Author: Marissa DeCuir

A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent. Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.

Ask an Expert: How to Make the Most of Your IngramSpark Listing

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

If you’ve published with IngramSpark, or if you’re considering it, you may be wondering how to capitalize on this publishing method to your advantage. Today on the blog, IngramSpark representative Deon McAdoo is giving us the answers. Deon promotes growth to the IngramSpark platform by educating independent authors and publishers on how best to utilize Ingram’s Print-On-Demand services for bringing a new book to market and maximizing global sales. Today’s he’s sharing that insight with us!

What are ways authors can make the most of their IngramSpark listing, both free and paid?

Making sure you have the most robust metadata will help boost an author’s discoverability. Also, investing in Facebook, Google, and Amazon ads will increase traffic to your listing.

What’s the most common mistake debut authors and new publishers make in setting up their publishing account?            

Setting their returns status. Many authors will set their books as returnable without fully understanding that they are responsible for paying back Ingram for the wholesale cost of their book.  Also, they forget there is an additional $3 per book delivery charge if the book is set as return-deliver. 

What if I’m an author just wanting to publish a story for family and friends–is there anything I should do differently or perhaps consider skipping when it comes to publishing?

You can use IngramSpark as a printer to print the necessary copies you need for your family and friends. This option allows the author to make more money by selling directly to their consumers.

What are some new developments at IngramSpark that authors should know about and get excited for?

Our new reporting suite has been a long time coming, and we’re almost ready to release our new dashboard to all IngramSpark users. The updated dashboard includes new dynamic graphs, an IngramSpark Subject Sales Rank, heat map by region, and so much more.

Can I set up my print book with IngramSpark and other Self-Publishing services?

IngramSpark has a non-exclusive contract. You can publish your book through IngramSpark where we print and sell it through our global distribution network. Also, you can publish your book with any other self-publishing platform as long as you own your ISBN.

An interview with Danielle King of Left Bank Books

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

1. What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

It has always been the basement lol. Under normal circumstances – we’re undergoing some downstairs construction and renovation due to some recent flooding – Left Bank is a two-story bookstore, with a robust and lively upstairs, and a quieter downstairs area that houses our used book department and the science fiction/fantasy collection. SFF takes up ⅔ of the longest wall in the room, and I have spent hours, as both customer and employee of Left Bank, perusing the shelves. It feels like you’ve found something a little secret the first time you walk downstairs, and you are immediately confronted with our graphic novel section, which presents an apt visual transition to the fantastic worlds depicted on the covers in the sci-fi/fantasy section. There’s usually a table with some chairs adjacent to the section, so you are welcomed to sit with those covers, to open them, to take a glimpse at a possible future.

2. What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I genuinely try to get away with facing out every single book by (MacArthur Genius) NK Jemisin, and I love that our backlist buyer/merchandiser Randy is so willing to let me get away with it. The art is so striking, and often a bit gothic, and gives you somehow not very much but also a tremendous amount about the story it represents. I also am nothing short of obsessed with the cover of They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by (MacArthur Genius) Hanif Abdurraqib. I mean, it’s a wolf in a track suit and a chain, somehow both approachable and containing a warning, and I can’t think of a better visual metaphor for the wonderful and devastating prose that the book contains.

3. If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

God’s Children Are Little Broken Things (Arinze Ifeakandu) is this remarkable, heart-rending collection of short stories about (mostly) queer men in modern urban Nigeria, and it broke my heart with characters who are desperate for acceptance, but willing to take so much less.

White Teeth (Zadie Smith) & The Secret History (Donna Tartt) are often, in my mind, vying for the role of my Favorite Book. It’s never entirely clear who’s winning that battle. If you feel the need to slip into the classic “dark academia” text, Donna Tartt’s first novel is a bildungsroman and thinly veiled autobiographical account of her own time at the somewhat infamous Bennington College. If you’d rather be swept into one of the great family dramas of the modern age, a young Zadie Smith is flexing her considerable linguistic muscles in this wonderful unpacking of the role of the ones who love you in the quest for a fulfilling sense of identity, and no one is left behind on the ride.

4. Do you have a strange customer story?

I once had a customer who tried to order a book that had no release date several days in a row. She called every day, pretty close to when we would close, and would ask if I would be able to order the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And every time she called, I told her that they’d only released the first few books, and that it probably takes a good bit of time for them to produce. And every time, she would respond, with a morose, “Oh, ok, I just would have figured that book would be out by now.”

5. What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

Bernardine Evaristo was a genuine delight to host. She was exactly the right mix of self-inspired and self-demanding as a creator, and her curious and remarkably generous attitude kept me on my toes throughout the interview. I had already held her in tremendous esteem, but there’s something about being told to get to work on your novel by such an accomplished and down-to-earth artist that really sticks with you.

