Bookseller Blogs--Write What Ya Know
Friday, July 10, 2009 As I watched Angels with Dirty Faces recently for the zillionth time, I found myself thinking about this series on bookseller blogs, especially when hoodlum Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) greets his childhood buddy-turned-priest Father Jerry (Pat O'Brien) with, "Whadda ya hear? Whadda ya say?"
And so, in the spirit of 1930s gangster films, I suggest that we steal the salutation and make it our motto for book trade social networking in the 21st century because, well, larceny is an art form in the information age.
Whadda ya hear? Whadda ya say?
Can blogs get booksellers in trouble? It's conceivable. Maybe not enough trouble to land them in the Big House, but certainly enough to heighten their awareness of how they present themselves to readers.
When and how to use your blog--whether institutional or personal--to address controversial issues is something we've all dealt with. Jessica Stockton Bagnulo (Written Nerd) notes that "there are some bloggers who have used their public/personal forum quite effectively when there is a real problem that needs to be addressed (Arsen Kashkashian springs immediately to mind). And there have been a couple of times when I've drawn attention to something I thought was wrong--or even complained when I've had a bad day. But even then, the tone is the same online as it is on the sales floor. You can be casual, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be professional. I actually like doing it--it's kind of a pleasant discipline. I've certainly slipped and made some faux pas in writing that offended someone or gave the wrong impression, but for the most part it hasn't been too difficult. There are lots of different temperaments than mine, though, and a lot of different ways of handling this issue--mine is only one."
Kashkashian, head buyer at Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colo., observes that on his blog, Kash's Book Corner, he doesn't "have many limits on what I write. I won't write anything that will get me fired and I try not to write anything that will jeopardize the store's position with its customers or publishers. I think I've been able to do that without much trouble. The publishers don't seem to hold my rantings against the store. My boss is quite forgiving so I don't worry much about him. Our customers seem to love the inside scoop that I give them in the blog."
He believes in the importance of candor: "I won't write about a topic if I don't think I can be completely honest about it. I also like topics that stir up some passion in me. That passion can be anger over a publisher's policy or humor over something that seems absurd. Most of all I write the blog for me. I don't want it to be a bookstore blog because I don't want to be held to a schedule and I don't want to feel required to write about anything in particular. I also think that makes finding my voice a lot easier. It has to entertain or provoke me and hopefully by extension it will entertain or elicit some emotion in others."
Writing the in-house blog for Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., Patrick Brown says he "is grateful that Vroman's has basically given me free rein to write about what I want as long as I try, whenever possible, to bring it back to books. We have internal discussions, from time to time, about the direction of the blog. For a while, there was some concern that it was too focused on publishing industry chatter. The feeling was that though these posts attracted a lot of traffic, it was more the choir than the congregation. We're trying to reach out and cover more topics of interest to the local community, as that's our core clientele anyway."
Brown strives to keep his personal blog "as separate from work as possible. I don't link to it (at least not the one I'm using now), and I treat it as my own personal space. That's not to say it's private. I mean, it is a blog, after all. I assume some readership. Even so, I don't tend to advertise on that blog that I work for Vroman's. The two blogs are maintained through different email accounts, and they link to different Twitter and Facebook accounts."
Next week we'll explore the Globe Corner Bookstore's blog, which is a group effort that even includes "alumni staff" contributors.
Whadda ya hear? Whadda ya say?--Published in Shelf Awareness, Issue #961
Robert Gray | Comments Off | 

