Because I'm on vacation anyway, I decided to do a skip week on books. We're a little overloaded right now anyway. Of course, it won't matter if I end up ordering the same number of books and get them in one week instead of two, but I'm hoping it will inspire me to be a little pickier for once.

We've got so many good books and we're mostly up to date. Also, the minimums numbers for the secondary publishers have to be reached anyway, so it's only the dozen or so bestsellers that came out this week that we'll be missing. As you've heard me say many times, we're a midlist bookstore, not a New This Week bookstore. 

We're getting the most Magic that's we've ever gotten. Now I have to hope Final Fantasy is a hit. We can be pretty moderate on pricing, at least compared to what I see online, so we can afford to sell a lot at a lower price  

June 8.

Going to walk the one mile Hiouchi trail down to Jedidiah State Park today while Linda tries to attend zoom church.  Jasper is motionless, crouched over a gopher hole in the meadow outside the trailer. He can stay like that for a long time. He's already master of the RV park, wandering around with his leash but without anyone holding the other end of the leash. Tail straight up in the air, head held confidently high, he'll approach anyone who shows the slightest interest, including dogs. With his gear on and upright posture he absolutely looks like a dog from a distance. I've always said he is our Cat/dog.

We did absolutely nothing yesterday. I think I napped three times. Such behavior at home would feel disgraceful, but here it feels just right. (Which only raises the question: Why is it disgraceful at home?)

 

Crossed the highway and found the trail easily. There was a couple in front of me, blasting their radio. Inexplicable! What kind of fucking idiot brings a fucking radio on a nature walk!? I waited to let them get ahead of me. Started walking, immediately came upon a doe who just stood there while I took its picture and talked softly. Didn't run off until I started walking toward it. 

Got sidelined partway to the park. An offshoot of the trail that led down to the Smith River and a gorgeous rock pinnacle over the water where I'm now sitting on a handy seat-sized rock. I will make it to the park yet--I do want to see the Redwoods, but meanwhile I'm going to just take this in. 

 

I'm already relaxed and the sound of flowing water is just layering on another layer. I brought donuts with me. (I know, I know...what kind of idiot brings donuts on a nature walk!) Just going to sit here and imbibe nature and artificially sweetened donuts. And...can't I just enjoy nature without a running commentary? Well you can take the boy out of writing but you can't take the writing out of the boy.

I forgot my hat for this trip, again, so the sun is really beating down on me. I've moved to a less comfortable but shady rock. I think once we really start doing this on a regular basis--which, I hope is pretty much starting now (I'm 'practicing' retirement!) --we'll work out the kinks. Linda brings way too much food and books, I bring work stuff that I'm never going to get to. 

Interestingly, it turns out that a large percentage of people in this RV park are permanent residents. You know, I don't think I would find this kind of living to be all that bad. Maybe a bigger rig than a our Catbus, but...

Toby and Felicia have been making noises about moving to Brookings: she wants the coast and he's adamant about staying in Oregon, so a permanent set up in an RV park in Hiouchi would be great. A vacation home, so to speak. 

Rafters coming by...I'm such an awkward fella, I never know how much to interact or when to wave.  

Guy in the first raft was friendly, people in the second and third raft ignored me. I know, I know...who keeps score but an awkward introvert! Linda and I talk about this all the time; she is a natural, it's second nature, she doesn't think twice about it. I have to admit I'm getting better at it--the trick for me is not try so hard.

Also brought some beef jerky which got got in my teeth. Pulled some grass stems and used them as toothpicks. Real nature boy.

I believe most of the trees along the hills above the river are fir trees. Interesting to be only a mile from the Redwood stands, but no Redwoods. Climbing up some fairly steep rocky terrain. I have to constantly remind myself that I'm an old man--not because I feel like that, but because I don't. I objectively know that my balance, while still good, isn't probably what it used to be.

I think I'll move along to the park, and maybe stop off at this spot again on the way back. I tell you, if I lived in Hiouchi, I'd be down here every day. Maybe getting my writing going again... 