6. What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

I think a lot of folks attach a romantic notion of casually reading and browsing shelves aimlessly to working in a bookstore. But it’s actually quite a lot of work to keep up with inventory, to maintain order on the shelves, to keep up with the various tasks that make it possible for us to point folks towards their next favorite read.

7. What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

My least favorite task, in the bookstore and in life, is probably cleaning the bathroom. My personal favorites are probably pulling returns or doing inventory details, as they’re opportunities to see all the books that we have to offer our customers. I add so many things to my to-be-read pile whenever I’m doing a task that involves any degree of close shelf reading.

8. Can you recommend an underrated readalike book for one of the store’s top titles? (For example: If your store sells a lot of The Song of Achilles, you might recommend Tin Man.)

We sell a TON of Stuart Turton’s The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and our customers are constantly thrilled by the twisty, perspective-shifting mystery story. To me, a classic version of the locked-room (locked-building?) mystery that I think people have forgotten about is The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin). While technically a middle-grade book, I’ve returned to it maybe a dozen times, and it never fails to deliver, and is great for kids and adults alike. A more adult-oriented suggestion would probably be The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern); though not a genre mystery, the layers of understanding that unfurl before your eyes going through this book are as stunning a magic trick as I’ve ever seen.

assistant manager/used book buyer/IT specialist

An interview with Casella Brookins of City Lit Books

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

I’m our resident speculative fiction specialist, so I spend a lot of time in Science Fiction & Fantasy. We put a big focus on written staff recommendations here, and I get a lot of satisfaction from writing “talkers” that get great, semi-obscure SFF titles into the hands of people who wouldn’t normally think of themselves as genre readers.

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I adore the illustration work Rovina Cai’s been doing, and I face out Nicola Griffith’s Spear whenever I get the chance; it helps that I found the book delightful as well. But there’s so many great cover designs right now — Jeff VanderMeer’s Picador paperbacks are superb, for example, and Simon Prade’s cover for Simon Jimenez’s The Spear Cuts Through Water (another one I loved, and reviewed) is just stunning.

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker is definitely my top pick from this summer, but it’s been a good year. Backlist? I’ve got too many to list—I will say that getting more people to read Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged History is part of my secret job description.

Do you have a strange customer story?

Not all that strange, but I’m always amused when people say, “I didn’t know if it was okay to take this book off the display!” Like: please! We made them hoping you would!

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

I don’t usually get starstruck, but I could make a case for being the world’s biggest C.J. Cherryh fan, and the language centers of my brain literally shut down when she was in Chicago for a signing a few years ago. City Lit hosted a few online bookclubs for this year’s Hugo Award finalists—as part of Chicon Fringe—that were a lot of fun.

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

That the actual job involves reading! Also, I think most people don’t realize the physical labor in a bookstore—it’s the equivalent of packing up and moving every week or two.

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

Doing returns is definitely my least favorite, just kinda spiritually. You want every—well, okay, most—books to succeed, but we don’t have infinite space, and new books are always being written, so we have to make room.

Favorite part is when a customer comes back to let us know that our idiosyncratic recommendation connected them with something they loved—knowing that they would never have wound up with that particular book if they hadn’t come in to our shop.

Can you recommend an underrated readalike book for one of the store’s top titles?

I love when people need a follow-up to Emily St. John Mandel: her books have so many threads leading off to other works. For fans of Sea of Tranquility, I might recommend Michael Zapata’s The Lost Book of Adana Moreau: that sense of place, the multi-generational nature of the story. Plus it’s just beautifully-written.

What’s the best dedication or first line of a book that you can remember?

“For thirty-five years now I’ve been in wastepaper, and it’s my love story.” Bohumil Hrabal’s incomparable Too Loud a Solitude.

What’s YOUR favorite indie bookstore that you’ve visited, besides your own!

Oh my gosh, there’s so many—tons of favorites right here in Chicago. I think I want to shout out to Small World Books in Venice Beach, however—whenever I’ve wound up in LA, I often find myself kind of at loose ends near there, and it’s a wonderful oasis. Have never failed to pick up something great and unexpected there.

Casella Brookins is the assistant manager at City Lit Books in Chicago.

 

Ask an Expert: A Conversation with Wes J. Bryant on Editing Tips from an Author-Turned-Editor

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

When should an author hire an editor? How much “pre-editing” should an author do before sending their manuscript off for an edit? Can authors professionally edit their own manuscripts?

These are some of the many editing questions we’ve heard from authors over the years, and today on the blog we’re getting answers from professional Books Fluent editor and published author Wes J. Bryant, who has a unique understanding of editing from “both sides of the desk.”

