Indie bookstores supporting indie authors = WIN-WIN

September 24, 2024 — Last Thursday, I took part in a local author book sale and signing at Adventure, Ink, Milan as part of their final Third Thursday celebration for the summer. I shared the evening with Don Hicks, coauthor of Frankenwalnut, with his son, Alex. A good book for this spooky Halloween season. Laura Harvey of Adventure, Ink, billed our evening as featuring something scary and something sweet, a great combination. 

Similar to my previous event in Ypsilanti, I sold all of one book BUT I don’t sweat the numbers. Like life, these events are more about the whole experience than about a certain outcome (such as selling stacks of books!) I got to see the very cool owner of the indie bookshop, Laura, again. That’s always a positive. And I met and chatted a lot with Brad, who was there as Don’s marketing guy. “I need a Brad,” I joked, mostly to myself. But, of course, I have a Tim! (I do the marketing myself, however! But it’s my biz and I like it.)

Don and his wife, Anaïs arrived partway through the evening. Don kindly suggested I take one of his books and so I suggested that we trade. I read his book last night.

Here are my thoughts, “in a nutshell:” I found Frankenwalnut (fun to say) original, kinda’ “nutty” and engaging with bold and stunning illustrations by Kat Rasmussen. The black and white drawings, with green highlights, are spooky and eye-catching. The story touches on themes of friendship, bullying, mob mentality (heavy for a children’s book, but these subjects can lead to some good conversations with our children), respecting differences and heroism. Uniquely and helpfully, for a (longer than usual) picture book, it is broken into chapters. An exciting and fun read, especially for the Halloween season. 

As it turns out, Don is the owner of the Blue Llama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor. He told me that my husband and I should choose a night we’d like to attend a show. How cool is that?! He said we’ll be VIPs that evening. He’s a really nice guy and if you’ve considered checking out the Blue Llama, that’s just another reason to do it. It’s great to support nice people and local businesses. 

A few updates about my book’s availability. The Vault of Midnight has my book and is getting it ready to display on their red table for new books, probably in about two weeks. My contact there, Leslie Carnahan, is really cool and easy to work with. She said that she also does social media for the store and that she will post about my book once it’s in their system. Support for local authors, including those of us who are self-published, means so much. It’s nice not to be treated as a second class citizen. The climate surrounding self-publishing has changed dramatically. In one of my Facebook book groups recently, someone posted anonymously a disparaging comment about self-published authors. She basically said that we’re not really published authors and need to identify ourselves as self-published right out front. The comments from the group were critical of her stance. I saw it the day it was posted, I believe, and haven’t seen it since, but it was nice to see the support for self-published authors. Clearly, there are pros and cons to being self- versus traditionally published. That could be the topic for another day. Although I can speak to being self-published, I’m not personally familiar with traditional publishing, although I’m aware of some of the main differences. 

I stopped at Schuler Books to look for my book on their shelves. They were in the children’s section, of course, with picture books, alphabetical by last name (I believe it’s listed under the illustrator, Jenny Kalejs, but at least our last names are close (Ku and Ka). Because my book is slim and paperback, there’s unfortunately nothing on the book’s spine, so it gets lost in shelves. The reporter for the Observer who’s writing about me, tipped me off that she had gone in to buy my book (so nice!) and the employee had trouble finding it. I’d been meaning to go in for the little thrill of seeing it on their shelves and this prompted me to do it sooner. I’m in a trial period where they’re seeing how it sells for the first few months to determine if they will continue to stock it. SO … if you have an inclination to buy a(nother) copy, now is a great time and Schuler Books is a great place. Really, every place that carries my book is special and unique in its own way. They make great baby shower gifts, some folks like to donate books to The Little Free Library in their neighborhood (or their children’s school library), or you might want a copy for your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or friends’ kids. 

I talked with the nice people behind the main counter and one of them immediately said, let’s go check this out. I had asked if they might be able to showcase the cover somehow, given the blank, slim spine. 

If you haven’t seen their newly expanded store and children’s section, it’s absolutely worth a trip! It’s “ginormous,” well laid out and quite beautiful. There is plenty of space and many, many books showing their covers throughout. I asked about a local author section and she pointed out where they keep Michigan authors. She very deftly moved mine right over with the Michigan children’s book authors face front and top shelf! I was appreciative that she made it so easy. I said that it often pays to be a squeaky wheel! 

This, That, and the Odder Things, Ypsilanti, was the first retail store to carry my book. I’ll always be thankful to Claire Broderick, owner, for her support. They’ve shifted store themes toward a darker side and eliminated the children’s section, and so our book will no longer be available there. It’s actually quite out of place now. Picture dark, somewhat scary, gothic decor and then picture the colorful book cover, inquiring, How Happy Is a Lark? Buzzer sounds. Not a match! I’ll talk about some of the other places where you can find my book, including libraries, in an upcoming post. 

Spooky shows part 2. Last week, I recommended some spooky television shows and movies. Well, I just can’t help myself so here are a few more. Readers, I’d LOVE to hear your recommendations and briefly, what you like about them. Use my contact page on this site or comment on social media. And I’ll include some in my upcoming posts! And give you credit. Just let me know if it’s alright to name you. We’ve started watching “Agatha All Along” on Disney +. I had no idea that it is based on a Marvel Comic. So far, it seems a fun and interesting show about witches. They released two episodes last week and I believe will release one more each week until Halloween. Stars include Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza (I love her), Sasheer Zamata and many others. 

Another program that we watched when it was originally released in 2013 was “Sleepy Hollow.” It’s available on Hulu and we’re rewatching it now. Funny thing memories, when enough time has passed, it’s almost like seeing it again for the first time. The handsome Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) is reawakened in present day in the town of Sleepy Hollow, where epic battles ensue with creatures from our nightmares. He meets the lovely Abbie (Nicole Baharie), a cop on the local force, and they become a formidable team with great chemistry in the battle against evil. One more that comes to mind is “Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters,” streaming on Prime video. I remember how much fun it was watching movies like this with the boys when they were young and how much we’d laugh. And there were almost always jokes from the movies or programs that would carry over into our daily life. Some continue still! We’re big on movie lines in this house. Just don’t say “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Uh-oh.