Finding My Corner of the Bookstore

Listen to the Podcast (while you read along below . . .)

Episode 6: Finding My Corner of the Bookstore – Donald Jay Author Podcast

In this episode, I briefly discuss how readers find their next exciting adventure and why authors must get to know their “ideal reader.” It’s all about finding your corner of the bookstore, which can be an adventure all its own.

Transcript of the Podcast:

Hello. I’m Donald Jay, and you’re listening to Episode 6 of the Donald Jay Author Podcast and only the second episode in a series about my writing journey. We took a brief detour last year during Christmas in July. In episode one, I talked about how I developed the story concept for my current work-in-process, Marley’s Curse. In this episode, I’ll share some thoughts about a critical, but often overlooked, exercise for authors when writing a novel or for readers when selecting your next exciting adventure, finding your corner of the bookstore, and why that’s important.

Finding My Shelf at the Bookstore (and Why It’s Important):

I was so disappointed when the owner of my favorite bookstore here in St. Petersburg, Florida, announced they would not be reopening because of COVID. This bookstore was a booklover’s dream. It had two lazy cats that watched over both new and used books stacked from floor to ceiling in multiple rooms, some of which connected, some dead-ended in a cozy nook or secluded corner. For a reader, this massive space with tons of character offered a smorgasbord of tomes as far as the eye could see on any subject one could imagine. To a writer, though, the labyrinth of rooms and stacks of best sellers loomed as a reminder of the vast sea of reading material out there and the daunting improbability that any reader would ever find my book in all of that.

Enticing readers to buy a particular book is one thing. First, they have to find you.

Which raised the question in me. How does a reader find their next grand adventure in an ocean of great literature? Bookstores offer a clue. Most bookstores are organized by genre and sub-genre. In my favorite bookstore, the owner dangled clues everywhere for readers to follow, like markings on a treasure map. An occasional sign in Olde English script taped precariously by an archway hinted at the subject matter offered in any given room. Cardboard arrows, hacked from old shipping boxes, displayed sub-genres in hand-written Sharpie, and pointed down dimly lit aisles, beckoning the reader deeper into the maze. Yellowing paper labels, held loosely to a shelf’s edge by even yellower cellophane tape, provided the infamous “X” that marked the spot, the one place in the whole bookstore where readers could dig to find the treasures they were looking for, organized further by author. It, therefore, behooves an author to get their book’s genre right, so their book ends up on the right shelf in the bookstore.

As a quick aside, you may say to yourself none of this matters. No one goes to bookstores anymore. It’s all done online, electronically, with the click of a button. The analogy still works. Just replace the yellow cellophane shelf labels with hashtags and keywords, and the outcome is the same. Readers must somehow narrow the world of literature so they only search through books they might like to read. Ergo, identifying a book’s genre dictates the hashtags and keywords that will make any given book pop up in front of potential readers online.

Choice of genre, though, has more far-reaching implications than simply marketing.

A member of our local writers’ critique group, affectionately called the Fictioneers, recently encouraged me to spend some quality time identifying my “ideal reader.” Said differently, who is that person standing in front of the shelf my book is on in the bookstore thumbing through titles? What kind of story is she looking for? What are his expectations? What elements of the story will delight her and entice her to read more? Which title will stop his flipping fingers and cause him to yank my book from the stacks (or click the “Look Inside” feature online)?

The exercise helped me realize that understanding my ideal reader should affect almost every aspect of the book.

Sticking with the marketing track for a moment, decisions about cover art, typeface, title, subtitle, etc. are all affected by my chosen genre. Wait, subtitle? Yep, if I include the genre in my subtitle, it helps online algorithms find my book in an online search. Covers on thrillers lean toward deep reds and blacks with shocking titles in bold, chiseled typefaces. Romantic comedy covers feature pastel colors and relationship-based titles in softer typefaces. A cover featuring a bloody knife against a black background would seem out of place on the Rom-Com shelf. Likewise, if a romance entitled “She Touched His Heart” made it to the horror corner of the bookstore, I think potential buyers might expect something completely different than the romance author intended.

This leads us to the interior of the book, the story itself. This one decision, genre, affects language, dialog, pace, tone, mood, virtually every aspect of the manuscript. Readers who enjoy thrillers expect explicit language, curt dialog, fast pace, somber tone, and a suspenseful mood. While readers of romance might expect suggestive language, flirtier dialog, slower pace, an exhilarated tone, and an upbeat mood.

So, where did my day-long exercise of interviewing my “ideal reader” take me in the bookstore, specifically for Marley’s Curse, my work-in-progress set in Dickens Station? First, Marley’s Curse is a working title. The published title of the novel will undoubtedly be different.

The setting for Marley’s Curse is the quaint Christmas-themed village of Dickens Station, nestled in the mountains of Vermont, two weeks before Christmas. Jacob Marley, a modern day namesake of the infamous villain in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and a banker, is dragged into the uncomfortable world of following clues and solving puzzles meant to protect centuries-old secrets hidden throughout the town’s 19th-century buildings which were relocated from London in the late 1800s by the town’s founder, Merritt Otto Dickens. If Jacob fails to solve the mystery in time, treasure hunter Donovan Dawson will level the town by Valentine’s Day and take what he wants. He also has designs on Jacob’s love interest, Cynthia. Jacob gets help from Cynthia’s brother, Eli, a bright young man, functioning on the Autism spectrum, and from a spooky recluse known only as old Joe. Can Jacob solve the mysteries of Dickens Station before the last train pulls from the depot on Christmas eve? If so, will Jacob turn what he finds over to Donovan Dawson to save the town and Christmas?

Following a description of Cozy Mystery characteristics offered by Agatha Christie, my story has a quaint setting, amateur sleuth, eccentric characters, and a sidekick. It offers intellectual clues and red herrings, a twist ending, and a dénouement which leaves no loose ends. My story offers a crime, the hostile takeover and potential destruction of the entire town. It has its lighter moments, and it is devoid of graphic violence, sex, vulgarity, etc. I believe the only thing Marley’s Curse doesn’t offer in the definition of a Cozy Mystery is a corpse.

And, so, I’ve concluded that at least this first book in the Dickens Station series is a cozy mystery. Hopefully, this Christmas, my latest novel will take its place on the bookshelf with the thousands of Cozy Mysteries that are published each year. Hum, thousands of Cozy Mysteries are published each year. That’s not an exaggeration. I may have narrowed the field by identifying my genre, Cozy Mystery, so I’m no longer competing with every book in the whole bookstore. Still, there are a lot of new cozy mysteries being shelved in my corner of the bookstore every day. How will I get Marley’s Curse to stand out against those? We’ll tackle that dilemma in another episode.

Closing Remarks:

Please leave your thoughts, comments, or suggestions below, here at DonaldJay.com, or at Donald Jay Author on either Facebook or Twitter. Unfortunately, I do not receive comments or ratings left on Podcast websites, and I love to hear from readers and authors. So please write to me and let me know what you think.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, I’m Donald Jay.