Wes is the coauthor of the book Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell, a first-person account cowritten alongside the former ground force commander of Iraq, retired Major General Dana J.H. Pittard.

An accomplished editor, Wes details what authors should consider before turning in their manuscripts for a professional edit.

How does your background as a published author influence your perspective as an editor?

Great question! First, it gives me a passion for helping shape and polish the work of fellow authors. In my own published work, I’ve had some great editors and then I’ve had some who clearly didn’t put a lot of effort in, or maybe didn’t know what they were doing—the difference is very easily noticeable. And it’s very disappointing as an author to get your manuscript back and feel like the person who was supposed to help you either didn’t care about your work or shouldn’t be doing editing. I am adamant about putting the same effort into every job that I’d want someone else to put into my own work. Second, I’m able to take lessons learned from my own published material—what I thought went great, and what I’d have changed in hindsight—and apply those lessons to my editing jobs.

What’s one of the most common, seemingly simple edits you come across that most authors overlook?

Well, maybe this isn’t that “simple,” but it’s very common: I’ve found that many authors tend to over-capitalize. Proper nouns abound! In non-fiction, you have to figure out when your word usage constitutes a proper noun and when it does not (sometimes it varies, given the context) and so, it’s a little challenging at times. Fiction is a bit easier but also tricky, because a fiction writer, depending on the material, often has the flexibility of being able to “make up” their own proper nouns. Think of a fantasy novel and all the different beings or races and whatever else you can conjure up in your own world. But that can still get to be too much. You have to read through your own work from a reader’s perspective and ask yourself honestly how it reads. Lots of capitalizations hurt the flow. That may be one of my “isms” as an editor, but I’m sticking to it!

What should an author consider before turning in their manuscript for a professional edit?

Running your own edits and proofreads before handing it in for professional editing will likely give you a better end-product. I’ve had jobs where the work was very rough, and arguably could have been cleaned up a little more by the author before going to professional editing. As an editor, I’m happy to do any of the work necessary. But if I spend much of my focus on fixing a lot of fairly simple mistakes as I go through a manuscript, it will naturally detract from some of the other polishing I might otherwise do. Not intentionally by any means—simply as a byproduct of being bogged down with all the fixes.

Do you find it easier to edit someone else’s work, or your own?

It is far easier to edit others’ work, without a doubt! I have become a staunch proponent of the idea that every author—no matter how great—needs more than one outside pair of eyes and objective editing. I near-obsessively edit my own work and yet, every time I hand it over to someone else especially an experienced editor, there are inevitably things that I somehow missed even going over it a hundred times, or suggestions that never dawned on me for things like clarity, brevity, rearranging a section, etc.

Bonus: In your opinion, what does it mean to be a “successful” writer?

Well, what is successful always comes down to how you define success. I think that, culturally, the most common idea of success as a writer is how many books or other publications you’ve sold, or whether you had something go mainstream or even turn into a movie or television adaptation. That is certainly a measure of success. But the truth is that there is some very subpar content out there that still makes a lot of money and has great financial return. It’s not always about the quality of the writing or material. Sometimes it’s more about who it was marketed to, or who it was written by.

But I define success differently. To me, success as a writer means that your words have had a positive impact on someone, somewhere, at some time. Through the words you crafted, you communicated something that had an enriching effect in the world, be it by invoking wonder, by relaying information to make someone better informed in a subject, by making someone feel a powerful emotion or experience, or even just by entertaining and immersing a reader into a made-up world. To communicate anything that carries a real, enriching impact, that’s success to me. The handful of messages I’ve received, or in-person encounters I’ve had, where someone thanked me for what I wrote and relayed how it enlightened or helped them in some way or that my words had an emotional impact—that is like gold and means more than any proceeds or royalties (although, those are nice too if they come in!).

Wes J. Bryant is a retired master sergeant and former special operations joint terminal attack controller in the elite special warfare branch of the U.S. Air Force. He is an author, editor, and defense analyst with focus on foreign policy, counterterrorism, and extremism, and works as a defense and aerospace professional specializing in advanced communications technologies. Wes holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, a Master of Professional Studies in Publishing through George Washington University, and is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Business and STEM studies through George Washington University. He has contributed to such outlets as the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Military Times, Insider, Task & Purpose, Real Clear Defense, and the Institute for Irregular Warfare and Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at West Point, and has been a guest contributor on BNC News. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @wesjbryant, LinkedIn, or visit his site at wesjbryant.com.

An interview with Mika Tuzon of Scrawl Bookstore

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

I love our fiction wall at Scrawl– it takes up an entire wall of the store from floor to ceiling and it gets the best natural light!

