Category Archives: road trips

March 30, 2016   Stacey   booksellers, business of publishing, culture, fun, independent bookstores, innovation, road trips, selling  
2

Coming soon to a bus near you!

Not in a while has an article made me smile the way this one did earlier this week in the New York Times. Booksellers are getting creative in finding new ways to reach readers, and it’s working! Not only is Ann Patchett’s Nashville indie bookstore doing well, it’s expanding its storefront in addition to taking books on the road for sale on a portable bus! It seems like such a simple thing, and yet it’s innovative as well. Go to where the people are rather than waiting for the people to come into the bookstore, not such an easy sell anywhere with so much available online and for delivery in 5 minutes or less.

As if I didn’t already love every single thing about Ann Patchett, just one more thing to swoon over. The store’s name, Parnassus, actually comes from Christopher Morley’s 1917 novel “Parnassus on Wheels,” about a middle-aged woman who travels around selling books out of a horse-drawn van. So it’s fitting that they are now taking the “bookstore on wheels” concept literally.

I was thinking as I was reading this charming article about bringing books to the masses that it’s really not that different than what Scholastic has done all these years for children’s books. They schlep busloads of books and set them up in schools across the country where parents, teachers and kids can shop in the comfort of their own gym, and a portion of sales gets donated back to the school. I personally buy a majority of holiday gifts each fall at the Scholastic Book Fair, and I’m so thrilled that next year I’ll have one of my books for sale there – Cecilia Galante’s THE WORLD FROM UP HERE. And this year, they’re doing a bus tour called Summer Reading Road Trip with events all over the country so they’re getting on the “buswagon” too. Who doesn’t love a good road trip?

Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip

Scholastic’s is a brilliant and a successful sales model that I think is unique, although are there other “bring the books to the buyer” methods I’m not aware of? What are other ways you can think of to get books into readers’ hands? Books on a bus is so fun, I’m seriously thinking about renting a bus to sell books this summer! Ok, I joke, my lifestyle so does not allow for such a thing, but I love the idea of it so much. One can dream.

 

 

August 06, 2015   Erin   reading, road trips, setting, writing  
1

Take Me On An Adventure

I immediately wanted to take a road trip after reading this article. The accompanying map routes 12 different literary road trips with points for each pitstop in the novels. Most importantly, it includes a quote from the books describing each place so you can understand how these literary masters were affected and changed by the setting.

Last year, I went on a trip through Utah, and I can remember the driving almost as well as the places we stayed. I can remember driving through Salt Lake City with a perfectly white crescent moon hanging low in a light pink sky. And those mountains! They way they envelop the city feels spiritual. I felt like everything had meaning in that moment, everything was significant. I fell deeper in love with my boyfriend just because he was there to experience it with me. I understood then why people write about road trips and the significant ways they can affect your relationships and appreciation for life. I realized why I love road trips even though I hate driving. It’s not about going from point A to point B. It’s about what you see, what you learn, your perspective shifting as quickly as the passing scenery.

I was recently editing a road trip novel for a friend of mine. Everything was perfectly in place, and yet, I couldn’t quite understand why I felt something was missing. It wasn’t until I read a part where they were driving through Utah that I suddenly realized that the characters hadn’t once commented on the scenery. The setting hadn’t changed them at all. What’s the point then? Why not just stay in one place?

I would love to read more road trip novels. I want to be able to feel in the words the same importance I felt driving through Salt Lake City to Park City to Zion. I want to be able to see the mountains and the blaring stars and the sunburnt skies. Take me on an adventure.