Handselling on Air

Generating buzz about literature and literary events over radio airwaves has become a key part of the branding and marketing efforts of more than a few independent bookstores. For some, this may be through participation in a program such as The Spoken Word, and for others, through a seasonal appearance on National Public Radio's Morning Edition with Susan Stamberg. But for a number of independent booksellers, radio appearances have become a regular part of their business routines. Running the gamut from occasional spots of a few minutes duration to weekly hour-long shows, their radio presence has proven an effective and inexpensive (often free) means of promoting their bookstores.

Elisabeth Grant-Gibson and Pat Grant, the owners of Windows, A Bookshop in Monroe, Louisiana, initially turned down repeated requests by their local AM talk radio station, KMLB, to launch their own radio show. "We were reluctant," Grant-Gibson said. "It's not like we don't already have the equivalent of two or three jobs each." Now having completed the ninth weekly Book Report, she happily reported, "We're just having great time. It's totally invigorated us and gotten staff excited. We all have a renewed energy." 

The one-hour, magazine format Book Report airs weekly on Wednesdays at 8:00 a.m. CST on KMLB. It is also streamed live online and is archived at www.thebookreport.net.

"The first segment is Book Biz, news about the book industry," explained Grant-Gibson. "In the second segment, Book Buzz, we feature book reviews or have a short interview. The second half is a 17-minute interview with our main guest. In the last segment, we do more reviews and usually end by reading a poem aloud."

The show also includes short "handsells" by other booksellers. These have included Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Florida; Tammy Lynn of The Book Basket in Wetumpka, Alabama; Lyn Roberts of Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi; and Deb Andolino of Aliens & Alibis in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Book Report website, said Grant-Gibson, is "building like crazy" with thousands of page views and visitors from many countries.

The show's effect on the bookstore's bottom line is hard to quantify, explained Grant-Gibson, but it is noticeable. "We've had a really good July, which is typically a terrible month for us, in our 14-year tradition," she said. "I think there are many factors that contributed to that, but I think the show is a part of it. Sometimes we get people in who ask for something that was mentioned on the show, but I think we're just getting more new people every day."

The show has been a morale booster, too. Grant-Gibson explained, "[Hurricane] Katrina was hard for our whole state. People don't understand how affected people were 250 miles from the coast -- not only by having several thousand extra people in our parishes, but everyone here has friends, or family, or at least acquaintances in affected areas. [At Windows], we've all worked hard to keep this little radio show going. It's given us a new lease on life. It makes us happy to celebrate Louisiana culture, but it also makes us happy to celebrate book culture."

Just two months old, Book Report is already expanding. "Initially I thought we'd broadcast here in Monroe and then branch out through Louisiana stations," Grant-Gibson said. "But I started thinking about fellow booksellers we love, and we thought the show might be a really great opportunity to drive people to other bookstores." So, in addition to offering slots for other booksellers to handsell, Book Report is available for free to other independent booksellers who would like to air it on their own local stations. That Bookstore in Blytheville's Mary Gay Shipley has already taken advantage of that offer. Book Report recently aired on her local Arkansas AM station, KLCN.

Grant-Gibson plans to discuss the in-and-outs of Book Report with interested booksellers at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance fall trade show. "We'll have a table there and wonderful packets created to make it extremely easy for any bookseller to take the show and run with it."

Susan Novotny of Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, was invited to participate in two local radio shows: The Roundtable on WAMC, a public radio station that reaches parts of seven northeastern states, which she's been doing for about five years; and on WGY-AM, a local talk radio station, which she's been doing for about seven years.

Novotny follows an unscripted format for both. To prepare, she said, "I read the books and that's about it. I contend that if I go in with notes all written out it will sound rehearsed and boring, and my love and excitement about books will be lost. I'm a big fan of reading a book and getting excited about it. It's just handselling on air. It's really no different."

However unscripted, Novotny does tailor the books that are discussed to the stations' different demographics. On talk radio station WGY-AM, where Novotny has a weekly four-minute early morning slot, she gears her recommendations to meet a "more politically diverse audience," than on the public radio station. She tries to keep her drive-time show politically neutral. "I tend to steer away from getting people's blood pressure elevated while they're driving," she said, and so she sticks to books like Sarah Gruen's Water for Elephants (Algonquin) or John McPhee's Uncommon Carriers (FSG).

On WAMC's The Roundtable, where she alternates with several other booksellers around the northeast, Novonty explained, she tends to pick "more literary, heavy, and intellectual books."