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I am definitely guilty of judging a book by its cover. They’re more often art pieces in and of themselves (it’s a plus when the content is great, too)! Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is a recent favorite– the cover is what sold me on grabbing this title and I always make sure it’s out for the customers to see. I’m obsessed with the pink ombre and all the floating objects. I would love to know in general how authors go about deciding on their book covers. It seems like such a vital part of the process– it is the first thing readers see when they’re deciding on their next read, after all!

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

Two Brown Dots is a collection of poetry that came out in late April by Danni Quintos. It’s separated into three parts– Girlhood, Motherhood, and Folklore. Danni deep dives into what it means to grow up Filipina American and navigate the world as a woman of color in her poetry with exquisite vulnerability. I’m a little biased as she is my friend and fellow Kentuckian writer– she’s the first person I really saw myself represented in as far as poets go. As far as backlist titles, there are so many! I’ll just list out some favorites: Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades, The Mismatch by Sara Jafari, World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and anything by Mary H.K. Choi and Jenny Han!

Do you have a strange customer story?

There was a customer that came in one time that was incredibly rude and seemed eerily familiar, so naturally I looked her up (as one does). I probably can’t go into too much detail about who she is, but let’s just say I had seen her on TV before as she was one of the defense attorneys for a man in Hollywood who had fallen from grace.

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

We had an event with Monica Hesse a couple of years ago. She’s a columnist for the Washington Post who focuses on topics of gender and she’s written amazing YA historical fiction like The War Outside
and Girl in the Blue Coat. That event was coincidentally attended by mostly teen femmes– it was so lovely to witness their energy and enthusiasm as they asked her a lot of questions regarding writing and journalism. She is also just a really lovely person!

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

People often romanticize working in a bookstore. Booksellers do a lot of heavy lifting– literally! Contrary to popular belief, we spend little to no time reading during our shifts. Sometimes, it’s just one person to a shift, which means one person is receiving shipment, answering the phone, shelving, manning the register, restocking, bringing out curbside pickups, helping customers, the list goes on and on! That being said, I wouldn’t trade this job experience for anything. It’s really special to work at a family-owned independent bookstore. Another big misconception– meet cutes don’t happen here! At least I haven’t witnessed or been part of one.

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

Restocking can be a pain– our shelves are more often than not filled to the brim! However, I prefer restocking and shelving to receiving shipments. There’s a lot of little steps required of receiving shipments so it’s easy to mess up. I’ve been here for five years, so I have lots of practice at getting more titles to fit on our shelves. Also, shelving often gives me the opportunity to find books I never would have thought to look at. I often go home with my discoveries– it’s exciting for my TBR pile, not exciting for my wallet! I think the worst part about working at the bookstore is when people are rude about the mask policy. We still require them which I truly appreciate, and most customers are understanding. However, we get the occasional naysayer which can be a little hit to the positivity I try to exude while I’m at the store. My most favorite part though is getting to know our neighborhood regulars. We have quite a few people who come in and/or order from us very frequently. I love when they come in and I remember them by name– people love being remembered! Getting to talk about books everyday is a big win, too.

Can you recommend an underrated read alike book for one of the store’s top titles? (For example: If your store sells a lot of The Song of Achilles, you might recommend Tin Man.)

If you’re a fan of nonfiction books like Crying in Hmart, you’d definitely enjoy Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Girls in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay. I believe this book deserves more love and is essential reading for all– it was my favorite read of 2021 by far. It’s a collection of essays that ponders
Black women and their contributions to culture in general. Blay’s wit and insight are razor sharp, and it’s great to see women of color celebrated. More of that, please!

Mika Tuzon is a bookseller at Scrawl Books

 

An interview with Giselle Durand of The Book Cellar

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

I love the cozy corner by the front windows. We have these really comfy chairs there and the sunlight streams in in the afternoon, so it’s a little book heaven. I also appreciate whatever weird corner our life-size John Green cutout is in. I like to move him around.

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I love having Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown facing out. The cover is just gorgeous, and the dust cover is actually textured and raised which adds wonderful dimension. Other honorable mentions include The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. I guess I really like red covers?

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

I can’t decide between Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola and Dead End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto. Honey and Spice defines the genre of romantic comedy- Babalola is a self-proclaimed rom-connaisseur and I wholeheartedly agree- the book breathes so well. The chemistry between the characters is electric and I was thoroughly engrossed in her writing. I can’t recommend it enough! Dead End Memories is a short story collection translated from the original Japanese by Asa Yoneda. I’m not normally a short-story person, but the writing style captivated me and it was so light and easy to read. At the same time, I felt heartbroken after every story. Yoshimoto is really good at creating really specific atmospheres, and the short stories centering on missed connections and finding our way back to people, or not, are beautifully reflective of the nature of relationships.

Do you have a strange customer story?

