12 Rules, cont.

7.) On good authors, carry as many of their titles as possible. Yesterday, had a customer ask for the first Palahniuk book. Since I have every book he's written, I assured him that I had it in stock even when he insisted I didn't. Eventually, he found it. Point being, I knew I had it, because I have them ALL. And it didn't surprise me he was looking for the earliest one. B & N is probably going to carry the latest books of most authors, but probably not bother to carry them all. But I figure I already have a customer interested in that author, why not carry them all?

8.) Ask customers for their 'favorite' books. Did this at the beginning of the process, and it worked out really well. The first assemblage of new books was such that people trusted the selection, because there were so many titles in the mix they liked. I hit a few clunkers by asking, but not many.

9.) Ask customers to post capsule reviews on index cards of their favorite books. This fits with the above rule. People really respond to honest reactions.

10.) Carry a large selection of local interest. I'm trying, but this has been difficult because they are under so many different categories (history, travel,natural science, etc.) and because so many of them are out of print. Also, many of these books are put out by small presses that my wholesaler doesn't carry. But every time someone mentions a local book, I try to get it.

11.) Order from liquidators. I haven't started doing this yet, but eventually. Because I'm not concerned about best-sellers, but I am concerned with good books. If a good book shows up at a discount, makes sense to grab it.

12.) Don't be ashamed to mix cartoon, and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Look for themes and intuitive connections. Something that Barnes and Noble simply CAN'T do. For instance, putting the 'beat' authors together. Eventually, I'll have to to strictly alphabetize, I suppose. But right now, I enjoy sticking like-minded authors together. Sedaris next to Eggers next to Palahniuk, etc.

So far I haven't even started alphabetizing, but I've been arranging book thematically. Soon, I'll have too many books to do that to my whole inventory. But I'm going to keep trying to fit authors together, if possible, even if out of order.

O.K. Reading these over, maybe they aren't all that radical of suggestions. It's a matter of emphasis, as I said. I think the avoidance of Best-sellers is probably the most revolutionary proposal, and the one where I may be wrong. I'm pretty convinced that the trade paperback route is the one to go. All the rest of the rules aren't all that strange, but require an effort to be effective.

I'm just beginning this exploration, so I'm sure I'll find out some rules are more important than others.