Lou, Lou, skip to my...uh-oh.

[seanan_mcguire]

Up until recently, I was unaware that sometimes the reason I can't find certain books in certain stores is because those stores have just sort of decided not to carry them. This process is called 'skipping.' Books can be skipped because the store doesn't have room on the shelf for another new author, because their historical-romances-with-sharks

Comments

[msagara]

I just want to add one thing here: If you're in the unenviable position of having to pass on titles, it almost makes sense to pass on the ones that are easily accessibly anywhere else, because those are the ones that cause the least inconvenience to your regular customers. I know that on the surface, it almost makes no sense -- but a specialty store is probably more likely to stock the books which are less easily found in chain stores. If they don't stock the lesser-known titles, their regular customers probably can't just walk into a big store and pick them up there.

The Kelley Armstrong will be everywhere; a lot of the more genre-specific books won't.

[seanan_mcguire]

On the one hand, very yes, and very true. On the other hand, if you have five regular customers who are likely to buy the new Armstrong AND request that you special-order the lesser-known, it's sometimes the better bet to get that more popular author. Especially since stocking that author doesn't mean possibly losing walk-in traffic.

[msagara]

Agreed. However... if in the past you haven't sold any of the Armstrong, although she sells well, you are probably assuming (rightly or wrongly) that people -are- picking those up elsewhere as a target of opportunity.

I honestly cannot imagine that if you have five regular customers who are buying Armstrong, you wouldn't order it, period. But if, let's make Dean Koontz our example. He -does- sell in buckets -- but not in our store. We sell a few of the paperbacks, but for about 5 of his previous books in a row, we had sold no hardcovers, so we stopped picking him up in hardcover for the store.

It does mean that if someone -wanted- the Koontz, it wouldn't be there for whatever reason. But the previous sales history of that particular author in our (single) store meant that when it came to look at the lists for the upcoming books, his was one that we didn't order in hardcover.

[seanan_mcguire]

All very true. At the same time, when the money isn't there, the money isn't there, and if you sell the Koontz not at all, the Armstrong sells eight copies, and the Scalzi sells eight copies but takes six times as long to do it, you may well wind up buying the Armstrong first, reducing your order for the Scalzi, and letting the Koontz go hang.

Bah upon this economy. Bah upon it twice.

[kyburg]

Just about everything I pick up at the Festival of Books in the spring is something a bookstore skipped - I'm sure of it.

And I get them signed - meet the author and so on. Festival ROCKS.

oh wait

They already have the 2009 schedule up. UH. Hate to be an idiot about this, but when does the first one come out again?

Talk to someone about showing up here, neh?

Fighting skipping the best way I know. I skip from booth to booth buying a whole lotta books.

[seanan_mcguire]

The release date for Rosemary and Rue has not yet been announced.

[firestrike]

Because our strength is as the strength of ten, and also, we like to leave undefined terms scattered through our prose.

[seanan_mcguire]

Damn straight. Also, MWAH.