Too many to count! I actually keep a note on my phone called “People of the Bookstore” for customer stories, so I immediately opened that up when I read this question. This story isn’t so strange, but it’s one of my favorite interactions I’ve had. A woman came in looking for books for her four granddaughters. She said something along the lines of “They live in a very conservative town, so we like to give them things to stretch their minds.” Once we settled on One Last Stop for the 22-year-old, Red, White, and Royal Blue for the 19-year-old, The Song of Achilles for the 15-year-old, and The Mysterious Benedict Society for the 11-year-old, she was visibly gleeful. “I hope their mother throws a fit,” She told me while checking out.

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

We did a partnership with the Chicago Public Libraries for Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s children’s book, JUST HELP! and Spanish counterpart SOLO AYUDA!, and it was really cool working on a project with a Supreme Court Justice. I didn’t work the actual event, so I didn’t technically meet her, but I got a bit starstruck when we received bookplates with her signature. Melissa Albert is one of the nicest authors I’ve ever met. She wrote the Hazelwood series and launched her newest book, Our Crooked Hearts, with us in store. She is so talented and sweet!

Also, I loved the Divergent books when I was younger, and when I started working at the Book Cellar and found out Veronica Roth was a Chicago native and frequenter of our store, I freaked out! I got to meet her a few months ago when she came in to do some shopping, and she signed my advanced reader copy of her book Poster Girl that’s coming out in October. She is so nice and has fabulous taste in books- it’s always fun to see what she orders.

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

“Is it nice to sit around and read all day?” I wish I had time for that! Between assisting customers in-store, processing online orders, receiving shipments of books, manning the cafe, and making sure the store looks nice, it’s a busy job. It’s not nearly as lax and romantic as people make it out to be!

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

My least favorite task is shelving books when the shelves are chock-full. It’s hard deciding what should be moved around or off the shelves to make room for things, while still making sure the displays look nice and some books are facing out! My favorite task is giving recommendations, oral or written. When someone comes in and the word “recommendation” leaves their mouth, I can feel myself activate. I love the challenge and excitement of finding them the perfect book. Especially if they come back at some point and are clawing for the sequel, raving about the book and asking for something similar, or gushing over how the person they gave it to loved it. It’s so rewarding. We also have “Rec cards” where staff members can write recommendations to accompany books on the shelves, which is a great way to highlight books that might be passed over if someone were just scanning the spines.

Can you recommend an underrated readalike book for one of the store’s top titles?

I love this question. We sell a lot of Gideon the Ninth (and sequels) by Tamsyn Muir, which is a dark sci-fi fantasy with necromancers, queerness, love interests who hate each other, and a compelling mystery. One of my favorite books is Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, which also includes queerness, love interests who hate each other, a compelling mystery, and shepherding souls to the land of the dead. It’s a gorgeously written book about a young trans man trying to prove himself to his family by summoning a super annoying (and much to his chagrin, hot) ghost. It’s a ghost story and a love story and has a similar atmosphere to Gideon!

What’s the best dedication or first line of a book that you can remember?

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood,” will always be one of my favorite first lines in a book. It’s from the very first Percy Jackson book, The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, and it sets the tone for the entire series so well. Another good first line that I love is from Circe by Madeline Miller; “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” It’s so intriguing and makes you want to keep reading! I’m kicking myself for not remembering what book it is, but there’s a dedication out there that’s along the lines of “For you, bitch” that I just think is so funny.

What’s YOUR favorite indie bookstore that you’ve visited, besides your own!

Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis is one of the coolest bookstores ever! They have chickens and cats that roam around the store and you can pet them and play with them as you look for books. It’s more geared towards kids, but there’s something for everyone.

Giselle Durand is a bookseller at The Book Cellar in Chicago.

An interview with Natalie Freeman of Skylight Books

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

At Skylight we technically have *two* stores. We have our main store which is home to all of our fiction, genre books, and most of our nonfiction books. Then two doors down we have our Arts Annex with all of our graphic novels, design, music, film and other art books. The Annex is also home to our super rad zine collection, mostly curated by my colleague Alex. My favorite thing to do when I see Alex receiving and restocking in the Annex is to just ask him what’s new and what’s cool. We have zines by local authors/illustrators/artists and a lot of imported collections from around the world. I get lost in the zines everytime I walk back to my office and I’ve discovered so many cool things on those displays.

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but judgment doesn’t always have to be bad! When I saw the cover art for the new editions of Juneau Black’s SHADY HOLLOW mystery series, I thought “Okay this book is going to be a good time!” And I wasn’t wrong! I always face these out in our mystery section and recommend them to anyone who’s looking for a fun read that feels like a cozy afternoon on the couch with a *perfect drinking temperature* cup of tea.