 

Started seeing Redwoods about five minutes from the park--so, probably already the park. They stood among the firs, and weren't the really big ones, so I kept going. Then...relative civilization. Big trees, but also paved roads, cabins, campers, cars, sewage disposal, rangers, the whole shebang. Did a loop, took a few pictures, almost got lost, and headed back.

Took another offshoot, but couldn't quite reach the river without taking a chance. (Someone had even coiled a rope at the top of the slope, but that was more of a warning than an enticement.) I tell you what, though...if I lived here, I'd probably walk this trail every day, especially the offshoots. Only a couple minutes on foot to get to the head of the trail instead of an hour's drive from Bend to get anywhere truly nature and private and not a "No Trespassing" zone. To be fair, there are public trails like the Hiouchi trail a lot closer, but tons of people these days. This trail is relatively quiet. It's just the right length, two or three miles overall, for a relaxing walk. 

Aside from the radio buffoons, saw only two fast moving old men on the trail. Heh. A quail scooting by, leading me away from the nest. That's it. Glorious. 

 

 

I may have overreacted to the shortage of Pokemon. We'll have plenty for summer, and if summer doesn't pan out, then we'll have inventory for the foreseeable future. It's a bit of FOMA: Fear of missing out. But it's also our one competitive advantage: the depth and width of our inventory. We don't do in-store play, or tournaments, or singles, or full boxes at a discount. We sell packs. And more packs. And we can sell packs as long as the trading card games are viable.

There is zero sign of weakness in the market, besides a few grumbles, and there are always grumbles. The prices are being pushed to maximum frequency and price, which may mean people will buy less, or some people will quit, but the game itself will go on. 

I went all IN on Final Fantasy Magic the Gathering. One good thing about having an account with the the same wholesaler for 35 years is that we get a nice allocation of shorted product. In fact, most of the time I don't even take the full allocation.

This time I did....+ every additional chance to order.  It remains to be seen if it was a mistake, which just points out the conundrum. The failures in ordering come from the same place as the successes. The same reasoning, the same planning. It depends sometimes on whether the upside outweighs the downside.

Since we have resources and aren't in debt, the upside tips the balance. When I was broke and in debt, the downside controlled my decisions. Success breeds success, failure breeds failure.   

I like to think I'm smarter than your average bear (though I often fear I'm a hell of a lot dumber). Taking the daily "Slate" quiz is enough to keep me grounded. I'm average, at best, on most quizzes, absolutely terrible at the Science and Vocabulary quizzes (foreign words, no fair!) and do best on Culture and News. 

It's a big comedown for an INTJ on the M&B, and a 5 on the Enneogram.   

Apparently, as far as I can tell, we sell a lot more "Classic" books than most stores. In fact, most stores have a relatively small percent of their space devoted to Dickens and Austen and Hemingway and such. 

In fact, I think that's probably why we sell more classics. We devote a fairly large space to them. It's one of those things where one shelf doesn't have much effect, but two or three bookcases do. But you would only know that if you took the chance to give that much space to classics.

I think when you do things on your own, you tend make mistakes that turn out not to be mistakes.  

 

Another thing I do that seems unusual is that I basically automatically reorder every book I sell. I don't know how this works--or rather, how long it will work. Because it would stand to reason that I'd be constantly expanding my selection. And we really are running out of room.

However, there does seem to be a self-correcting mechanism somewhere in play. Books become unavailable and so drop off the list. I also do drop some titles over time. Just enough, apparently, to allow the other reorders. 

Here's the thing I'd love to ask other bookstore owners. How well do you know a midlist book will sell if you don't reorder them? I'm not talking about bestsellers; those I know you reorder. But that interesting book that took a couple months to sell....how do you know it won't sell every couple of months from then on? Get enough of those rolling and you have a constant flow.  

 

At the doctor's, I compared their weight measurement to our scale at home. To my surprise, the professional scale was actually half a pound less. I guess, in the hour or two between measurements, that's a plus or minus. Not meaningful. 

My BMI is 24, just under the upper limit of 25. But I'm 72 years old, and the internet actually suggests there might be a benefit to being a couple points over. But I like being as slender as I can manage.

It was funny. The nurse started to say something like, "Everyone I see over the age of 70 is..."

