Team C.O.T. Celebrates "City of Thieves" in Paperback, Launches Next Initiative

In a blast from our past, Penguin Los Angeles-based sales rep Tom Benton detoured from a family gathering in Chicago up to Milwaukee to visit Boswell Book Company. Tom was an early champion of David Benioff's City of Thieves, and if you keep track of old Schwartz newsletters, so were we. In the end, the Schwartz stores did sell over 100 copies of the book in hardcover, but I learned from Tom that the wonderful Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado, sold over 400!

City of Thieves is now out in paperback and my dream is to sell tons. We have at least four booksellers who loved the book and I promise you this will not be my last post on this book. But just in case you're browsing randomly and came upon this entry, it's about two Russian young men during the siege of Leningrad on a wild chase to find a dozen eggs for a wedding, with execution in the cards if they don't succeed. It's dark and funny, working as a straight-ahead thriller and a stylized modern story. This is off the top of my head; wait till I practice better. I want to be one of those stores that sells 500 copies of something; why can't it be Benioff's novel?

Benton sat me down to chide me for not having more than one copy of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. it's the first released from the boutique imprint from Amy Einhorn, a lovely editor previously at Hachette who ran the Five Star program and also shares my mom's name (no relation to our knowledge). The Help is the easiest book ever to hand-sell, says Benton, a story of 1962 Mississippi with echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird. Since it is actually fabulous, we don't have to worry about steering anybody wrong. The reorder went in immediately.

What we're really gearing up for, however, is Ron Currie, Jr.'s Everything Matters, coming in July. He is over-the-moon about it, and the publicist Shannon at Viking/Penguin was already talking it up as well. It bodes well for us, because Schwartz in general, and the Downer location in particular, actually did pretty well with Currie's previous God is Dead, and that book was relatively quiet.

All in all, a lovely if short trip for Tom. First a pop in at Franklin's Chocolate, then lunch at TLC Soup, a short detour to buy lightbulbs at BBC Lighting, a coffee picked up at the lakefront Alterra. Yes, we've got a local source with national reach that's very competitive pricewise. If Tom had had more time in Milwaukee, I would have made him tour the fascinating showroom. Plus they have excellent initials.

Oh, and did I mention that Tom is Publishers Weekly rep of the year? I would link to the story, but I don't think it's been published. I know my friends at Tattered Cover, Vroman's, Boulder, Skylight and Book Soup are all huge fans. Congrats to Tom, my fellow member of Team C.O.T.

Yes, it galls me too that I'm not yet linking books to our web site. I promise we'll have something up very soon.

Memory and the Sales Floor

There's a certain kind of memory for books and a slightly different kind for people. That's my dilemma as I spend more and more time on the sales floor at Boswell's. I've always had problems with names and faces, and that problem has gotten worse as I've aged. I've always been pretty good at pulling books out of my head, though I find myself becoming more dependent on computers for this as I age.

In my new role, it's really important for me to remember as many people as possible. As you've already heard me say countless times, all we've got to set us apart is our knowledge, our relationships, and the store experience. I warn each person I talk to that I'm terrible with names, but in the past this didn't come up as much as I sat and bought in my buying cave. Now every day there's someone I know, but due to brain malfunction, I sometimes come up with...nothing. Other times, the memory kicks in about halfway through the conversation. Go memory, go!

So I'm working this week and a familiar woman comes in and we start chatting. I say, "I know you from somewhere" and it turns out that no, I know Polly in 17 different ways and she knows every person I know in Milwaukee. She's co-worker of one old friend, ex-landlord of another (both fellow booksellers at one time), campaign manager of another friend, I am more embarrassed by the second! Sad too, because I like her very much and wonder why I don't know her better.

Then another man comes in, they're friends, we talk, and when my brain yet again doesn't function, it turns out we've also met many times before and Michael is married to my friend Jennifer. My embarrassment knowns no boundaries. Then I run into Nick. Since he was a customer from 20 years ago when I worked on the floor of the Iron Block store downtown, I did remember him. He runs the Inova Gallery at UWM. Here's a current exhibit.

I've turned into that person who you've met several times but never seems to know you. I've become that guy! Me! Ick. I can't speak for everyone else who seems to snub you, but I promise I'm not doing it on purpose. I can only blame the old hardware.

To make sure I never forget Polly and Michael again, I've posted their picture here. Michael's in town to possibly work on an upcoming Milwaukee Art Museum project with the Chipstone foundation. Polly seems to do 300 things connected to UWM six blocks away.

In part, I blame files that are overloaded. On April 3rd's On the Media, Brooke Gladstone complained about wanting to get rid of the theme from the Patty Duke show to Gary Small, the author of iBrain. This was about how Google was affecting our brain. "I don't really need that anymore." My thoughts exactly! Only I like remembering the song. That's my problem; I want it all. But there's plenty of other things I wouldn't mind deleting.

And here's the New York Times article about editing memory.

Hey, I'm Less Than a Week into this Thing and I'm Already in a Feud

Greetings.