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

We do staff picks every month at Skylight, and this year I decided to feature kids, middle reader, and YA books for all of those (you can find all of our staff picks on our website!) But I’ve still been reading big kid books too! If I had to pick a recent new release, I’d recommend Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED. I read an early copy and finished it in like two days. My favorite memoirs are the ones where the author is so self-aware that you can feel it dripping off the page. Having been through lots of therapy and constantly working on discovering new things about myself, this book really blew me away. A blacklist pick would probably be A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT, the first book in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series. I read this and the latest installment A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY while I was camping this summer and I couldn’t imagine a better place to read these beautiful little books about a traveling tea monk and their robot companion.

Do you have a strange customer story?

So much can happen in a day of consistently interacting with customers. One of my favorite interactions was when a customer came in looking for the new Melissa Febos book BODY WORK, but it was the day before it went on sale. The customer had just been in a class where Melissa was a guest speaker and she mentioned the book, so she had come to the store the next day to get it. I happened to have an advanced copy at my desk because I had been reading it, so I told the customer to hang out for a second and I’d be right back. I brought her the galley and let her have it since I was almost done. She emailed me a few days later saying she had already finished it. Those kinds of interactions only happen when everyone is in the right place at the right time, and it’s always so fun when it all works out.

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

I’m the assistant events manager at Skylight so I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of wonderful authors, and I also produce the Skylight Books Podcast so I’ve also gotten the opportunity to interview some of my personal favorite authors and illustrators. Earlier this year I interviewed Akwaeke Emezi about their YA novel BITTER, which was surreal and I still think about that conversation a lot.

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

Something that always seems to surprise people about working in a bookstore, at least our bookstore, is that every piece of the business happens HERE. If you order a book on our website and it says that it’s in stock, someone who works at the store is going to pull it off the shelf to fulfill your order. We have a very small (but mighty!) team that works on orders and shipping, and your order is also packaged and shipped by someone working at the store. Then we walk all of those packages across the street to the post office. The bookstore you’re shopping in is the place where all the magic happens!

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

My least favorite bookstore task is probably alphabetizing haha. It’s one of the most foundational tasks of working at a bookstore – you need to alphabetize things as you shelve, restock and maintain sections. But after the hustle and bustle of a day helping customers or working on events, my brain always has trouble remembering the alphabet.

My favorite part of working in a bookstore is definitely handselling. When I started working on the events team, I stopped working on the sales floor and I didn’t realize how much I would miss it! Whenever I happen to be bopping around the store and someone stops me to ask for help, I feel like a kid in a candy store. I love helping people find their next great read, it fills me with so much joy. My colleagues will also call me at my desk to see if I have time to help someone find a kids book, and that’s when I drop everything and I show up next door before they’ve even had a chance to hang up the phone.

Can you recommend an underrated read-a-like book for one of the store’s top titles?

I think that 99% of customers who have come into our store recently have read at least one Ottessa Moshfegh book. Sometimes they’ve read a few of her books and want to read another, or they’ve read one and liked it, but want to read another author before diving into her backlist. For anyone that loved or was thinking about reading DEATH IN HER HANDS, I always recommend Olga Tokarczuk’s DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD. They both have a character that inserts themselves into a whodunnit, plus DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD gives you a chance to read around the world (translated from the Polish) and spend some time with a cranky old lady who lives in a snowy cabin and loves astrology.

What’s the best dedication or first line of a book that you can remember?

This book has a dedication, a few intros and many beginnings. I’ve thought about Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir IN THE DREAM HOUSE pretty much every single day since I first read it.

What’s YOUR favorite indie bookstore that you’ve visited, besides your own!

I grew up in Lakewood, CA and there was a used bookstore about 10 minutes away called Once Read Books. They’re located on a corner and whichever direction you approach from there are shelves and shelves of books outside the front doors. I spent countless hours sifting through their sections and always found piles of books to bring home. Now whenever I’m back in that area I always have to stop by. On my last trip I found an amazing book on Eliot Porter’s Appalachian wilderness photography and a handful of old regional cookbooks.

Natalie Freeman is the assistant events manager at Skylight Books in L.A.

An interview with Emily Giglierano of Astoria Bookshop

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What is your favorite area of your bookstore?

Our under-visited kids’ nonfiction section. It’s not ideally situated, tucked away near the office and the back door storage area, but the books are my favorites: these are the really cool picture-book biographies, the oversized atlases of wild animals and places all over the world, almanacs and science books, the “growing up” shelf that covers self-esteem, social justice, and sexuality for elementary through high-schoolers — in other words, all of the most interesting books that try to explain how the world works. I almost always learn something new when I’m shelving here, and it’s my favorite place to recommend gift books.

