, is that someone should fight for better Jane Austin covers. If I were her, I'd come back and haunt publishers until they gave my books a face lift. I noticed this state of matters while trying to decide which of her books to stock in conjunction with the upcoming movie "Being Jane." Most of her books were mass-market and/or looked like required reading for high school students. (Either that or they feature the actors from the movie—and as a book lover I don't want the cover of a DVD on my novel.)

Since her novels are classics, most of the major of publishers "carry" her novels. And that's where it gets tricky. While I may like the cover of Pride and Prejudice from one publisher, I'll have an extreme dislike of the cover of Sense and Sensibility from the exact same publisher, and Mansfield's Park is even worse. What ends up happening is a hodge-podge of Jane Austin books. There is no pretty set of Jane Austin novels from what I've seen. Even the spinoff novels from her work have superior covers. Why can't Jane's books look like:

After all, they were originally her characters. Why should she get stuck with lesser of the two?

Well, that's it for now from side of the book world. Thanks for reading!