My posting on our ex-Downer Avenue Schwartz blog, acknowledging that the new bookstore is no longer connected to the Inside Flap and has a new blog, The Boswellians:
http://insideflap.blogspot.com/2009/03/last-official-post-on-inside-flap.html

My ex-coworker Jay Johnson's rebuttal that the blog will live on:
http://insideflap.blogspot.com/2009/04/flap-is-dead-long-live-flap-or-why-some.html

More power to you, Jay. I wish you the best.

Our Story So Far

It's been three days of the soft opening of Boswell Book Company and we're learning quickly what needs to be done.

1. Our hours need to be posted online. Since we're having trouble getting our web site up and running, I'll post it here. In my defense, we've done our application, but we have to wait until our training from the ABA (American Booksellers Association) on April 13th.

Monday through Saturday, opening at 10 AM and closing at 9 PM
Sunday, opening at 11 AM and closing at 6 PM.

We will stay open later for certain events and open earlier by appointment.

2. I am naturally averse to spending money. When I see something I like that costs more than a dollar and isn't an amazing deal, I have to process before I spend. I look at the item, leave the store, make sure I want it, and then come back and buy it. There are many good aspects to this personality tic, particularly in a business that is not exactly bleeding profit.

However, it does mean I put off making money decisions. Amie has been keeping me informed daily regarding exactly how much we've spent on everything. As an LLC, the store's money is my money, and we've just:

a. purchased the business
b. split the cost on an inventory

c. painted the store

d. paid a lot of fees to lawyers (Totally fair and reasonable, I couldn't be happier about how that went. No lawyer bashing in this post.)

e. and to our bank

f. and cleaned our carpet.

g. and bought gift cards and bags
h. and looked at the credit card fees as I set us up for processing

i. and really, really, really came to terms with payroll (worth every penny)

And I needed just a little break before I went through the rest of my cash. I feel like walking around with my pants pockets inside out with a horn player following behind me playing "Wah, wah."

That said, I have to get cracking on our outside signage. My mourning period for the wonderful Mackenzie, who was giving me signage advice, and was recently laid off, has to be over. I promise to start contacting people for quotes today. For now, I think we're only going to do the flat letters on the front of the store. I think we're doing white instead of gold (not enough contrast on the latter, which is what Schwartz used) and I'm leaning towards a Courier typeface.

3. It took a long time to get our Master Card and Visa up. We should be able to take American Express sometime today (Monday). I know a lot of stores still don't take Amex and historically, I understand the feeling. Standard fee is about 3% back to them plus a 10 cent fee, plus there is money to your processsor too. However, it turns out the traditional 2% for small retailers (yes, gas stations and supermarkets and mass merchants pay less) is for the classic bank card, which you hardly see anymore. Branded cards are usually a half a point higer, and corporate cards approximate the Amex fee. As a merchant, you can't distinguish between which Visa and MasterCard cards you take, so why not take the Amex too?

Here's a getting-ready picture we recently sent to the trade. Mark is not in the picture (working at the Better Business Bureau) but from clockwise back row left, we've got Sharon, Anne, Jason, myself, Pam, Amie, Melissa, Beverly, Brian, Sarah, Carl, and special-guest-star Elly.

Today's Boswellian Links

Yesterday was the last day for the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Shorewood and Brookfield. Here is WISN's report on the closing.

Linda Olsson reports in about her time in Milwaukee on Beattie's Book Blog, New Zealand's finest. If you like the ups and downs of book tours in general, the other city postings might be to your interest.

Here's an article on the transition to Boswell Book Company from the online magazine Suite 101. Ms Eirschele is a long-time fan of our Brookfield location, recently decamped to central Ohio.

I Receive Offical Consumer Product Survey, and That is as Unexpected as the New Novel "A Reliable Wife."

Recently we received a survey from the Official Consumer Product Survey of America. Inside was a letter that promised riches of up to $2500 if we just took 15 minutes to fill out a four-page survey. I suspiciously read the following:

“Once in a while we carefully select individuals in your community—those whom we feel represent the smartest, most value conscious shoppers. Then we use some of our research budget (I’m suspecting the estimated cost was 50 cents, including presort postage) to find out exactly what these smart shoppers really want.”

Oddly enough, for all their research, the envelope was addressed to “the Main Grocery Shopper” at our address. Perhaps this is used to get us on some direct mail marketing lists. I don’t think these folks read the book that I recently finished, Buyology: Truth and Lies about Why We Buy. Were it the case, they'd ditch direct mailings for MRI machines, and slice up our brains to evaluate stimuli. But that's for another posting, alas.

What I found interesting about the survey is that my survey would have had me constantly checking “other.” My preferred brand of stain remover was not listed (I swear by Tech from Madison; you can get it at Downer Hardware), and we don’t use an air freshener. It turns out my hobbies include neither “cigar smoking” nor “sweepstakes and lotteries.”

