Don't Want to Read that New Release Just Yet?

Do you know what I mean? Am I the only one that almost doesn't want to start on the book you have been waiting anxiously for? You know why, right? Because once you read it...it's over. And then what? Wait another year for the next one? I am so delighted for a reader who stumbles on a great author who has years of previous books to get through. There they are, already written just waiting for new readers to discover them.

A similar feeling is when I finish a wonderful book and I am just not ready to move on to another one right away. Almost as though I won't be giving the book what it deserves. I don't want to part ways with the book quite yet. I want to wear it around for awhile. I want to think back on it. I want to tell everyone about it, even if they don't want to listen. When it starts to fade, then it's time to move on.

Gosh, this sounds like a love gone bad or a sad break-up.

Karol

Mysteries Don't Always Stand the Test of Time

A.J. Holt? Ever heard of this author? aka Christopher Hyde. I just had a great conversation with a young mystery reader that really aged me. I have always found it sweet that so many readers enjoy the type of mysteries from the "Clue" game era. You know, the butler did it with a coat hanger in the library kind of mystery. I personally prefer the CSI type who-done-its since DNA tracks down the real culprit right now. So in walks this great young man that has just finished an A.J. Holt mystery. He was drawn to it because it was a mystery that involved clues on the computer, or in computer games, or something like that. So, now my job is to keep this young reader supplied with mysteries from his era. Computer mysteries! I love my job, honestly I do.

Any suggestions? Has anyone read The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver? I remember liking it and I think that was the story line. Ah, see the memory is going, too.

Karol

Advice on Choosing Your New Name As a Writer

Way back in junior high school I worked at a bookstore after school. Now I have worked at a bookstore for 35 years and still ponder how authors choose the name they write under. I realize retail stores and libraries file books completely differently, but here's my advice. Choose a last name that starts with a letter at the beginning of the alphabet. Don't go past the letter M. The reason being: if you go to a store and you are in the mood for a mystery and you are just browsing, hoping someone new will jump out at you, you're going to find someone before you get too far down the line. How do I know this? It's because the beginning shelves are always the most picked over. I watch customers every day pick a genre and start at the beginning of the alphabetically listed authors. I feel so bad for the new authors that come up with names that start with S, T, U and on down the line. Come on...think this out.

Here is a great example. Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, and Jayne Castle. Was she smart or what? This is all the same person and she is just rolling down the alphabet.

Archer, Burke, Coben, Cussler, Cook! Do you think this was an accident?

Thanks for listening (or reading).

Karol

Please Tell Me They Are Wrong

I certainly hope this statistic was just thrown out there with no validity to it. Did anyone else hear this on the Today show? "50% of Americans do not read even one book a year".

Wow. I can't believe that many people don't know how wonderful it feels at the end of the day, to be under the covers, with NO TV on, maybe something naughty on the nightstand (no, not that, I mean some chocolate), with a book just waiting for you to pick it up. Everything else is put aside (laundry, bills, dishes, homework), and it is finally time for just you and your story. It is funny that no matter how tired I am, I can just spring to life after a few pages. Not always, but pretty often. Oh man, is that my hope for the 50% of Americans...that they find just once in their life, that moment in their day.

Enough of that. Has anyone read Alice Sebold's, The Almost Moon? She is most known for her book, The Lovely Bones. I just finished The Almost Moon and just wondered what anyone else thought of it.

Karol

Milk, Bread, & Books!

It's a rare day here at the shop when I don't hear something like this from a fellow bookworm, "I was down to only two books and knew I had to get to the bookstore." Or, "I about freaked out when I realized I was on my last book." Now these are signs of a real Bookworm. This is like music to my ears. To know I am not alone when I pull in my driveway and with a tiny bit of panic think to myself, " I stopped for milk, but do I have a book on my nightstand?"

Karol

Enough Already!

Leave the old books where they belong. Goodwill!

So why do authors go back and re-publish their beginning works after they have become popular? Didn't they make enough on the bestseller to live on that for awhile? Come on! If the beginning work was crummy then, it's crummy now.

My #1 example is Janet Evanovich. So we all love her Stephanie Plum series. We can even get a good laugh out of the "Full" series, but get real. Let those old ones stay on the shelves in the dusty bookstores. You know which ones I mean, Ms. Evanovich. You know, the ones you cranked out for Loveswepts. I realize they only sold for $1.95, but aren't you doing well now?

Readers...check the copyright and publish date.

Karol

Book Exerpts as Foreplay

A woman skimming books at the counter the other day explained she was in search of books with sexy lines that would satisfy the eager question she said her husband was sure to ask that night when he crawled into bed -- "Did you go to the bookstore today; did you get some new books?" Hmmm. Maybe she has something there. At least the woman next in line thought it sounded like a good idea. She too decided buying romance novels was a good idea.

Karol