Connect
Sponsors
Currently Reading
-
Terms
The Book Lady's Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Reviews and articles posted here are property of The Book Lady's Blog and are not to be posted elsewhere without permission. Please contact me if you wish to post any of my work, or any excerpt thereof, in any other location or format.
Miscellaneous
Meet Bookrageous!
Technical Stuff
Design Credits
Jun
24
Your Local Bookstore…A Thousand Miles Away [Joseph Wallace guest blogs]
2010 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
I feel like I’ve known Joseph Wallace forever. We’ve been Twitter friends (he tweets as @joe_wallace) for quite some time, and I’ve been blown away by how he has connected to bloggers, indie bookstores, and readers nationwide to get the word out about his debut novel Diamond Ruby. Advance buzz for Diamond Ruby was through the roof, and now that it has hit the shelves, Joseph is enjoying rave reviews and well-attended events at bookstores around the country. I’m happy to welcome him today with this post about how the internet is making the book world smaller, in all the right ways.
When I was a child growing up in Brooklyn, bookstores were everywhere. With just a few moments’ thought, I can conjure up at least a dozen stores that were, at worst, a subway ride away. The antiquarian bookshops on Fourth Avenue in Manhattan, with their grand volumes under glass. The row of book palaces up and down Fifth Avenue, especially Brentano’s and Scribner’s. Smaller independent bookstores scattered throughout the city, each with its own style and mood.
And, most preciously, a store specializing in paperbacks that lay a long, adventurous walk from my house. I can still remember finding treasures—old Ace Double sf novels, mystery stories with wonderfully sleazy covers, stacks of P.G. Wodehouse books—nearly every time I visited. Just as vividly, I can recall the store’s characteristic smell, of crumbly paper and old glue.
In all these stores, you could find other true believers: people who loved books, who loved to read. Even if you didn’t fit in so well in the outside world, you knew going into these stores that you would always find kindred spirits there.
Then, just as I became a writer by profession, these bookstores started going away. First in a trickle, then a flood. Scribner’s and Brentano’s closed. Many of the old stores on Fourth Avenue followed, as did countless small independent stores. I still remember the day my older brother told me that our refuge, the store with all the paperbacks, had burned down…the worst imaginable fate for a bookstore.
When I learned that Diamond Ruby, my first novel, was to be published this spring, I was thrilled. But I also felt a piercing sense of loss. Yes, there were still some wonderful independent stores in New York, but so many fewer than there had been. How could I share my own pleasure, my own excitement, as I’d always dreamed I would?
To match the experience I’d had growing up I’d have to visit indie booksellers all over the country—something that was manifestly impossible. Perhaps I’d waited too long to be a published novelist.
I’ve never been happier to be wrong. I hadn’t reckoned on social media, Twitter especially. In an age when you might be the only indie bookstore in your town or county, Twitter has allowed a connection among booksellers that would otherwise never exist. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of indie bookstores are active on Twitter, providing each other with advice, recommendations, and, most importantly, support. It’s a tough world out there for booksellers, and it’s crucial not to feel alone.
For a writer like me, the renewed connection with independent bookstores has also been invaluable…and heartwarming. Soon after following every bookstore I could find, I started sending out advance copies of Diamond Ruby with personal notes, followed soon by some baseball cards/bookmarks I had made. I was reaching out the way I would have in my neighborhood—only now, thanks to Twitter, my reach was nationwide.
Almost immediately, I started hearing from independent bookstores, most located in places I’d never visited. Lititz, Pennsylvania. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Santa Cruz, California. Bozeman, Montana. Shaker Heights, Ohio South padre Island, Texas. Their enthusiasm for the book helped guide me through the tumultuous times leading up to and after the novel’s launch. More importantly, their willingness to handsell a first novel by an unknown author they’d never met face-to-face continues to be the most stunning part of the whole publication process. It’s hard to express how much it means to me.