"Overweight?" I interrupt.

She shakes her head. "No, the opposite. I see very few overweight and especially obese people, almost none after the age of 80."

I mean, that may just be her observation, but I never would have guessed it. 

For some reason, going to the cardiologist is nowhere near as nerve-wracking as seeing my regular doctor. Basically, about my heart there is no difference that I can tell. As I always say, if I didn't KNOW I'd had a heart attack six years ago, I wouldn't know I'd had a heart attack. No symptoms that I can discern.  

Both doctors said I'm in great shape.  

 

Did I ever tell you guys I wrote a bestselling NYT's novel...under another man's name? 

 

If I told you the name, I'd have to kill you. 

 

Don't ever ghostwrite a novel folks. It feels utterly empty. An exercise in futility, no matter how much they pay you.

 

Basically, I was an intern. (Well, I was paid, but...) I only did it because they promised to seriously consider my next novel. Nothing but crickets. I felt used and I'd given away one of my best premises.

 

Not to mention they turned into complete crap after they took it away from me. Basically MAGA gun porn.

 

 

Another thing that I've noticed about my writing: I wrote about a bunch of different subjects and different genres, 1st person, 3rd person, present tense, past tense, female, male, multiple, single, short, long, anything I wanted.

 

If you're trying to make a career out of writing, this is probably a mistake. Find that thing that works best and keep doing it. 

 

But if you want a fulfilling writing life, do what you want. Write what you want when you want.  

 

 

Anyone reading this will notice that I've been posting much more often in the last few days. I'm probably going to continue that. I'm not going to post it on Facebook. Those who want to read will want to read it.

It's not like I haven't been writing blog posts over the last few years, but 95% of them were private notes to myself. My journal, if you will. 

So what I'm doing is posting publicly what I had been posting privately--with a few more filters attached. Business-wise, I can post the same things, but not with specific numbers, but percentages or trends. 

Fair warning: I'll probably repeat myself a lot. Other than going over every post I've done, this would seem unavoidable.  

 

I went to my doctor yesterday. My A1C has been bumping upward for a few years now, and it was finally at a point where she thought I should really deal with it. 

I didn't get a lot of sweets when I was younger; mostly for special occasions. So around the time I hit 60 years old or so, I decided to let myself indulge. I've managed to keep my weight down. I didn't think I was predisposed for diabetes, and why not? Life is short. 

But it's now getting close to edge of needing medication, so I've decided to quit consuming mass quantities of Sour Patches and pastries and bread. Going to test myself in four or five months to see if that has done the job.

The biggest change is that I'm going to ween myself from drinking lemonade constantly, even though it's always been sugar free. Apparently, the body can be fooled into thinking that artificial sweets are the real thing. So water it is. (I've been doing water for a few days since I got the lab results and I'm already bored. But I think I can stick to it.) 

 

Huge numbers of books are showing up at the store. I'm ordering from four or five publishers now, so I have no control when they show up. So sometimes they all show up at the same time. I have to remember, 90% of these books are books I've sold.

It's crazy how many books we're selling. It's pretty much getting to be a full time job just ordering, collating, and stocking the books. Hell, I spend probably a couple hours a week just dealing with the boxes and the packing material.  

But what fun to see the store fully functioning. It's what I always dreamed of... 

Counter-intuitively, I tend to be more selective in books during the summer and Christmas seasons than I an in the off seasons. 

When I started, I would bulk up for the summer and Christmas because that's when we were selling the most stuff. But, eventually, a Christmas season came along where I really, really needed to turn a big profit and the only way I could do it was to sell down the inventory and be more picky.

Strangely, it didn't affect sales at all.

I started thinking about it and decided that during the off season you need the biggest selection you can manage because people are much more likely to come in looking for a specific title. They are more likely to be locals, so they will want something they haven't seen before.

Whereas in summer and Christmas, the majority of customers or infrequent locals or tourists. It's all new to them. As long as you have a reasonably expansive selection, you will sell books.

The "reasonably expansive selection" is done during the off season.

So strangely enough, it all seems to work, assuming you can afford to possibly lose money to take chances during the off season, you're more likely to make it up during the busy seasons.