This was all fun, but it was the reading question that really got my attention. “What types of books or magazines do your household members read?” Here were the options:
--Best selling fiction
--Bible or devotional
--Cooking or culinary
--Country lifestyle
--Interior decorating
--Medical or health
--Natural health remedies
--People or entertainment
--Science or technology
--World new or politics
--Astrology
--Children’s
--Computer
--Fashion
--History
--Military
--Mystery
--Romance
--Science Fiction
--Sports

In this particular case, unlike “Nighttime Sleeplessness Aids”, there wasn’t even an “Other” option.

Where did this list come from? Who is this target person? Astrology but no spirituality? Computer books? Fashion books? In what decade was this survey written? There’s no self-help or psychology? The only history acceptable is military?

For me, however, the strangest thing was that there was no box to check for fiction that was neither best-selling, nor genre. What terrible mistake led “Laura David” at Shopper’s Voice to send me this survey?

I think of this as I contemplate the joys of the new novel by Robert Goolrick, A Reliable Wife. Set in small-town Wisconsin, Ralph Truitt places an ad for such a woman, and the one he’s chosen, Catherine Land, arrives by train, with a plan to slowly poison him. She, it seems, is not all she appears to be, but neither is he—both have ulterior motives.

Aside from being 1907, this could have been one of the houses that received this survey, and this house would also have been totally inappropriate. Goolrick cleverly shifts our expectations as secrets are revealed, twisting our allegiances, and questioning our judgments of good and evil.

The story is intense and wonderful and unexpected. Do I have quibbles? Yes, despite my cowardly nature, the stern prose demanded a story that was a bit more violent, and I questioned why several female characters popped up and disappeared in Catherine’s history: Alice, Hattie, India... If you read A Reliable Wife, you can argue with me over why this is the case; perhaps it was structurally appropriate.

My point here is really this—what box was I supposed to check here? For most people in the world apparently, a book like this isn’t even an option. I guess it could become a bestseller. Maybe if Oprah took a shine to it. She’s been drawn to small-town Wisconsin stories before, most notably The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Drowning Ruth, and the novels of Jane Hamilton. (Please mark on your calendar that Ms. Hamilton is reading at Boswell on Wednesday, May 6th, as part of our grand opening. She's reading from and talking about her new novel, Laura Rider's Masterpiece. Expect me to gush about that further in future postings.

The odds of this happening would be unlikely, but for one twist--A Reliable Wife is the #1 Indie Next pick for April. So we indie booksellers are working hard to bump this novel into the "bestseller" category.

But say we don't. And what about all the other titles that some of us love but don't fall into easy slottings? For you, the independent readers of the world, this is your secret prize, the category printed in invisible ink.

Our First Offsite Event, a Book Club Website Suggestion

Our friend Tessa is one of our most loyal event attendees. At Schwartz, I saw her the same week at Mequon for Stephanie Kallos and at Downer Avenue for Chris Cleave. Last week she saw Hillary Jordan at Brookfield and then was an attendee at Boswell's first event for Linda Olsson at the Milwaukee Public Library. Olsson was in town to read and discuss (and play music connected with) her new novel Sonata for Miriam.

She's also a huge fan of the online book club Dear Reader. The coordinator, Suzanne Beecher, offers chocolate chip cookies to the best idea of the month. Tessa told her she was going to pitch the idea of the club to both us and Lanora at Next Chapter. Tessa, we've officially made a link and folks hankering for instant book club are grateful. You've earned your cookies.

Meanwhile, we had a great time at Centennial Hall with Linda Olsson. About 60 devoted fans (and when I say devoted, I mean it, as the event location changed at the last minute from the Mequon Schwartz) turned out to hear the lovely New Zealander-by-way-of-Sweden (or is it the other way around?) Ms. Olssson talk about Sonata for Miriam, as well as a bit about Astrid and Veronika too.

Here's a picture of Olsson with Paula Kiely of the library, Olsson's escort Mary Gielow, plus Sarah (and also me) from Boswell.

At the Scene of the Paint Job

Did I say we were just painting the ceiling? It turned out to be just as easy to paint everything. Have I mentioned that the color is Cayman Cream? It's an ivory with a touch of green. It looks nice with our gray-green industrial piping. At one point, we had the choice to make it a tone darker, but after polling the booksellers, we decided that the color we originally chose worked best. Bev's husband Shel, a retired architect, reminded us that we should test varied lighting for the best effect. It's what Max Kohl did in his grocery stores!

Our lead painter Katie Rose has had the business for 12 years. On the side, she's also a grad student who soon plans to turn painting part-time while she starts works with disconnected youth full time. Oh, and a note to her professor--she promises to work more on her capstone project as soon as this job is done. Hey, you have to make time for a bookstore, right?

Joining her on the project are Lisa, Annie, and Hulya. They will be painting through Thursday evening, and will continue to do some detail work after we open. I never realized how complicated our ceiling is; next time you're in the store, look up. If you do like their work, let me know and I will give you their contact information.

Now all we have to do is schedule the carpet cleaning for Thursday night and we'll be all set for soft opening on Friday. Did I mention how soft this soft opening is? It's all a blur and I keep forgetting. Will we take credit cards yet? Maybe. How about gift cards? Not likely until the middle of the month. Magazines? At least that long, maybe longer. Any other questions? Post here or call us at the store.