246 Bookstores in 44 States Can't Be Wrong
What Rick Moranis and Liz Phair Have to Do With Preordering Books
Hi!
Every week, I think about which aspect of writing/bookselling/publishing is stressing me out the most, and then I write this newsletter. Often I don’t even mention whatever’s stressing me out because I love to avoid. Luckily my therapist doesn’t read my newsletter! Joke’s on her!
But no longer. This week, I’m tackling a biggie….preorders. Another thing that stresses me out is figuring out how to share good things without cringing, but I’m trying to get over it, so before we get to preorders, let’s talk about three good things!
My face was on the cover of Publishers Weekly! The whole thing! Honestly this is so wild that I can’t even wrap my head around it. Shout out to Melanie Dunea for taking the greatest photo of me and shout out to my pre-pandemic skin and general vibe.
Okay, drumroll please…..preorders.
Starting RIGHT NOW, you can click on THIS LINK to see my pre-order page, which will give you links to 246 bookstores in 44 states. That’s a lot of bookstores! You can order This Time Tomorrow at any one of them, or one copy from each of them, and you will get one of my beautiful rainbow tip-ins with my not-totally-beautiful signature on top.
246 bookstores! Here are fun facts about some of the bookstores on the list! Click on their name to go to the preorder site!
+ Thank You Books, in Birmingham, Alabama, is owned by another novelist-bookseller, Kristen Iskandrian. The world is lousy with us nowadays!
+ Skylight, in Los Angeles, is famous for having a tree inside it, which is unbelievably cool, but even cooler is that bookseller Jen Witte draws people’s book jackets. Here are some of my prized possessions from previous visits.
+ House of Books, in Kent, CT, has one of those little huts made out of books and they don’t know that I’m going to move in someday. Surprise!
+ Georgia’s Little Shop of Stories wins best name, sorry to all other entrants in the bookstore name contest.
+ Ok ok ok but maybe Chicago’s Exile in Bookville, too.
+ Another writer/bookseller is my friend Danny Caine at Kansas’ Raven Bookstore, who writes both of the two most important kinds of books: poems and books about why Amazon is bad!
+ Both A Likely Story and An Unlikely Story are on the list, so you get to decide which type of person you are! Glass half full, glass half empty, you know?
+ My neighbors are getting in on the action! Thank you thank you thank you for the community support, Community and Greenlight and Cafe con Libros and Three Lives and WORD and Corner Bookstore!
+ Do you know that if you put Magic City and Books Are Magic together you get Books Are Magic City? Or City Books Are Magic Magic? Now you do! Hello, Tulsa!
+ Pittsburgh’s White Whale has a truly killer (whale) neon sign.
+ If you preorder from Parnassus, just know that your book will be sprinkled with an extra dose of my perfume, Patchett Obsession for Women.
+ Madison, Wisconsin’s A Room of One’s Own has the biggest heart of us all, and they send Queer Qare packages. I think you probably know at least one person who needs one.
I could do this all day! And I will, in fact, be highlighting other bookstores every week from here on out. Why? It’s not just to give fun facts, even though I do love a fun fact. It’s because preorders are crucially important to a book’s success these days, more than ever before. Preorders tell bookstores that people are excited about a book, and so then they order more copies, and build a nice big stack on their tables, which in turn helps more people see it, pick it up, read the flap copy, and maybe bring it home. Preorders tell the publisher that people are buying it, which in turn makes them feed the fire, and offer more support. Preorders all count for the first week’s book sales, which is (honestly) just about the only way a literary novel hopes to crack the bestseller list if you’re not one of the people who just pulls up and parks there for 52 weeks a year. Preorders make authors feel good, especially when they (hi, it’s me) can see their loved ones’ names on the little sheets of paper and sign gushy messages.
Let me put it this way: preorders are my anti-anxiety medication. Preorders are a box of Raisinets and an empty movie theater in the middle of the day. Preorders are a vintage dress that fits perfectly and doesn’t smell weird. Preorders are a stack of pancakes for the table.
You see what I mean? If you’re thinking to yourself, does it make a difference if I preorder this book or buy it a month later, in most ways, of course not, and you should buy books whenever you want, or request them from the library, but since you’re here, reading my newsletter, then yes, please. Preorder. If everyone who subscribes to my newsletter preordered my book, I would do an extra special newsletter edition where I told every publishing secret I’ve ever heard. Try me!
When I worked at BookCourt and my story collection came out, I wrote out a little shelftalker that said “I wrote this book. Please buy it. I love you.” The more things change, as they say.
What I’m Reading:
Isaac Fitzgerald’s Dirtbag, Massachusetts, out in July. I actually wish that all my friends who I met after childhood would write memoirs. It’s very good, and raw, and vulnerable, and I think all white cis-gendered men should read it. Preorder that too, while you’re at it!
Louise Penny! I started my first Louise Penny! I am in the middle of 16 blurb requests but I plan to finish it on my plane to New Orleans this Thursday. I’ll be away for about 48 hours—let’s take a poll. How many books do you think I can read, and how many fried shrimp po boy sandwiches do you think I can eat? Also! If you have a favorite foodstuff and/or vintage clothing store in New Orleans, please let me know in the comments!
Louise Penny!! You’re in for a treat; I just finished her latest one and wish I had more. Her newsletters are also delightful and she’s quickly moved up to Ann Patchett status for me! My heart might explode if they were to ever do an event together.
I preordered my copy last week from my local bookstore way, way out in WA. Can’t wait to read it!
I was (sadly past tense) a fellow bookstore owner. Ugly Dog Books, was born in a small town in Massachusetts. No thanks to what I call the evil empire, Amazon, killed the Ugly Dog. But my passion and love of books, writing, and book stores live on. I too write on substack. revinup450.substack.com. We've got a little in common, you & I. Someday I'll visit NYC and visit your store and write a review. You're an inspiration! WOOF & CHEERS!