How about the kindred spirits I used to meet in little independent bookstores, like the young man who first introduced me to Bill Bryson and the older woman who pressed Robertson Davies on me? They still exist too, of course—on blogs. I can’t overestimate the number of books I’ve learned about on the many blogs I follow…and, more importantly, how important it is for me to meet others who share my love of books.
Just as the indie bookstores have made an enormous difference in getting the word out about Diamond Ruby, blogs have as well. Some of this has come in the form of enthusiastic reviews that both built buzz for the novel and helped get the word out after publication. I value just as highly, though, the chance to interact with readers, both the bloggers themselves and those who comment on the posts. It feels like a huge, free-floating discussion group, and it gives me the needed strength to keep writing.
Unless you’re one of the lucky few, it’s very hard to get a first novel noticed at all. I’ve been lucky that the people who have read Diamond Ruby have mostly been enthusiastic about it. But all the enthusiasm in the world would have made no difference without the interconnected world that the blogs and Twitter have given to us.
Diamond Ruby is set in the 1920s, decades before anyone could even imagine social media as we now understand it. To see my historical page-turner, seemingly destined for obscurity, rescued by people on the vanguard of the new age of communication, people who best understand the importance of the blogs and Twitter, is both a rich irony and a stroke of the greatest good fortune for me and the novel I care so deeply about.
Learn more about Diamond Ruby at Joseph Wallace’s website, and enjoy the book trailer below!
No related posts.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rebecca Schinsky and Arcade Publications, Emirates Lit Fest. Emirates Lit Fest said: Your Local Bookstore…A Thousand Miles Away [Joseph Wallace guest blogs] | The Book Lady's Blog: http://bit.ly/9aOYyg [...]
Love this glimpse into your childhood, Joe… and thrilled you are finding deserved success with Diamond Ruby. Hoping you will make it out my way again soon.
Great post! It’s true that Twitter, blogging and social media have given unbelievable life to books in such new and innovative ways, as we all know… I find out about books and stores I never, ever would have discovered on my own this way. It’s awesome to have that opportunity and outlet!
And Diamond Ruby sounds great, too!
Meg´s last [type] ..Bring books back to Nashville
What a wonderful post! I’ll have to ask my indie to try to get Joseph to come here.
Joe you are such a great Twitter friend and I was doubly glad to meet you at BEA and discover that you’re just as wonderful in real life! I think you’ve done such a fabulous job not just tweeting about your book and being a big deal published author, but actually connecting with other people and allowing your personality to come through, without sole marketing messages. I know myself, along with so many others, are rooting for you and DIAMOND RUBY!
Thanks for sharing, Book Lady!
Thanks, you all–and I now remember that the paperback bookstore I talk about was named…My Friends. (What a great name for a bookstore!)
Kathy, I’d love to visit–
Joe
Terrific post, Joe! And you’ve written a terrific book as well.
Was it Julie at Booking Mama that said this was her favorite book so far this year? Someone said it recently, and I’ve never forgotten this. I hope I can get my hands on this novel soon. And what a great guy. I just want to put aside my commitments and read his book and review it, just to get the word out. God love him.
Sandy´s last [type] ..Writing an Audio book review
Congratulations, Joe! I love seeing you on Twitter and I’m going to be on the lookout for your novel. How exciting it must be to finally be published.
Literate Housewife´s last [type] ..Interview With Simon Vance
Oh I met Joe at WORD in Greenpoint for The Singer’s Gun launch party! I added his book to my to-read list immediately after he told me about it! Good to see it’s getting a good reception. I still have to get my hands on a copy.
Kari´s last [type] ..Notes from a Reading Slacker
Brilliant insights, Joe, and very well-expressed. As the release of my own debut novel nears, I too am balancing nostalgia about “the way things used to be” with excitement and enthusiasm for the way things are now. The tools will always be changing, but the goal is always the same: connecting readers with books they’re going to enjoy. (And everyone, the bloggers and the booksellers and the chains and the readers has their role to play — including us, the authors!)
Jael´s last [type] ..wordless wednesday lii