President Obama's memoir is coming.

 I continue to be amazed how well books are doing.

Part of me is kicking myself for not doing this sooner. The offbeat books continue to sell. The "bestsellers" are probably breaking even. I'll sell one, replace it, and then the second book may or may not sell. On average. Meanwhile, I'll sell a bunch of silly or weird or unique books.

 I was complimented by a customer yesterday, who told me he liked how, if I have a good author, that I'll carry all that author's books. Well, that's my strategy. I figure that a good author is a good author, and even fans probably haven't read all of an author's oeuvre. 

As far as bestsellers are concerned, President Obama's memoir on November 17, (assuming my preorder arrives in time) will be a test. I ordered 16 copies of the $40 book: this is probably nowhere near what most bookstores will sell. I know one local bookstore that sold 4 times that many Michelle Obama books. But it's a lot of copies for us.

Anyway, when I see how well books sell, and how it fits my own knowledge base, I wonder why I didn't do this years ago.

But the truth is, I know the answer: Because the system wasn't in place for me to do it. 

Oh, I held off for a few years because I didn't want to hurt the Book Barn, who was my neighbor. Again, in hindsight, they weren't exactly friendly with me and I didn't owe them anything, but I'd experienced some cutthroat competitors by then so didn't want to be like that.

But the real reason was that the barrier to entry was pretty high. When I first approached Ingram Distributors, they made it clear that as a "comic shop," they weren't interested in my business. They set a minimum that I simply couldn't do from the start. (That was an idiotic policy on their part--the biggest thing in publishing right now is YA graphic novels.)

Fortunately, Baker and Taylor was willing to take me on. So from there, I was able to build the sales. 

But even then, I was only paying half attention to it. I took the easy pickings, the low hanging fruit. I stayed away from the usual bestseller grind because I realized that I just didn't know enough and didn't have time to learn.

Since I came back to the store in September of last year, I've been paying close attention. And it has paid off. I'm now hooked into the information sources and the supply chain that makes it possible. With plenty of room for expansion. For instance, I'm direct with Scholastic and Penguin Random House, which allows me to order roughly half the books I need at a higher discount. But there are four other big publishers I could also sign up with. 

It's the amount of work that entails that keeps from jumping in. Already, this higher level of books sales means I'm spending at least a couple of extra days a week just ordering and stocking. Adding the other publishers would probably add another couple of days. 

Meanwhile, though I've been very clever in creating space for books, I'm rapidly approaching peak capacity--oh, who am I kidding; I passed peak capacity a long time ago. But I keep squeezing them in. But at some point, I will need to hold to a certain level and just try to improve the quality of the offering instead. 

It's been fun. I'm fully engaged. With Sabrina paying full attention to comics and graphic novels, I don't feel like I'm neglecting my core business.

My next goal is to establish a stronger presence for games--just in time for Christmas. The competition for games had increased dramatically over the last three years or so. All the big chain stores have a strong presence. But we have the room and the income to try to increase our stock, and so I ordered a bunch of games directly from the largest supplier. 

We'll see how that goes.

Toys are finally available at discount prices from Diamond again, so I'm being a little aggressive about that, too. Both of these surges are being paid for by books. It seems like, over time, a resurgent product line will take its turn being the one that supports the other lines.  As it should be.