Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

We don't want to buy what you are selling

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • We don't want to buy what you are selling

    Last week, before New Years, a woman comes up to me at the Front desk. She comes all the way from California and she wants to sell us a book her student made. It comes in a folder.

    I usually say we don't buy books from ind., just from the publishers. But people who want to sell their books are deluded enough to think what they have is the greatest literature ever written, and they want to talk to someone who can make a decision.

    Anyway, she wants to sell us her book, since it would be great for kids and it comes with a workbook. I try to call someone who selects books.

    A) but it's the holidays, and chances are no one is around.
    B) the directory changed, so it will be a bitch to find a person in the first place.

    The directory use to be by department. Unfortunately, we get a lot of people calling wanting a person by name, but they have no idea where they work. So it was decided to change the directory to go by name. So I'm stuck trying to rack my brain of the name of the person who does material selection. Luckily, there was a directory by department, but the headings make no sence (for ex, there isn't a heading for "material selection". I have to go through "technical services" )

    Anyway, I'm trying to work my way through the directory when the woman says, "can't you find the person?" I reply, "The directory changed." She replied, "huh?" and I repeat myself and she understands.

    She then asks for the bathroom and I point in the right direction and she waddles off.

    I finally find the dept. directory and I call the person. Her voice mail comes on and I figure she must be on vacation. I find an assistant and talk to her and she said shewill come up. The woman selling the book finally shows up.

    Me: Susan Wagner (not her real name) will come to see you.
    woman: who?
    me: Susan Wagner.
    woman: how do I get to her?
    me: I said, she is coming up to see you.
    woman: well, I didn't understand you. My student is a foreign student and he too speaks too fast.

    I figure she was putting me down somehow but I ignored her. God knows it was too much trouble to ask me to repeat myself.

    Susan showed up and I heard part, esp. about the woman has to go through a publisher. The woman said she does have a publisher. At the end, Susan asked for her name and info. and the woman is writing some stuff down and telling susan that she came to our city on vacation and thought about just stopping by to sell her book.

    Susan keeps on asking for her name and the woman kept on saying "oh, I forgot". This went on for 3 times.
    Time! Time! Time is what turns kittens into cats.

    Don't teach me a lesson; all I learn is that you are an asshole.

    I wish porn had subtitles.

  • #2
    How do you forget your own name?

    What a fruit loop!
    Don't wanna; not gonna.

    Comment


    • #3
      It was at at least nice of 'Susan' to talk with the would-be book seller.

      I think at least I'd rather have an honest 'we aren't interested' then being strung along for months, then given the brush off for no reason. Yeah, this happened to me!
      "If anyone wants this old box containing the broken bits of my former faith in humanity, I'll take your best offer now. You may be able to salvage a few of em' for parts..... " - Quote by Argabarga

      Comment


      • #4
        Eh, we got those at the bookstore all the time since we are independent and sell lots of local authors.

        To be honest, almost all local authors are self-published, and almost all are crap.

        But they would march up to the info desk and declare, "I wrote a BOOK!". while I was thinking, "Hey, me too...but I am doing the work of finding an agent/publisher and actually EDITING my stuff."

        Some of them come in all the time asking their stuff sold, and offering us more and more copies, and were sadly disillusioned when they discovered that we still had tons of copies left. I guess they didn't have as many friends and family as they thought!

        But I never had anyone try to sell me a 'book' in a folder, although people have asked me where they can publish their work.
        https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

        Comment


        • #5
          My father published his own book once, back in the early eighties, shortly before he died. He didn't bother any bookstores with it. He self-published it, had a printer put it together and bind it, and then gave it away or sold it at a modest fee to friends, relatives, clients, and business colleagues. I am not sure what his total run was (I am guessing 200-1,000), but he pretty much got rid of all of the copies he printed, without bothering any poor bookstores.

          Why? Because he knew that it was a specialized book targeting a certain audience, and that he would sell more by dealing with people in his circle than by trying to sell to the general public. And the reason he did sell most if not all of them was because everyone who knew him knew he was drop dead funny, and that the book was likely to be as well. Many of them had seen snippets of it over the months and years leading up to it, so they knew what they were getting into. And, as expected, it was pretty damn funny....to that certain audience.

          Chances were good that if you didn't know Dad and/or didn't play bridge, the book would have been somewhat unfunny or downright confusing to you. While I appreciate most of it, there is some of it that is so bridge-specific that I still don't quite get it. No, I never picked up my father's passion for bridge. (Kind of amusing, though, that I became a card magician. He'd get a kick out of that!)

          Ironically, that book would still probably outsell most of the crap those local authors bring in. Because he didn't try to make it more than it was....just a cute little amusing book targeting bridge, bridge players, and other things in his life.

          "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
          Still A Customer."

