Ask a Bookseller
Good morning and welcome to Crafting Your Career. Last summer, while waiting on line for a book signing at the RWA conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Rosemary Potter, the 2009 RWA Bookseller of the Year. We chatted for quite awhile and I found I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask Rosemary to stop by RU.
Rosemary joins us today all the way from Australia.
Adrienne: What was the experience of being chosen Bookseller of the Year like? Was there anything that surprised you about it?
Rosemary: When I first received an email informing me of my win, I didn’t believe it. In fact I spent the good part of a morning Googling the award to make sure someone wasn’t having a joke at my expense. Once it was established that I was the recipient of the Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year award, I can honestly say I was still surprised but also very honoured. I love my profession, I love reading and I love specialising in such an exciting and fascinating genre and to be recognized and awarded for doing something that I love is just the icing on the cake. I was surprised that the award was bestowed on an Aussie bookseller!
Adrienne: What is the book buying process in your store? How do you decide what to buy?
Rosemary: We do a lot of research. We exhaust all of our resources to find the best in romantic fiction. We load our database (we would load approx 200 new titles every month) full of books sourced from publisher catalogues, magazines, websites, customers and authors. We also double check with the RT book reviews magazine to make sure that we haven’t missed anything. We base a lot of our ordering on customer demand and pre-orders, as well as any known organised publicity a book will receive. We also decide in advance which books will be featured in our monthly catalogue and obviously order more of the featured titles. That is why ARC’s play a big part in our ordering process. If we enjoyed the book we can decide to feature it in the catalogue, display it in a prominent position in store and also helps with our very hard monthly decisions on what to hand sell.
Adrienne: What can an author do to get her book noticed by a bookseller?
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Thank you, Rosemary for being with us today.
RU Crew, here is your chance to ask a busy bookseller all your burning questions.
Join us on Wednesday when Wayne Levine will be here to talk about what it means to men when they argue.
Rosemary’s Bio: Queensland’s first specialty romance bookstore was opened in 2002, and it took a near death experience for Rosemary Potter to have the guts to do it! Rosemary decided to turn her back on the rat race when she was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus, she decided that instead of returning to her high flying, stressful career she would open a bookstore. But not just any bookstore, Rosemary wanted to specialise in her favourite genre. Romance!
Despite the sneers and sniggers certain to come from the non believers Rosemary’s Romance Bookstore opened its doors on the 12th of August 2002.
With 6 books cases overflowing with with all sub-genres of romantic fiction and a table full of new releases, a database of 70 customers and a desire to share her passion with Australia, Rosemary invited romance lovers in. The gorgeous wooded bookcases, chandeliers and sense of another world was the beginning of Brisbane’s love affair with this specialty bookstore.
Fast forward to 2010 and Rosemary has moved to a larger store and has doubled her bookcases and added another New Release table. The customer database is now sitting at a healthy 700 customers, with more being added every day.
Everywhere you look bookcases are filled with, Westerns, Regency, Historical and Scottish romance. Paranormals, Urban Fantasy, Erotica, humour, contemporary and Crime fiction. Young adult is emerging as a force to be reckoned with and is turning into an exciting and thriving section.
Rosemary also welcomes enquiries about new authors and titles – if it isn’t on the shelf it can be ordered.
The next step in Rosemary’s dream is to bring more fantastic authors to Australia. She would also like to organise a conference to bring readers and authors together and raise the profile of the Romance genre in Australia.
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Hi Rosemary,
Fabulous post! Your shop sounds wonderful. I’d love to have a romance-only bookstore near me.
Three hour commute?!! And I thought my hour and a half was bad.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve heard so many differing opinions on the value of bookmarks. It’s nice to get the info straight from the source.
Take care,
Tracey
Congrats on your award and your store! It’s so interesting, the information you’ve shared.
I know there are lists floating around that authors can buy with the addresses of book stores which are romance author friendly. Is this the way many authors find you? Is there a site or anywhere authors can go to find bookstores?
Thanks!
Hi Lori
Yes I imagine the list that Pat Rouse sells is how many authors find me.
Heres her email address Rousepat@aol.com
morning Rosemary!
Great post! Congratulations to you on your award, you must be thrilled. =)
I think your store sounds like a brilliant idea…I’d love to have something like that near me as well! (Think franchise! lol)
How do they choose a bookseller of the year? Do people send in nominations?
Thanks again for the great post, very enjoyable read – and here I was whining about my 20 min commute. =)
carrie
Hi Carrie
All of the members of RWA nominate who they think should be Bookseller of the year and Librarian of the year. The board then ratifies the decision, and I imagine this would be the person who got the most nominations.
Rosemary -
Welcome, and thanks for your wonderful interview!
What recommendations would you have for a newly published author who might not have much of an ARC printing? Besides sending bookmarks, are there other strategies you would recommend for connecting with booksellers?
Again, thanks so much for being here today!
Kelsey
Hi Kelsey
Yes I realize ARC’s are not being as widely printed as they used to be. A great alternative are chapter excerpts which we have been receiving and sending out to customers who would be interested in books of that genre. Also, because we are so far away and have limited opportunity for book signings we ask all our authors to do up signed book plates. But must admit that any promo (ie: T Shirts, notebooks, pens, badges, emery boards..to name a few we have received) works extremely well.
Hi, Rosemary. Thank you for a wonderful post. It was fun meeting you at RWA. Hope to see you this year!
Rosemary, this is a great post. Thanks for the insight into your business
I was absolutely honored to meet you at RWA in ‘09, and even more honored to find out that you stock my books in your store. Now, knowing how you go about picking your books, I feel downright humbled!
Hoping to see you again in Nashville this year!
Thanks Ally, it was great to meet you as well.
Great advice and a great story! I’d love to have a store like yours near me. I’d be haunting it.
Rosemary Congrats! on your award and the courage to do what your heart desired! Thank you for sharing with us and best wishes on your succes!
Rosemary, I am so thrilled to hear an Aussie won the award. That’s fantastic! As a newly contracted author (who unfortunately lives in Perth, not near your wonderful shop in Brisbane) with two books due out next year, I found your advice invaluable. Thank you for such an informative post.
Hi Michelle
There is a store in Perth that also sells only new Romance books, very much like mine. Make contact with the owner Christina she would love to hear from you.
Temptation The Romance Bookstore [temptationbooks@iinet.net.au]
Thanks
Thanks, Rosemary for a great post. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your award.
Besides flight attendant, (what I am) and writing(what I do) owning my own book store is my other dream. I love bookstores. One day I’m going to write about getting lost in a bookstore(literally)! Because that’s what I do everytime I go. Thanks for the lovely interview.
Darcee