I don't know. This is my observation and I could be all wet.  

 

Meanwhile, I've noticed how often we are complimented by our "curation." Which is true, considering that all my titles are handpicked by me, rather than by some corporate algorithm. 

Put I've always been a bit abashed by the knowledge that I pay a lot of attention to the bestseller lists and to the inventory levels at the wholesaler. (Inventory indicates that they have faith in it and will be pushing it.)

But I've noticed lately that when it comes time to reorder, especially with the trade paperback editions, that I veer quite a bit from those two indicators, because I have own experience as to whether the hardcover sold.

For instance, this week I'm being offered the PB version of "How to Age Disgracefully." The inventory numbers are on the low end, but I ordered high because I sold the HC over and over again. 

So in the end, the more or less permanent inventory, or what I call "perennials," are most definitely handpicked and curated.  

For me, all books are good. Read a book? Good on you!

There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. If it's whipped cream, what harm does it do? Read whatever you want, whenever you want. Reading one thing doesn't mean you can't read another thing.

When I first bought the store the impulse I had was to welcome all comers without judgement. I don't know that I truly respected comics (yet! I was totally won over within a year or so) but I respected people's predilection to reading them.  

But a store like mine? It ill behooves me to judge. It's almost the very reason for our existence.

On the other hand, if something doesn't sell? That's another story.

Anyway, I noticed early on that people were pretty picky about the terms they used for what they were reading. Books that I thought of as potboilers were considered "literature" by those who read them. People who read "romance" often didn't like that term. I never have figured out exactly what "historical" books meant, except as a label by the publishers.  

Roughly speaking, it's "literature" if that's what you read. 

The one area where I'm a bit of a snob is SF and Fantasy, but by now I'm so dated that I can't really judge what people consider good or bad. (In other words, I haven't enjoyed a lot the new bestsellers and award winners in the genre.) I burned out on fantasy long ago--and believe me, I read a TON of it in the day. 

Out of the best new SF series I have read lately, two of them were originally self-published: Dungeon Crawler Carl and We are Legion: we are Bob. Neither of them take themselves too seriously, but are strong stories and characters. I think it's interesting that the pipeline to new fiction is so constricted that the authors had to do it on their own, originally.

The third series I really liked was Murderbot, which also doesn't take itself too seriously. It's also a great TV series on Apple, which the store-crew gets together to watch each week, along with Poker Face. (So many IN jokes!)  

Anyway, I try to find non-pejorative terms for genres.  I mix SF and Fantasy together--it's up to you to be snobs about one over the other. (I put Romantasy in either regular fantasy or in the TikTok book section.

The TikTok book section is strictly a merchandising term and refers to a number of genres. 

I use the term "Rom-com" for the new version of romance novels. I stick in my historical novels section whatever books the customers refer to as historical (while the vast bulk goes into "regular" fiction.

Yes, I use the term "regular" fiction because I'm damned if I know which books are literary and which are not. 

That's totally up to the reader.  

Wildfire

That was an interesting experience. We had a wildfire just two miles away yesterday. Once I ascertained where it was, I realized it was area I'm very aware of. I don't think it was BLM land, but ranch land, so probably some isolated houses.

The planes flew so low over our house that everything shook. 

First the lights went out. I walked out the door and stood in the driveway to see if any my neighbors were doing the same thing. Cale, across street, confirmed the outage. (Cale is the neighborhood connector.) Met Jennifer from across the street and had my first conversation with her: she showed me an app on wildfires. Talked to Cale's wife, Kerry, who had let her kids up on top of the house to watch the planes. "Good for you," I commented. 

Our neighbors to the west of us came out; very private people, but managed to exchange a few words. I exclaimed, "We're doomed!  Game over, Man!" and the husband laughed. 

Uploaded the wildfire app, which took forever because we had about 1 and 1/2 stripes. 

Woke up coughing this morning, but it looks like they have it under control.  

Anyway, it started off as a "Get set" level of warning and then was downgraded to "Get ready," both of which seemed somewhat alarming.  Thing is, I have a tendency to think everything will be fine. If I'd been in one of the Twin Towers, I would have been one of those who stayed in my chair.