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth LillFilly View Post
            It was at at least nice of 'Susan' to talk with the would-be book seller.

            I think at least I'd rather have an honest 'we aren't interested' then being strung along for months, then given the brush off for no reason. Yeah, this happened to me!
            At least they didn't string you along and then ask you to write filthy porn. Sure, nothing is wrong with filthy porn but the suddeness of the 180 made me metaphorically run away faster then Barry Allen.

            Comment


            • #7
              Susan keeps on asking for her name and the woman kept on saying "oh, I forgot". This went on for 3 times.
              I'm sorry, I was vague. Susan asked her to write her name down, since the woman was writing some info. for susan. The woman meant she forgot to write down her name, but she continues writing other stuff and forgetting to write her name down.
              Time! Time! Time is what turns kittens into cats.

              Don't teach me a lesson; all I learn is that you are an asshole.

              I wish porn had subtitles.

              Comment


              • #8
                Writing a book is easy. Really, it is. Writing a book WELL that is actually sellable is a lot more challenging. I'm an aspiring author myself and I realize how difficult it would be to get something published. I'm currently working on a sci-fi esque story (think man gets trapped in a vision/dream world that's similar to reality but different in some unique ways) but I'm a realist. I know after it's written I need to spend hours editing it, then I need to get an agent who will hopefully find me a publisher and then the book has to be printed and started selling, at which point I can only hope it sells well enough to warrant me writing another.
                "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd View Post
                  Writing a book is easy. Really, it is.
                  Ha, no. Even writing a crappy book takes more of a time investment than many people are willing to commit to. Let's say you're the world's best writer, you never have writer's block, and you can write straight through from beginning to end.

                  The average novel is around 200 pages, depending on genre, but we'll go with that. About 300 words a page. That's 60,000 words. Typing 60 wpm is good for copying. We'll slow that down to 30 for generating new content. That's 2,000 minutes. That's over 33 hours of non-stop writing. Now, most people aren't going to be able to write without pausing for ideas, or slowing down, etc. You're stretching that out to weeks of an initial time investment just for typing. No planning, no thought, nothing. And that's for a relatively short book for most types of fiction. There's a reason "National Novel Writing Month" is such a grind for most people, and they consider it an achievement to hit 45,000 words.
                  Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

                  http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    My parent's friend self published a book. It was a suspense/mystery novel or something and all the characters were based directly off of the people he knew. The characters based on my parents were killed off in the first couple chapters.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                      There's a reason "National Novel Writing Month" is such a grind for most people, and they consider it an achievement to hit 45,000 words.
                      Quoting this because I myself just hit that mark in a fiction piece I'm working on, and you're absolutely right about considering it an achievement. I'm surprised to find so many aspiring authors, like myself, here, but pleasantly so. my piece, if anyone is interested, is part romance, part real life, part my wildest dreams, haha. I, too, know the steps I'll have to go through to get published, and know, realistically, not to expect to become the next world-famous author overnight. Some people, however...Well...They're out of their gourds, okay? There, I said it. I'll just go back to reading threads and writing now. **wanders off back to her own lil corner of the world**
                      "And though she be but little, she is FIERCE!"--Shakespeare

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth depechemodefan View Post
                        Last week, before New Years, a woman comes up to me at the Front desk. She comes all the way from California and she wants to sell us a book her student made.
                        uuuhhhh....don't you work at a public library?

                        Why in the world would anybody want to sell A book to A library? I could almost understand if you worked at a bookstore, but....

                        aarrgghhh!
                        Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                          There's a reason "National Novel Writing Month" is such a grind for most people, and they consider it an achievement to hit 45,000 words.
                          Ah, so that's what NaNoWriMo stands for...!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth Primer View Post
                            uuuhhhh....don't you work at a public library?

                            Why in the world would anybody want to sell A book to A library? I could almost understand if you worked at a bookstore, but....

                            aarrgghhh!
                            She thought her book was good for kids to read...and kids go to libraries? I don't know. I can just imagine that the weirdos think since we are non-profit, that we probably just buy anything.
                            Time! Time! Time is what turns kittens into cats.

                            Don't teach me a lesson; all I learn is that you are an asshole.

                            I wish porn had subtitles.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                              There's a reason "National Novel Writing Month" is such a grind for most people, and they consider it an achievement to hit 45,000 words.
                              When I was a freshman in high school I could crank out a 50,000 word novel easily. I wish to God I had the energy of my fifteen year-old self again because that's what it comes down to some days.

                              Lately I've been doing better writing shorter non-fiction articles and that keeps my writing ability strong while I try to crank out my fiction.

                              But you know, maybe "Susan" has the right idea. Maybe I've been going about this the wrong way.

                              I should just show up one day with a handful of recently printed computer pages and tell the librarian, "I iz a writer, will u bi mi book plz?"

                              Comment

                              Working...