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

The first one to spring to mind is Aimee Nezhukumathil’s WORLD OF WONDERS — something about the charming nature illustrations + the title + the foil on the author’s name, it just brings me joy and makes me want to stop and pick it up every time I see it. It’s small but has a big impact.

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

Cat Sebastian’s THE PERFECT CRIMES OF MARIAN HAYES, a historical romance + crime novel in which our two bisexual lead characters fall in love while exchanging blackmail letters. I’ve read it twice this year, once as soon as the galley was posted and again for a mini-romance book club.

My go-to backlist pick is THE CUTTING SEASON by Attica Locke: The caretaker at a plantation-house museum – a museum still owned by the family that ran the plantation where her ancestors were enslaved – uncovers historical secrets. An emotionally complex mystery novel with great atmosphere and a relatable single-mother protagonist.

Do you have a strange customer story?

One of our regulars speaks with a flat, demanding tone of voice that can sound aggressive, especially when she’s asking questions. Once, after several typical questions – “Miss, how much this book cost? Miss, why you not have [this other book]?” she asked one more: “Miss, do you like cheese?”

I had to say yes. Next thing I know, she reaches into her pocket and hands me a wedge of cheddar cheese! (Packaged in plastic.) She’d given us tokens of appreciation before, like a pen from the bank and cookies from a holiday gift basket, but this was the first perishable food item….

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

Since I started working at the bookshop right before the pandemic kicked into gear, I haven’t gotten to spend much time with authors here. But I was working at Penguin Random House when Knopf published Judy Blume’s grown-up novel, IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT, and hosted an in-office signing. I asked her to sign a copy of the book to my seventh-grade English teacher – and still got a little choked up 😊

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

I think people tend to forget that it’s a customer service job — it’s not just you and a stack of books, it’s also about being able to talk with folks who come in, asking the right questions to suss out what they want to take home (especially when they’re buying for someone else!), and making small talk.

Least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part?

Least favorite: As a small store, we’re constantly trying to fit more stock on our shelves than we actually have room for, so this is a job that’s never done! Favorite part: Alphabetizing is extremely satisfying.

Readalike for a popular book?

One of our biggest sellers this past year has been Michelle Zauner’s CRYING IN H MART. The memoir that I try to give everyone alongside it is SEEING GHOSTS by Kat Chow (Grand Central, 2021). Like H Mart, Seeing Ghosts is about losing your mother to cancer and negotiating your complicated relationship to her culture — but Kat tells her story in a fragmented, snapshot-like style, revisiting certain scenes and moments from her childhood and her parents’ lives so that I felt like I was remembering alongside her as I read. The way she reexamines her relationships with her parents as she grows into adulthood offered me new perspectives on my own parental relationships, and changed the way I think about my grandparents’ stories of growing up as first-generation Americans, and how that influenced my parents in turn.

Emily Giglierano is a bookseller at Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY.

An interview with Ericka Arcadia of Hudubam Booktraders

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

I’ve always loved our sci-fi/fantasy area the best because those were the books I carried around when I first started feeling like a reader. I was never the kid who read enough to get a personal pizza for it, and I never had money for book fairs. It used to be on an order system, and when the shipments would arrive I would watch all my classmates get their brand new books with the brand new smell in the air. I borrowed a lot of books from the library at school and boyfriends, and it wasn’t until I read Dune that I felt the magic of what reading does to our minds. I thought, “This Frank Herbert guy thinks I’m smart!”

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves?

I LOVE cover art, and that is a really tough one to narrow down, but Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions (our bookseller Andrew brought those to my attention) are doing the most. I think the best one is the artwork for The Master and Margerita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s just gorgeously intriguing.

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

I cannot keep V. E. Schwab‘s books on the shelves and I know why; I am very much enjoying The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Backlist: I really love to read anything by Haruki Murakami. I always seem to gravitate back to the first novel of his I read, Sputnik Sweetheart. That feeling of having my mind completely blown just hasn’t really been the same now that I know to expect the unexpected from him.

Do you have a strange customer story?

Probably a very unconventional attachment developed between myself and a customer, Chris, who was a Vietnam Veteran in his 70’s. He loved to talk about 80’s science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies. I saw him almost every day for 18 months, for several hours a day, and we talked about everything all the time. He loved the show Dark Shadows, and I think he used to watch it after he came home from his time in the service. He did two tours. Anyway, he loved the show so much that he would try to strike up a conversation about the show with anyone who would listen, and he had copies of a DVD collection of the show in his bag at all times to give away to people who didn’t know what he was talking about. His brother, who handled his affairs, left us with about 15 copies of the show that Chris said should be given away to anyone interested, and we honor that request to this day.