All of her book recommendations, however, translate into plugs for the bookstore. "It's been a tremendous boost to business and to the profile of Book House," she said. "Everywhere I go, people know my name and my voice. It's terrific exposure for books and the bookstore. I get regular calls from Barnes & Noble and Borders asking what books I mentioned on the show. It benefits everyone in town."

Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, has been featured on NPR's The Faith Middleton Show on Connecticut public radio for so long, she hardly remembers how she got started. "They must have called me when we opened, about 12 years ago," she said.

The hour-long show, which airs every other Friday, is among the most popular on Connecticut public radio. Coady generally discusses about six or seven books, old or new, with other guests, often two literature professors, one retired. The format is a casual conversation about favorite recently read books.

Like Novotny, Coady prefers to talk extemporaneously, bringing along the books to jog her memory. "It's a pretty casual show," she said. "Every once in a while we get immersed in a philosophical discussion." When A Million Little Pieces was embroiled in controversy, the group discussed the criteria for memoir, and when the New York Times published "The Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years," they discussed that.

R.J. Julia provides the Middleton show website with write-ups of their reviews, which in turn links to the bookstore's website. "It doesn't turn into web sales," she said. "But it does turn into sales by driving people to the store." The bookstore keeps a display of books discussed on the most recent show as well as a file on past selections. "We've gotten requests two years after a show," said Coady.

Vivien Jennings of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas, also debuted on the radio about 12 years ago, when she was invited to talk for a few minutes a week on KXTR Classical 1660 AM. The show, Between the Covers, was so popular that Jennings was given her own hour-long slot, and she got to rename it Book Ends. "I said can we please change the name to Book Ends," she explained. "I just hated when the announcer would say ... 'And now Between the Covers With Vivien Jennings.' He was originally a rock 'n' roll guy. I think he liked the double entendre."

But the name of the show isn't what people remember. It's Jennings, her recommendations, and Rainy Day Books. "It's very effective" in terms of sales and PR, Jennings said. The bookstore lists the books discussed on its website and creates a display of them near the cash wrap. It's one more way, in addition to an incredibly full events calendar, that Rainy Day stays connected with, and grows, its customer base. "People hear about the book, and they like to come into the store to buy it," said Jennings. "It's building relationships with customers and listeners in a different way."

Jennings prefers to discuss the books without notes. "I literally walk into [the studio] ... and just pick five books and have fun with it. I pick a variety -- usually a thriller, a fun novel, a serious novel, and then a couple of nonfiction. I just pick them and then get excited to talk about them. That way it's fresh. It's not something I've gone over and over so it's a chore. I look forward to it, and I think that shows."

Mindful of her medium, Jennings selects her passages accordingly. "On the radio, you have to choose something that's going to bring images to mind," she said. "Of course, I talk about the author and the plot. But what I found absolutely works best is, to talk about what I liked about the book and then read a little passage and select that passage for its imagery. For instance, River of Doubt by Candice Millard (Doubleday): It's about Teddy Roosevelt traveling down a tributary of the Amazon. I said, 'It's so real, you'll be swatting the mosquitoes while you're reading. But you should keep your fingers out of the water because there are flesh-eating fish.' It's a strong image listeners will remember."

Betsy Burton of The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City persuades listeners to remember titles via the enthusiasm of her on-air book reviews. She appears on two shows on the same local University of Utah-based NPR station. Burton noted, "Most are ... reviews of books I loved and wanted to talk about, although once in a while I'll pan a book if it's by someone well known and it really isn't good. The station likes the pans but I keep them to a minimum, since it seems unkind unless the author is famous and it won't matter to them what some reviewer in Utah says.

"The reviews in particular are very good for business," said Burton. "Customers constantly come in asking for the reviewed titles, and people routinely say, 'Oh, you're from the store that does all those NPR reviews.' They often don't even separate the local from the national reviews in their minds, so to them I might as well be on Fresh Air. I can't think of better PR for a store."

Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza's Novotny concluded by offering these words of advice to booksellers who haven't reached out to local radio stations: "If you have someone on staff very relaxed in front of a camera or mic, pick up the phone and call your local radio station. Local stations are always looking to fill up three or four minutes. Pick up the phone and try to plug yourself or your staff as talent." --Karen Schechner

If you participate in or know of a radio program or segment of a program hosted by a bookseller, please let BTW know! E-mail [email protected].