But then I started thinking what I'd grab if I had to run. 

Well, the Catbus is ready to go. I could pack a suitcase with some traveling cloths; my medications; my usual backpack with computer and notebook plus a few other business records off my desk.

Jennifer commented that her first thought was her passport. "I don't want to have to go through getting one of those again!" 

Linda has a file with most of the important info. But other than that? Not really much. Oh, yeah. The Cat. 

It just goes to show how little is truly necessary to keep going. And that a "go bag" isn't probably necessary as long as you have the important steps already mapped out and some kind of warning. 

A little excitement. Electricity went out around 4:00. Then airplanes came flying close over our house. Neighbors all out on the sidewalk, some with apps showing the Euston Fire only two miles away, with a "Be Set" to leave notification.

Around 8:30, electricity came back on, but still on a "Be Ready" notification. However, they seemed to be saying the fire isn't progressing, so...

 

For the first time, I'm going to be taking money out of my retirement account. The Catbus and traveling costs have caught up to me. But I'm 72, so holding off this long is pretty good. I'll still be earning for another year and half, but after that it's a fixed income, baby.

Linda been drawing out for awhile now. She's four years older than me and when she retired, she retired, by God.  And good for her.

 

I think maybe I've gotten a week ahead of myself, at least for PRH, Scholastic, Book Depot, and S&S. My reasoning is, while Ingram shows up on the week I order, other distributors don't until ten days to two weeks later. 

I was more or less able to parse it out this week. The important number is the budget each week. So far, I'm a little in the  negative after the first six weeks of keeping track with a rolling average.  Not bad. 

We're ahead in sales and earnings. We're going to be spending a fair amount on product through the summer so we'll need to a boost. But no one has canceled Summer or Christmas yet.

 

I'm going to open up to the possibility of taking people's comic collections, if they want to donate them. You know, find them a good home. Our "Dungeon" is now open for business, and I'm giving Dylan some extra hours to work on back issues. I want to keep him, and I think we'd coasted a little too long on collectables. It's time to be proactive. 

 

Out of the blue, Dylan asked me if he recommend anyone be a writer as a career.

Without thinking, I said, "Oh, no.  Don't do that."

Then spent the next five minutes trying to explain myself. But the automatic "No" kind of surprised both of us.  

 

Big versus efficient.

Because of my experience with debt in the first half of my career, I now deduct what I spend from the budget when I order it, rather than when it comes due. This keeps me in check. Sometimes it doesn't come due until much later, but I can always be assured that it's covered in the budget. 

Throwing the door open to Simon & Shuster, Harper Collins, and Scholastic has complicated things immensely. This on top of already ordering from Ingram and Penguin Random House. 

When I first started ordering, it was strictly from Ingram. I knew exactly what I was spending and when it was due. But the profit margin was frozen at about 10 to 15% less than I could get from the publishers. 

Now I'm juggling multiple invoices, arrivals times, and due dates. Each of these publishers have their own accounting methods and procedures. It's taking time to learn the quirks, but it should get easier.

The thing is: I know I have the money. Because I spent it when I ordered. So however confusing it all is,  we're fine. I just like knowing where I'm at.

What's happening is that I'm relinquishing the fine tuning that I'm used to doing. Instead of constantly monitoring the inventory level, I moving to keeping track of the budget. A constant flow of books is replacing specific orders. Because there are more books coming in, I'm not worrying as much whether I have a particular book.

I think this is the direction the store has to go, if I'm not involved. I'm a bit obsessive about having every single title I think we should have as quickly as possible. Because of that I'm willing to spend hours and hours checking, ordering, and putting out everything as early as possible. 

But I don't think other people can be expected to be this way. 

I've always said, the big chains stores aren't efficient--they're big. They compensate by not have specific items by having tons of items. 

In a minor way, this is where we are transitioning. A constant flow of good material will have to work to replace a fine turned monitoring of each title. Anything else will burn out anyone who doesn't enjoy the process as much as I do. 

I'm going to increase my public blogs. I think it's part of my "practicing for retirement."