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

We don’t really get starstruck by authors who come in because we’re a small community, so we all kind of know each other already. On that vibe, our open mics have been magical because it truly feels like we’re together as a family. A writer proposed to his wife during an open mic, so that’s the environment. We haven’t had one since the pandemic, but we’re hoping to set one up again soon.

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

It’s work. It takes so much energy to keep things going, and the idea of it just being a “cool hang” doesn’t really get to be realized. You have to derive joy from helping people and making them happy, and I feel like that really comes first.

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

Delegating. I have an amazing crew of booksellers that have finally been made happy by me stepping back from the day to day functions so they can shine in their roles, and that was a hard place for me to come to. But I can trust them, more than myself on a lot of the service requests, and they’re fantastic. It’s just, when you run something yourself for so long, it’s hard to pry your hand off the wheel. My favorite part is ringing up kids who have found something in the 50 cent bin or something lightly used, nice and cheap. They’re going home with something in their hands that they chose and that makes me happy.

What’s the best dedication or first line of a book that you can remember?

I always loved that Nabokov always dedicated his books to his wife, Vera. I think it was the first dedication I ever really noticed, and I took it as, “I didn’t have to do this alone.”

What’s YOUR favorite indie bookstore that you’ve visited, besides your own!

That is a super tough question. Can I give a handful of shout outs? I grew up on Watermark Books in Wichita, KS, and I happily go broke there every time I visit home. I love that Left Bank Books in the Pike Place Market in Seattle is still running their revolution, and that is actually a bookstore that is the same age as I am, so bravo them! And I love Powell’s in Portland It truly was a place that had everything.

Ericka Arcadia is one of the owners of Hudubam Booktraders in Clarksville, TN.

An interview with Grace Hagen of The Novel Neighbor

Posted on | by Marissa DeCuir | 1 Comment on An interview with Grace Hagen of The Novel Neighbor

What’s your favorite area of your bookstore?

My favorite area of the bookstore is the front window section, both inside and outside facing. It is one of the places where we showcase our values as we highlight monthly themes, books and sidelines relevant to current events. Linda and Michelle are so thoughtful about how they curate the sidewalk-facing window display, I love how it greets our customers and neighbors.

What’s the coolest book cover that you like to have facing out on the shelves? In a Garden Burning Gold

If you had a staff pick for a recent new release, what would it be? Backlist pick?

My staff pick for a recent new release: When Women Were Dragons. It was SO moving. Although this novel is set in an alternate reality and in the past, where some women are actually dragons, it couldn’t be more prescient given our current socio-political environment. This novel quenched an emotional need for me, made me feel more powerful, and more in love with the strength that “ordinary” people can exercise. Barnhill doesn’t preach one right way of being, but is inclusive of myriad identities and presents characters who are complex and imperfect in such an accessible way. Simply LOVED it.

My staff pick for backlist: Beloved. Beloved has been banned from at least five schools in the U.S. despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and being nominated for the National Book Award, among many other acclaims. This novel is proof that great art can sometimes create great discomfort. It invites readers to grapple with individual, family, and systemic trauma, while challenging the binary understanding of right and wrong. It brings to life many types of relationships with graphic descriptions, the supernatural, and deep humanity.

Do you have a strange customer story?

The strangest and most delightful customer story I have is when an adorable toddler was in the store intently reading (or pretending to read?) How Not to Become a Little Old Lady like it was full of the secrets to life!

What author have you been starstruck to meet, or have you gotten to host a fun virtual event?

I was absolutely starstruck when I met Claudia Rankine a few years ago. Her talk was so generous – she gave up a lot of emotional labor to the audience during the Q and A – and so prescient.

What are some misconceptions people have about working in a bookstore?

There are two misconceptions I regularly encounter. One is that we get to read all day at work, which sounds dreamy but is so not true. The other is that we are just a tiny staff of book lovers. The truth is that we are book lovers, but we have a very large staff (20 people!) of highly skilled professionals in various roles related to the work of an independent bookstore.

What is your least favorite bookstore task? Favorite part about working in a bookstore?

My least favorite bookstore task is bookcover stripping. I understand the reason for the process, but it does hurt my soul a bit.

My favorite part about working in a bookstore: This is such a hard question to answer which makes me feel SO lucky to have my job in particular at The Novel Neighbor! I get to do many different things that bring me joy, like supporting and amplifying local activists addressing important socio-political issues that impact the community. It’s also such a delight that part of my job is to intentionally celebrate our staff and affirm their incredible work on individual and collective levels.

Can you recommend an underrated readalike book for one of the store’s top titles?

We sell a lot of Emily Henry’s Beach Read and an underrated comp for that is The Roughest Draft. We have an amazing romance customer community and the agreement is that it’s a great readalike!

Grace Hagen is the Director of Operations and Inclusion at The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis.