To Hell You Ride! That’s the saying some folks insist the town was named for, a moniker for the arduous journey to this 8,750-foot high dead end town back in the day of horse and rider.
For the attending regional booksellers (and a Denver-based rep), it was actually about the destination—a conference room at the local library—and, it was a heckuva good day. Due to BEA prepping, Executive Director Lisa Knudsen was not able to join us so MPIBA Board member Joe Foster of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango stepped in to brief us on the state of the Association and then about the exciting evolution of the Reading the West program. Two big changes to RTW are that the selections will be quarterly, rather than monthly, and MPIBA will actively participate in facilitating author tours in the region.
All questions and suggestions about Reading the West reflected the crucial factor of timing, from the nomination process, to publisher involvement, to access to advance copies of the quarterly selections, to the marketing timeline and the scheduling of much-wanted RTW author tours. Although the selections to date have all been frontlist hardcover titles, Andy Nettell of Back of Beyond Books and Arches Book Company in Moab wondered if publishers would support a paperback release tour. Random House rep Ron Smith suggested that perhaps a fiction and a non-fiction title could be structured into the quarterly formula to give the consumer a choice based on reading preference. He also confided that publishers would be “over the moon” for a functioning and sustainable Reading the West. For the more remote stores in the Association, it could be quite a boon to be on regionally selected author roadmaps four times a year.
Next, we continued the ongoing conversation about staying current in the realm of E-books and the shiny devices that make them go. Although not a new topic for indie booksellers, especially for those who were at Winter Institute 5, it was noted that watching the process of Google Editions is a worthy endeavor. Just another dish in the sink to deal with? Yes. And for fun, Joe pointed out that most of the top ten books “sold” for the Kindle at any given time are actually free. And so, the talking and the watching continues … Joe provided a handy list of informative websites for those who want to learn more and keep up on the subject of E-books and E-content.
Lunchtime yielded food for thought through the words of M. John Fayhee, longtime editor of the Mountain Gazette. With a book to be released in June titled BOTTOMS UP: M. John Fayhee’s Greatest Hits from the Mountain Gazette, John is expanding into the publishing end of things by creating Round Mountain Publishing and going the self-publishing route. And why not? To quote him: “When things get rough, that’s when you make a splash.” The impetus to create a publishing company came from his desire to keep the art of storytelling alive in the Mountain Time Zone. After John read an excerpt from BOTTOMS UP titled “Jars in Bars” (yep, the ones containing eyeball-like sustenance still found in saloons across the nation), the enthusiastic booksellers from stores in Durango, Telluride, and Moab put together an author tour for John on the spot.
That is exactly the type of collaboration (and good ole storytelling) that these regional MPIBA meetings are intended to foster – the creation of micro-cells of MPIBA stores, working together to promote authors, publishers, and each other. After lunch, the group wandered up to Main Street for a quick tour of Between the Covers. What a treat to see our little shop full of booksellers, scrutinizing the shelves, scribbling notes, buying cards, and asking questions. We’re all so similar and yet, so different.
The first post-lunch session, moderated by me, was about collaboration between booksellers and the in-place entities in small towns that need bookstores as much as bookstores need them: libraries, schools, festivals, and tourism bureaus. As a spokesperson for Telluride’s public library, Program Director Scott Doser provided insight into how and when to approach libraries about off-site events, especially for those stores without adequate performance space. With most libraries setting their annual budget in November, he suggested that collaborative programming proposals be submitted if possible by August. And if your library has an advisory council, there may be a spot on it for a local bookseller. Again, it’s all about the timing. Beyond working with libraries, each store recounted a unique annual collaborative event that could be replicated by others: Books for Tots in Moab, The Reading Frenzy in Telluride, and the recent Buy Local ordinance for Durango schools.
With so many great ideas swimming in our heads, the next logical conversation was “Social Networking: Hype or Help?” Master Tweeter Joe Foster of Maria’s spoke about how Facebook and Twitter are working for them. Attendees witnessed his selective Twitter list on the big screen, from publishers and reviewers to the authors themselves. As the buyer at Maria’s, he knew the very second that Neil Gaiman had won the Newbery and promptly bought all 20 copies that BooksWest had in stock before most of us had had our morning coffees. Time was spent discussing payroll and skill set aspects of taking full advantage of the free networks and the event culture they can stimulate in one’s community. The consensus was that it this social media business isn’t just hype but what you make of it with who you have at your disposal on staff. As homework, Joe recommended the book YOU ARE NOT A GADGET and suggested looking at how Word in Brooklyn, New York, uses both Facebook and Twitter. The last question was posed to publishers: can we get coop for tweeting? Alas, Random House Ron was already on the road for his next Four Corners appointment.
The last half hour was dedicated to the topic of staffing in resort communities but after shift schedules were compared, the talk segued into how to motivate part-time employees to stay on beyond a ski or river season and feel invested in the job that can also double as a family. With thick snowflakes beginning to fall, the Regional Focus Meeting in Telluride, Colorado, came to a quick close in order to get the group on the road and safely over the passes toward home. Our hope is that everyone has yet another list of relevant things to focus on when they return to their stores as we await the glorious summer we think is around the corner.
-Daiva Chesonis
Well, in case there were any doubt about my facility with Facebook ... After a couple of false starts, hitting wrong buttons, etc. I typed what you see below and hit "Share", only to be told that I had written twice the number of words allowed. I had no idea ... but a quick call to my daughter confirmed that no one wants to read a long Facebook entry. So, unwilling to edit down my deathless prose, I decided to blog instead. Here it is:
OK, another revelation - you can't cut and paste into Mozilla so am re-typing...
We had a truly wonderful Regional Focus Meeting (that name makes the event sound really grim - maybe we should just go back to "Spring Meeting") in Santa Fe last week. I've written about it in today's e-news so be watching for the email in an hour or so.There also will be a short video of Hampton Sides in praise on indie bookstores on our home page at www.mountainsplains.org a little later today.
Hampton Sides, author of HELLHOUND ON HIS TRAIL, about Martin Luther King's assassin, was to die for. Aside from being handsome as the day, he is just a wonderful speaker - no notes - and all-around nice guy. Hampton lives in Santa Fe and has three young sons, all of whom play soccer. He had already attended one game before he arrived to speak at lunch on Saturday, was missing one during the lunch, and had another game to get to after. I thank my lucky stars that my son was only into rock and roll. Beautiful warm spring day here in Ft. Collins - tulilps everywhere. Off to San Antonio tomorrow for the Spring Meeting there. Cheers, Lisa
The introduction of the Internet Sales Tax bill in Colorado a couple of months ago caught most of us in-state with our pants around our ankles. With just two days to prepare, but with tremendous support from David Grogan of the American Booksellers Association, email alerts with sample letters were fired off to Colorado booksellers for them to send to their legislators, booksellers David Bolduc of the Boulder Bookstore, Neil Strandberg of Tattered Cover, and myself (ED of MPIBA) scrambled to do our homework so that we could testify before the House Appropriations Committee. David Bolduc in particular, who is very plugged into the Boulder business scene and local government, hit the streets to talk to everyone he knew on the City Council, Downtown Business Association, Independent Business Allliance (which he founded), and myriad others, rallying them to contact their legislators.
Our relative lack of preparedness was pointed up when it came time for testimony. Testifying in favor of the bill were the three of us plus just one more person, the lobbyist for the Colorado Retail Federation. Signed up to testify against: 73 people from an affililates group, plus one voluble lady decked out in the stars and stripes who was against taxation, period. And while it was GREAT to have the fellow there from the CRF, we had never even met or spoken with him before that day. During the meeting and in the days afterwards, as the amended, greatly watered-down, language for the bill was made public, it became clear that the committee had been very influenced by the sheer numbers of warm bodies who showed up to protest against the bill.
The Committee was actually considering eight or ten proposed bills that day, all of them intended to mitigate the sad condition of the state budget by taxing groups and services which hitherto had been exempt. Natural allies for us, including teachers and school administrators and health care workers, were in the room to testify in favor of another bill that would have funneled more tax money to education, but we had never spoken to them before, either.
Lesson learned: Booksellers in every state should begin NOW to identify and strategize with groups who are our natural allies in the cause of passing Sales Tax laws in every state where sales tax exists. The list is actually quite long and, in addition to bricks and mortar regional and local retailers, including Wal-Mart (yes, they collect and remit sales tax for online sales in all states where it is required), commercial property owners (shopping centers), education, health, and budget advocates, and unions in both the retail and public sector.
A terrific handout was prepared by the California Tax Reform Association and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, who have been battling for an Internet Sales Tax law for years. They calculated that not collecting sales tax for online purchases cost California $485 million annually. Then they did the research and came up with a list of programs that could be funded with that much money. Some items on the "We could" list include:
We could fix 300,000 potholes for $15 million.
We could provide music programs to 2000 public schools for $72 million.
We could hire 500 police officers for $45 million
We could give 8,000 senior citizens served by Adult Day Health Care access to two additional days of supervised care for $27 million.
The list goes on and it is very very powerful.
The bill that was ultimately passed by the Colorado legislature was a disappointment but nevertheless was a very important step in the process and provided invaluable lessions for e-fairness advocates to use going forward. As Nancy Colalillo, owner of Tome on the Range bookstore in Las Vegas, NM, reminded me yesterday, e-fairness activism is not just for bricks and mortar retailers and the other groups noted above - every citizen who benefits from sales-tax funded state services such as decent roads, police and fire departments, schools, health services, and more has a vested interest in e-fairness - they just may not realize it!
Lisa D. Knudsen, Executive Director, MPIBA
Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona
I lament publishers pulling back on the number of sales reps that they have visiting independent bookstores across the country. These reps are like old time peddlers, selling more than the wares in their suitcases. They bring news from one store to another about creative displays, the well-being of colleagues, how an event with an author was staged and how many books were sold, an employee who is great on Edelweiss or Above the Treeline who might help with a problem, and many other bits of news that make us better booksellers. They also form relationships with our staff by talking with them about the books they are reading, the subjects they love, the authors they swoon over. They come early to the sales call with bagels and coffee for the staff and spend time telling them about the books just dropping or a new title coming later in the season. These rep pick sessions have been invaluable to my staff and many a indie bestseller was "created" after just such a pick in our store or other stores throughout the country. We can claim that our reps told us first about huge authors like J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and Sara Gruen but they also got us excited about P J Harsma, James Owens, Abraham Verghese, Robert Olmstead, Sue Monk Kidd, and Brady Udall just to name a very few of our favorites. The loss of reps to indie stores is the loss of culture, of knowledge, of an exchange of ideas, of an excitement about books and reading that can't be made up in dollars saved. Publishers are tossing out the best of what they can do to connect their authors to readers; if the object of publishing is to get books from writers to readers through bookstores, the rep's role is essential.
Gayle Shanks, Owner
Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Your letter is timely and heart-wrenching. I am not sure how we will do without our reps. They were the only connection between us and the publisher, and their knowledge of our store made their advice and recommendations priceless. We recently missed picking up two huge bestsellers simply because there was not a rep to tell us about the books when we did our buying, and no one called us to give us a heads up on publicity and print run. Hence, the books were unavailable by the time we tried to order them...not available from any warehouse, or from the publisher. Even Amazon was out of them. This never used to happen. Our reps knew what they were selling, what was going to be hot because of publicity, and whether we would be likely to sell 2 or 3 copies or 2 or 3 cases. They knew us and they knew our customers. They could tell us which books to totally skip and which to not miss for any reason.
A phone call from the publishing house from an anonymous voice does not fill the void. There is no attempt at establishing a relationship, and frankly I can do just as well ordering out of a catalogue or on-line. However, I will make many more mistakes than when I had my own rep, and mistakes mean the difference between being here and not.
I thank you for asking for comments. This is very important to me and to our business. Independent bookstores cannot keep being the recipients of every cut-back and everything bad that is happening in the publishing world. No matter how much publishers tell us how important we are to their business, their actions continue to favor the huge customer base, and hurt the smaller independents.
Sue Krall, Owner
The Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, Colorado
Sales reps are the best advocate I have for my business. In addition to offering expert advice on new books, they actively help me to manage my inventory so that I don't miss an opportunity to increase sales. One example of this comes from Tom Benton, my Penguin hardcover rep. He suggested I stack up "The Power of Kindness" at the register for one month, and promised we'd sell them all. We did, and since then, we've sold 117 copies!
Nicole Magistro, Co-Owner
Macdonald Book Shop in Estes Park, Colorado
I have always worked with my publisher's reps as much as was allowed in their schedules. I have been doing the buying for our store for thirty eight years, and whatever success we have had is largely due to the dedication and time the reps were able to spend helping me with our orders. Once a rep has become acquainted with our small store and its seasonal business, I can rely on their expertise, and their suggestions. Customers say, "for such a small store, you surely have a wonderful selection."
Working over the phone with a rep is always a second choice, and not seeing the blads or finished copies the reps brought for the juvenile titles is a real disadvantage. Publishers often sent advance reader's copies, but when the rep is able to talk about the reader's copies and I have it in my hand, it is often the difference between a small order and a larger order.
The industry is becoming so impersonal, and without the rep actually making personal contact at our shop or at the trade shows, there is little connection to the publisher hundreds of miles away. My reps are my friends when I buy, when I have a concern, when we need help with ordering for an event, in receiving co-op, and in understanding the special offers. In the past it has seemed like a large family, and that is lost now. I have been doing this for a long time, and as I told the last rep that called this week to let me know that the coming appointment would be our last, "... perhaps it is time for me to get out also."
Paula Steige, Owner
Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado
Our sales in new books are still growing and not yet at the stage I can pinpoint one title that we never would have carried without a publisher's reps' recommendation that went on to become a best seller. It is more like all the books we carry are the result of customer demand and reps' recommendations. It can correctly be said that publisher's reps have taught us how to order front list titles. More than any single title, our shelves are full of books we probably would have missed carrying without the knowledge of books and how to sell them we have gotten from the publisher's reps. In 2005 right as we were starting to put significant amounts (for us) of new books on the shelves, Larry Yoder recommend THE ILLUMINATOR by Brenda Rickman Vantrease. Obviously this title never became a bestseller, but in two years we sold nine copies. Not many, it is true, but the kind of solid mid-list title we never would have known to offer, but was well enough received by our customers. We cannot carry as many titles as Barnes and Noble let alone Amazon, so we depend on the knowledge of publisher reps to tell us what interesting books might appeal to our customer base. To do that the reps need to know us as an individual store. We need the partnership to work so that both the publishers and our store can sell the maximum number of books. The calls and visits from the reps to our store increases sales for everyone.
Susie Wilmer, Owner
The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, Texas
Especially as we struggle to survive, a knowledgeable rep who knows our unique stores maximizes sale-ability of what we order, customizing our orders to suit our customers. There is no way we smaller bookstores can know the books through catalogs, ARCs,and/or blads/F&Gs only. There is not enough time in the day! We are already carrying multiple roles per employee. We need publisher reps to help us work smarter.
Claudia Maceo Sharp, Manager
Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado
It was Gary Cate of Macmillan who first pushed SHANTARAM at us, knowing
that Susan Wasson of Bookworks was hot on it. He got a copy or two of
the book for us to pass around. Since then, we’ve sold thousands of
copies and Shantaram was #6 on our ten top selling books of the last
decade. Without that face to face conversation that happened around
this book, we may never have discovered it.
Joe Foster, Head Buyer
Colorado State University Bookstore in Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks for sending this. Without sales reps, we’d be flying blind.
Fran Wilson, Administrative Assistant
Why should every bricks and mortar business owner and employee be writing and calling their Governors and state legislators about this issue? Why should all of you be talking to your customers, neighbors, and other bricks and mortar businesses about this issue? Because there are 42 states in this great country of ours that require b&m businesses to collect and pay sales tax, while giving online businesses a free pass. 10 or 15 years ago, when Internet businesses were just getting established, the excuse was that the federal and state governments didn't want to hinder the development of the Internet. WHAT? Did start-up b&m businesses get the same consideration? I don't think so. That position was spurious to begin with and should have been a scandal if more people had been paying attention (not that I was...).
Online businesses from the get-go have had an unfair advantage over bricks and mortar businesses. They have been able to sell their products to consumers for a lower price than b&m owners have because the states basically gave them a free pass on sales tax. And consumers who have taken advantage of the lower prices are also culpable, because they have continued to receive all the state services (roads, schools, fire departments) while avoiding payment of their share of state taxes. The vast majority of MPIBA members are b&m stores but we do have a handful of Internet-only booksellers. Last year one of these members, apparently indifferent to the inequity of the situation, sent me an angry email and quit the Association because he didn't like the position that MPIBA has taken on this issue.
Ok - on to NEXUS. Here is the crux of the issue. Most states' sales tax laws require that online businesses collect sales tax from a customer ONLY IF THE ONLINE BUSINESS HAS "NEXUS", defined as a physical presence in the customer's state. So Amazon, for example, at least theoretically only has to pay sales tax in those states where they have a warehouse or other office. However, in some states' statutes, including Colorado's, the definition of nexus is subject to interpretation, i.e., if the Department of Revenue decides to, it can broaden the definition to include "affiliates", also defined as "representational nexus". When this interpretation of nexus is used, Amazon and many other companies would be required to pay sales tax in virtually all of the 42 states. This was the approach that was successful in New York State last year.
Now I'm pleased to report that Govenor Ritter of Colorado has included projected Internet sales tax revenues in the proposed new budget, and has authorized the Department of Revenue to adopt the broader interpretation of nexus. So while I hope that all of our members in the various states will talk with other b&n business owners and write to their legislators, it is most urgent that Colorado residents act now. Dave Grogan and others at the ABA have prepared a webpage with a template letter for each of the 42 states. Click here to access that information. And keep in touch! Lisa K.
It is with trepidation that one sends out holiday greetings to booksellers, as they are living the retail dream, or nightmare, and may be too exhausted on the actual day of Christmas to do aught but lie abed with cold cloths applied. Nevertheless, dear booksellers, my best wishes have been with you - God Bless! Lisa K.
I am a man who believes in the cultural and spiritual efficacy of art with the same devotion that others offer to a church. I devotedly believe that good dance, music, theater, the visual arts, literature, accumulatively provide for us in the industrialized world something akin to an Aboriginal dreamtime: that is, a blueprint of what it means to be human, and more importantly, a template of how our species might yet evolve. Art is the single endeavor that truly examines our everyday bravery and cowardice, our triumphs and ethical disasters. Art, as it should, prods, questions, dissents and celebrates the human condition.
I believe that that’s the importance of an honest and well-rendered book. I believe that books inspire their readers to reach beyond the merely familiar, or to paraphrase Kafka’s observation: “A novel can be the ax that breaks the frozen sea within.” So, what I’ve wanted to do this morning, hopefully without seeming self-serving or obsequious, is to thank you for staking your lives on books. Certainly, not for me, but for a country that needs to read to become wise, and not merely to be entertained.
I’ve stated that I outgrew the notion that books, that the minds and dreams and prayers of our writers constituted a sort of heaven for me as a boy. I was, after all, a boy very hungry to learn what it meant to be a man, specifically, what it meant to be useful and contributive, but do know that being here in the company of men and women who count on the alchemy of literature makes all the difference for me. You give me hope that I am not wasting my life, and for that I thank you.
All right, there are a few awards I figured I’d never get, and I got both of them this year—one was the Western Writer’s of America Spur Award and the other is the Mountains & Plains Independent Bookseller’s Association (Regional Book Award - Fiction) Novel of the Year.
The MPIBA fall meet back in 2004 was the first event I ever attended, I mean the first, and I learned a lot—namely, how to behave like an author or at least pretend. Viking/Penguin had been kind enough to send a couple of cases of THE COLD DISH, the first in my Sheriff Walt Longmire series, to the event. Basically, I was supposed to hand out ARCs of a book that wasn’t going to be available 'till January and wondered what that was all about … Like I said, I had a lot to learn.
Booksellers were kind, taking a novel from some cowboy who looked more like he should have his hind end on a horse rather than espousing on literature. They asked me questions for which I was sorely unprepared, outrageous questions like, “What’s the book about?”
I’d stand there for a few long seconds thinking about a novel I’d been formulating for the last decade and with that sum of collective knowledge, say, “It’s about a sheriff who …”
Suddenly a hand would rest on my shoulder and the patient voice of Eric Boss, ace sales-rep for Penguin USA would intone, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …” And would go on from there. By the time the day was over, booksellers would ask what the novel was about, and I would dutifully and proudly proclaim, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …”
I learned a lot at my first MPIBA conference, but the most important thing I learned was that I liked talking to readers and bookstore owners about books, especially my books. It was a revelation, and one I’ve continued to enjoy. Bookstore owners would take the novels, and I’d sign them and ask them where their store was. They’d demure and assure me that I wouldn’t know the location of places like Wheatland, Wyoming. Whereupon I would assure them that not only did I, but that the Brown Derby Café (now closed) is a great place for a burger.
I still remember New York e-mailing and asking me if I was really doing a signing at Wheatland Mercantile Booknook-Gunsmithing-and-Quilting Supply?”
You’re damn right I was, am, and do, every year.
I still remember how happy I was when THE COLD DISH earned a Booksense nomination simply because as readers go, this was the cream of the crop—people who really knew books. Imagine how happy I was when DEATH WITHOUT COMPANY, KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED, and ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS did, too. My streak has continued with THE DARK HORSE, even as the honor has changed to IndieNext.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have had numerous successes with my books, but I still remember the geographic area that made it all possible, all those booksellers that said to their customers about an unknown author’s series, “It’s a character-driven mystery, literary in nature …”
No group I owe more to or respect as highly.
Thank you,
Craig Johnson
www.craigallenjohnson.com
The deadline for ordering the 2009 MPIBA Winter Catalog is just over a week away. If you’re not sure whether it can work for your store, consider this: last year, because of the way we featured the 2008 catalog titles in our shop (see photo below), and because we sent the catalog out in nearly 19,000 newspapers in our community, we were able to collect enough co-op to not only offset all of our expenses, but to also bring in an additional $4,500. How’d we do it?
First:
Order the books and get them out on the floor. Heaping piles of ‘em. Display them in your most prominent locations—festive holiday windows, front-of-store shelves or tables, endcaps, etc. For the past few years, we’ve dedicated every endcap to catalog books—each one featuring artwork from the catalog and language out of it—“Memorable Lives,” “History,” “Humor,” etc. Choose the books that you know match your store best—there’s no need to feel like you’re letting the publishers dictate your picks, since there are so many great titles in there.
Next:
Get the catalog in your customers’ hands. We’ve found that investing the $1,300 it cost us to stuff them into our three local newspapers more than pays for itself. Folks carry them into the shop, dog-eared and marked up, ready to holiday shop for everyone on their list. We start stuffing catalogs in bags in mid-November, send them out in newspapers right after Thanksgiving, and have stacks of them all over the store.
Finally:
Write up your co-op requests and send them out to the publishers in November, before the holiday crunch really hits. MPIBA provides a very helpful title list, divided by publisher, so you don’t have to flip through the catalog itself to figure this out. I’ve asked for $50 per title with lots of success, explaining that each title is being promoted through in-store display as well as newspaper inserts. Keep in mind that the publishers have already paid a bunch to get these titles in the catalog, so it’s wise not to ask for too much co-op per title. What you want to demonstrate is that you’re behind these books, you’re recommending them to holiday shoppers by really using the catalog to its fullest advantage.
Make It Easy:
Make the process easy on yourself—it’s a busy time of year, after all. Create one form where all you’re switching out is the titles, ISBNs, and total amount you’re claiming from each publisher. Mine is very basic and I’m happy to share it.* I would guess I spent a total of about 10-15 hours preparing our claims and following up on them for the 2009 catalog—hours that can be pretty tough to squeeze in during the holiday rush; if you do the math, though, unless you’re getting paid a whole lot more than the rest of us, that’s time well spent.
*Click the link below to download Libby's Co-op Request Form
WC08_HarperCollins_Catalog_CoopRequest.doc (31.00 kb)
Positive Results with Publishers:
We’ve had positive results collecting co-op from all the major publishers, including HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette, Norton, Houghton Mifflin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. And the end-of the-year timing of the catalog means you can often use up co-op pools you haven’t depleted before they expire.
Oh, and we sold a ton of books, too.
Get into the Winter Catalog Spirit at Your Store:
One more idea to share, to get your staff into the Winter Catalog spirit. Each year, we draw numbers and place our bets on which title from the catalog might sell the best for us between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The winner receives a gift card from the local business of his or her choice. It’s an effective way to get us all really familiar with the books in the catalog, and it’s created a fun holiday tradition.
-Libby Cowles, Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado