Just got back from a 10 day vacation in Kauai and I’m feeling refreshed. Not refreshed enough to speed through the last few remaining advance readers, library holds and audiobook purchases on my reading list. Definitely not reading as voraciously as I did at the beginning of the year. But then last year I was also very distracted with my full-time corporate job.
So happy to have the luxury of time to read. And to have found out more about my reading tastes this year. My reading taste in tropes, genres, writing styles and protagonists. Along with taking my love of books a step further by trying to sell these stories to others. With my first pop-up accomplished I can reflect on what worked and the small things that didn’t. Looking forward to adjusting for my next pop-up, happening on October 20th!!
September 2024 Reads
Had some highs and lows with September’s reads. Still glad for the experience of new stories and ideas.
Started the month with Between Friends & Lovers; a surprising and unique love “triangle.” Great characterizations and a representation of mental health issues, such as, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. This romance was my transition from summer vibes to spooky season. So ready for some cozy reads.
Now for spooky season, I tried to stay on track with my ARCs (not doing so great). The end of year slump is truly syncing in. But I made a slight dent with reading My Vampire Plus-One and The Fallen Fruit. I’ll read or watch anything vampire related, I don’t know what it is. I’m not sure if it was seeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the theater when I was 10 years old or reading Bunnicula.
The House in the Cerulean Sea was a great mood read. It became available through my library and I couldn’t resist it anymore, especially with Somewhere Beyond the Sea being published recently. I didn’t know what to expect with this book. I’d briefly read the synopsis, but didn’t want to have any expectations that might go unrealized. All I knew was that the story was supposed to have some similarities to The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. They’re similar in depicting an “outsider” finding their chosen family and a place of belonging.
Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi
Alecia, Wallflower Bookshop Owner
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
These characters became so real to me, I was crying over them when they were upset. I thought I knew what I was going to get out of this love triangle book, and was totally wrong, it was great to experience this unpredictable story.
October 2024 TBR List
We’re limping our way to the finish line over here to our reading goal. Really wishing I’d just celebrated my original reading goal in June and proceeded to mood read for the rest of the year. Then of course I’d already requested so many advance reader copies, so I’ll definitely be revising my ARC strategy in 2025.
I’m thinking when I get approved for an ARC I’ll read the book right then and there, because that is truly when I’m in the mood to read the book. I should not wait months until the book is nearing their pub date to read it and provide my opinions! It will just result in me being tardy with my reviews…which is what’s happening now. Resulting in my library holds continuing to be put on hold over and over again. I never knew I’d max out my holds list and never check the books out. What an embarrassment of riches.
I couldn’t hold off on checking out Most Ardently anymore, and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m almost done listening to the audiobook, and I can’t wait to read it again. I’ll be buying a copy for my personal library, as well as, copies to sell at pop-up events. I love Pride & Prejudice and this remix of the story is so lovely. It’s very much reminding me of my reaction to James. That an author could find the room in a classic tale to create new scenes and an alternative version to the tale, and make it completely their own. Love. The story is still cozy, emotional, heartwarming and I love it. I’m not even done yet, but I know that I love it. And listening on audiobook has probably made me love it more; great voice narration!
Book Reviews PLANNED FOR OCTOBER 2024:
- Book Review: Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
- ARC Review: Zodiac Rising by Katie Zhao
- ARC Review: A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [hold over from September]
- ARC Review: The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry [hold over from September]
- ARC Review: The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch
- ARC Review: Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine
Alecia, Wallflower Bookshop Owner
⭐⭐⭐.5
Devoured this cozy romance in a day. Breezy paranormal rom-com with low stakes third act, between a human CPA (black cat) and Vampire (golden retriever)…no third act breakup!
Business Updates
#1 SEPTEMBER GOAL: OUR FIRST POP-UP EVENT
So I participated in my first pop-up event on September 28th! I was very excited leading up to the event, and very nervous. My perfectionism was definitely showing. I started with making a checklist of the basics I thought I would need for the event. Also, conferred with a group chat that I’m in for Black Women Booksellers to see if it would be possible to do the event on my own. They sent through photos of their displays and gave me the confidence to go it alone. I didn’t actually end up going alone (had my 12 year old cousin with me), but I ran the booth on my own, which confirmed that I could do it again solo.
At the beginning of September I called myself just doing research about pop-up locations. Tracking in Notion location names, event organizers, prices and event dates. Then I decided to email an event organizer to get on their vendor list, because they hadn’t given info about their pricing and I wanted to know more. Within 2 hours of emailing them, I’d heard back and found that their event was in my price range and 3 weeks out. Could I scramble and get all my materials together to be ready for the event?
Since I’d heard from them on a Friday, I took the weekend to think about it. Discuss the event with my mom, best friend and the group chat. My mom, who was going to be my sales assistant, couldn’t go, so I started to worry about attending. AND the event was the day before we were planning to go on vacation. I ended up deciding by Monday that I could do it on my own. So then the fun began!
Getting Materials Together
Three weeks from the event I made my first book purchase with Ingram. The books were delivered 3 days after I ordered. I was shocked. The booksellers in my group chat said to order immediately so that I’d get the books in time, which made me think the books would take 2 weeks. So happy it took 3 days! But that was dangerous, ’cause then when I made the mistake of not checking the stock for all of the books, I decided to make my second order (!) to cover for the books I was missing.
I’d been told 25 books would be a good amount for my first pop-up event. I ordered 70 books, whoops. It’s very difficult to merchandise, I’m finding, when you don’t have a fine tuned clientele quite yet. Which is promising and debilitating all at once. Proud that I was able to narrow to 35 titles. 35 titles required lots of list making, and checking, and checking again. I ordered 2 copies of each title, to make sure I wouldn’t immediately sell out.
After the books were ordered for the pop-up, the rest of my to-do list was quickly completed. Borrowed a table from a friend, borrowed chairs from my parents, any little bit to save some money at the beginning. Then I started to purchase decorations for the table. And confirm I had the marketing (signage and business cards) and cash wrap items (bags, credit card reader and newsletter sign up form).
How the Pop-Up Went
To say it was a long day would be an understatement. My cousin and I arrived at the event space 2 hours before the start time. I’d practiced setting up the display the week before the event to make sure I could see how long it might take me to set up.
It took the entire 1.5 hours to set up the table display, so that I’d have 30 minutes of free time before the event started. I’m still perplexed how it took me so long to get the table display just right (and then I ended up changing it a few times during the event). Especially since I was just duplicating what I’d already done. But then again, I don’t really know how long it took me to finalize it when I was practicing. I think it took even longer than that. It was morning when I started setting up the display in my parent’s living room and suddenly it was the afternoon when I told them they could look. Yikes!
The event was 5 hours and we had a steady flow of customers here and there. The pop-up was a success for me the moment the book display was set up. I’d set out to merely attend a pop-up event in September, so I considered it a triumph. Marketing the business was my only goal: introduce the brand to more people, get newsletter sign ups, have face-to-face book conversations and maybe sell some books, too. I had a great time. Some of my former coworkers and my friends stopped by to support. It made me feel so seen. Glad that there are people out there joining in when I share my posts. Someone actually told me they follow me and that’s why they were at the event. Amazing!!
Event Takeaways and Improvements
Reflection is my favorite part of doing new things. Trying to figure out how to make a process better or smoother. I’m happy to say my tweaks are pretty minor. I had takeaways for myself in my instagram post last week, but I’ve had time to discover some other missteps I made in the process of joining in this pop-up. Going to list them out just for posterities sake and keep mulling on how to make adjustments until my next pop-up on October 20th.
- Before the event: I’m still not really sure about this one. Found out after the fact that I didn’t need to buy another business license for the city of the pop-up. But I’m still not sure about that, I’ve seen many conflicting opinions.
- Feedback from a friend and her little one: sell bookmarks (I made bookmarks to label banned books and staff picks, but didn’t have any to sell) and blank journals (I didn’t bring any of the journals I’d designed).
- Current trends: Witch books were requested; not sure if it was a trend or a feature of spooky season. Luckily I had a witch book, but the others I picked out were in the backorder shipment!
- Table display: pull back on how many books are out (i.e. don’t put all of the books on the table) and make the signage easier to see. I’m assuming if I put out less books, the signage will be easier to notice.
- Provide solutions: direct people to shop from our Bookshop.org page when we don’t have books that they’re specifically looking for. Pass out more business cards!
#2 SEPTEMBER GOAL: GETTING NEWSLETTER SIGNUPS
I held my first giveaway on my instagram during the month of September. It was a short 5 day giveaway to enter to win a Libro.fm audiobook credit. Signing up for our newsletter was an extra entry in the giveaway. It worked out in getting me one more subscriber, welcome to you, new reader! And, though it was nerve-wracking, I was able to give out a few audiobook credits. Was so happy to give them out, I’d been holding on to them since June, when Libro.fm was celebrating their 10th year anniversary.
Now I still wanted to get more newsletter signups so I was sure to make a form and have it front and center at the pop-up. 8 people added their names to the form, unprompted! So exciting. Hello to all of you new subscribers, too! I hope you enjoy it over here.
Business Goals FOR OCTOBER 2024:
- Second Pop-Up Event: make adjustments from first pop-up takeaways
Book Recommendations PLANNED FOR October 2024:
- Weekly New Book Releases: Romance & Fantasy Books
- This or That: Spooky Season
- Zodiac Reads: Books for Scorpio
- Series: If You Like This, You’ll Love…
- Gifting: Bookworm Gift Guide
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