I believe this is going to mean turning somewhat inward. So instead of meeting people in my store, I'll be doing more online. This, at a time, when Facebook is becoming fairly useless. So I'm going to ruminate more here, instead of doomscrolling, which I'm wont to do.  

Of course, this means perhaps revealing what a horrible person I am. I won't know I'm doing that, of course. I'll be trying to be reasonable, but if I'm horrible I'm horrible in ways I may not be aware of. 

 

Apparently, AI stories are starting to flood Amazon.

The bookstore owner in me says, "Great! All the more authenticity for my store. Come to Pegasus and get the real thing!"

The indie writer in me is sad. The vast majority of my sales have been online.

It appears to be the future, either way. 

State of the Store.

We're ahead of last year in the first five months by 20%. At this rate, this will be a record year. I don't know what to make of that. Especially with all the uncertainty on the national level.

Some of that is because I decided to go harder on making sure the store was inventoried to the very highest level possible. Some of that is the popularity of Pokemon. 

We've also tried hard to pay more attention to back issue comics, which really paid off this month. I've opened up the Dungeon room downstairs. It's not organized, but that's part of it's appeal. Instead of setting a price before the customers go downstairs, I tell them, "We'll negotiate at the cash register. I promise I'll try to be generous..."

Books continue to climb, though not quite at the rate they were for the first four years since Covid. Games and toys have more or less slowed down. I'm not trying terribly hard to goose them. I'm maintaining, at this point.

I believe I've made a lot of decisions that have turned out well. I went all in on Pokemon and Magic at a time when they seemed on the verge of becoming a fad. I'm willing to risk that it could all come to abrupt halt because I know that the product will still be viable years from now. Meanwhile, sales are rocketing. I've played this "shortage, FOMO" game before. Lots of experience and it's paying off. 

I've now got accounts with four out of the six most important publishers: the Big Five and Scholastic. I'm going to hook up with MacMillan as soon as I've figured out all the kinks with Simon and Shuster and Harper Collins. Their systems are somewhat antiquated, not entirely easy to deal with. But for the extra ten to fifteen percent discount, it's worth the effort. I think.

I'm trading ease and timeliness for discounts. But it will become easier over time, I assume. And since I'm now ordering a constant flow of books from different sources, I'm not sure the timeliness is quite as important, plus I can always order the "hot" current book from Ingram while waiting for it to arrive from the publisher. 

Instead of "practicing retirement," as Sabrina suggested, I seem to be fully engaged. 

I came home really tired last Sunday, and after resting awhile, I started ordering books. I realized that ordering books is relaxing for me. It's not a chore, I find it fun and interesting--and I can do so in a quiet, peaceful way. 

Everyone has work they like and work they don't like I guess. In helping Hannah with her store, I've realized that what works for me won't necessarily work for her and vice versa. Obvious, I suppose, but I do things that I absolutely KNOW work and I want to pass that along.

For instance, I figure that half the books we sell are books that are facing out: part of this is because the books are already hot and we want people to see them. But a large part of it is that seeing the cover is the trigger.

I asked Sabrina what percent of the books we sell are face out, and she said, "Maybe half...?" Which was the exact percentage I landed on. Hannah has decided she wants her books more orderly looking and who's to say she's wrong?

Anyway, feeling energized. I'd like to say I'm being cautious, but the very spurt we're getting right now can pay for whatever crash happens, so no reason not to keep being aggressive.  I'm 72 years old and I feel like I do this for another twenty years. But...time (and Sabrina and Linda) disagrees. 

Trying to get down to 170 for my yearly doctor appointment next week. Why it matters, I'm not sure.

170.4 this morning.

I was very disciplined yesterday. I'm more or less turning to my "Sandwich Diet." That is, I have a sandwich (300) calories at Noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, with a salad (300) in-between (sandwiched, as it were.) I allow myself to switch out one sandwich for 300 calories of snacks. (I often am not hungry until 2:00, so I can skip the noon. Or I can skip the 8:00 one. The point is to not ever really get hungry. Two sandwiches within two hours of each other gets me through. 

This gets old pretty fast, but for a week or two, it's very effective.