Booksellers Blog

Not for New England only

Have you heard about Kids ♥ Authors Day? On February 14th, 2009, New England bookstores will be hosting local childrens book authors and illustrators to meet kids and sign books. It’s a cool idea, but even more important for our purposes in how this event came about.

It began last week with a 140-character Twitter message from author Mitali Perkins (twitter.com/mitaliperkins). “IDEA,” she tweeted. “Indies partner with authors for a ‘give a signed book’ day, all Kid/YA authors in area show up at stores to sign one afternoon.”

I was on Twitter when Mitali sent this message, as were a few other people interested in bookstores and publishing, including Sarah Rettger of the American Booksellers Association. Over the course of the day, as people discussed the possiblities, the idea became refined into Kids ♥ Authors Day as it is now, to focus on New England stores as a way of testing the idea before trying it on a national scale. Emails were sent to the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers, the New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council and the New England Independent Booksellers Association, and those associations all came on board to help promote the idea. Mitali started a Facebook page to promote the idea there, and Deborah Sloan of Deborah Sloan and Company, a marketing and promotions firm for books and their creators, connected with the group there and offered to help promote the events regionally and locally.

Lightning Fast Action

What strikes me about this is that even a year or so ago, this type of idea would have taken far longer to come about. It likely would have started at the ABA or regional booksellers association level.  It would have involved a committee, and contacting publishers, and a lot of hard work and a very long time in the planning. But Mitali had an idea, had people to brainstorm with who were connected to other people who could help, and they all had online tools to use. As a result, this idea went from thought in Mitali’s mind to full-on program with website in under 24 hours.

You don’t always need a meeting

Can you see something similar to this happening in your community? So many times great ideas go unrealized because they require a meeting — or several meetings. And then the idea gets short shrift because there were other items on the agenda, or the meeting ran over schedule, or people didn’t know who to talk to or how to make things happen.  If you had an existing network of local business people, customers, and other interested parties, that you could reach out to without interrupting them in their own schedules, what could you accomplish? If you are part of a local merchant’s association or other group, do you have the tools to communicate off-hours in an open dialog?

Online communication isn’t just kids sending text messages to each other — sometimes business actually gets done. Are there ways that you can start to implement some of these ideas?

If you are a New England bookstore, please consider participating in Kids ♥ Authors Day.  Send an email to kidsheartauthors@yahoo.com, along with a link to the store’s website and the email of a contact person. Stores will be listed on the website and matched with authors/illustrators in January. They’ll also receive a poster to customize and help promote the event. For more information, please see the website at http://www.kidsheartauthors.com