March 14, 2020

NM Book Co-op HELP CENTER #2

The New Mexico Book Co-op has launched a Help Center for authors and publishers during this COVID-19 epidemic. We all need to share ideas, and some humor, so that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, whenever that may show up. People who need help in getting things, supplies, etc, can post such requests as a way of reaching out to others who might be able to help. Email us for further information and to sign up for the Book Co-op newsletter. If you have any ideas that you might share on how to keep our beloved books on the minds of readers and stores, send them to me at LPDPress@q.com and I'll share with our wider book family (the NM Book Co-op is over 1,500 members).

OPPORTUNITY TO PROMOTE: Christina Stock, the event and entertainment editor of the Roswell Daily Record reached out to us in the book community with an opportunity to help us promote our books: "with events cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis and people staying at home, I am going to expand my column Comfort food and books for comfort, which usually comes out only monthly. I am going to have it in our newspaper every Sunday. Can you ask interested published authors in the NM Book Co-op to send me covers of their books (large as possible for print, min. 175 dpi 6x5 in. as .jpg or .tif), a short bio of themselves with headshot and of course, a brief introduction to the book, as well as purchasing link. As editorial piece this is a free service for authors and our readers, who might be stuck at home." CONTACT: Christina Stock, vision@rdrnews.com

CONTEST: I saw that Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks wife, helped come up with a name of the music playlist that we all can use during the virus stay-at-home effort—"Quarantunes." So I have one that we all can participate in. Let's come up with a name for the "Best Reading List for New Mexico and Arizona Books While Quaranteened!" Once we come up with a name for the book list I'll put out a call for the books that should be on that list. We can all promote it to possible buyers and even to stores. What do you think? Let's all pitch in an idea for a name. I'll start with "Books in Isolation List". Give me your suggestions.

CHALLENGE: Please continue to support our local businesses — everyone from local bookstores to growers and farmers. Many of these outlets and stores are struggling due to this COVID-19 situation. Even if you can't get to the store right now you can call them and get a gift certificate for a book that you can pick out later on. This may be a big help in a store's cash-flow; it may help save an employees job or even make it possible for the store to stay aloft. If you have any ideas on how we can support these fundamental businesses in our community, especially when we may not be able to actually go out to them, please share those ideas/stories.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE: Food banks are on the front lines. If you or someone you know needs food assistance in the coming months, contact your local food bank or food pantry. Here is a list of food banks around New Mexico with the communities they serve: www.nmfoodbanks.org

CORRECTION: Seems in the rush to get the 1st Help Center message out to everyone, I changed the name of one of our Co-opers. I quoted an item from Margie McCurry and I inadvertently changed her name to Mary. Don't know why I did that but I apologize.

NEW APPROACHES: Maybe the new pick-up services at many stores are a good idea after all. Using curbside pickup or online ordering for groceries and goods may mean you don't have to go into the stores and mingle (and touch) or wait in long lines for things that no longer have in stock. Same holds tru to restaurants. If you have favorite restaurant or local hang-out, and they have practicing good health department procedures, you can still frequent these places and support them. Many offer online ordering for pickup or even delivery. If that doesn't work for you, you still can get a gift certificate now for later use. Go to the restaurant (or maybe even better order it by phone or email) and buy it directly from them so they can use the money for a month or two. Then when things settle down, treat yourself to an evening out and use your certificate! Show your support — SUPPORT LOCAL!

SIGN UP FOR ENEWSLETTERS: Some bookstores, and other businesses, have had to cancel events due the current situations. In some cases authors have not been able to get to an event due to airline changes. In some cases authors may have gotten sick. If there was an event you wanted to attend at a bookstore but it was cancelled, contact the bookstore — by phone or email — and get signed up for their enewsletters and email blasts to stay informed of future events when things settle down. Show your support and sign up!

A LITTLE HUMOR: When we’re all allowed to touch each other again let’s kick this guy’s ass.

SUPPORTIVE COMMENTS: We have been getting a lot of feedback and many comments on our HELP CENTER. Emails have come in from Sarah Kotchian, Geri Rhodes, Dick Brown, Loretta Hall, Mary Neighbor, Margie McCurry, Krista Edmonds, Jane Ruby, and Pat Hodapp to name just a few recent emails. Thanks for your votes of confidence and support.

BOOK BIZ UPDATES: We have heard that the following book events have been cancelled or postponed:
Tucson Book Festival
Moriarty Author Event
Natl Hispanic Cultural Center Bilingual Children's Book Festival
Historical Society of New Mexico Book Exhibit (and Conference)
NM Book Assn events
NM Book Co-op events
SCBWI-NM events

REAL-LIFE STORY EXPLAINS WHY WE ALL MUST WORK TOGETHER AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER: The following was in a blog posting on March 12 in The Passive Voice blog.This is a good explanation as to why we must all support each other:

This as-told-to essay from Laurie Swift Raisys, the owner of Island Books in Mercer Island, Washington, has been edited and condensed for clarity from a conversation with Rachelle Hampton.

It was the start of last week when the store just kind of became a ghost town. We live on Mercer Island, which is a town of 20,000 people. On days when we would usually have people coming in the store, we had no one. Hours would go by where maybe one person would come in, and it was a little bit frightening. As a business owner, you rely on the community and the people that come in and shop at your store in order to pay your bills and pay your employees. Last week was incredibly stressful, and this week has been very stressful, and I don’t really see an end in sight right now.

We’re a community gathering place. Our slogan is “Real people, real books, real community,” and we’ve been around 46 years. My husband grew up on the island, and I worked part time for a number of years as a contractor. My contract ended one year and I decided I was going to do something different. I’d always wanted to own an island business, because I love this community. Everyone knows your name. They know your kids. You’ve known people since you were in kindergarten, if you grew up here. And I happened to walk into the bookstore one day at the right time. I just asked the former owner a question: “Roger, are you tired?” I said, “Because if you are, let me know. I would be interested in talking to you.” That was around Christmas of 2014. We signed the papers by July 2015.

I work a 60-hour work week, six days a week, and I’m here a lot. I get here between 7:30 and eight o’clock in the morning and I usually don’t leave until six o’clock. It’s a wonderful store, and we hope to be here many, many more years. But something like this can make a business disappear. I realized it was a big deal when I saw people panicking and hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer. It impacts not only my business but other people’s businesses on this island. It impacts my employees. This is their livelihood. We are trying everything we can to make sure that our staff stays healthy, and they all know to communicate with me if anything should happen, because their health is my utmost concern. As a business owner, I have to make sure that I can help them the best that I can. If one of them gets sick, all of us are affected. I have bills to pay, so it’s concerning. You don’t realize how much support you need and what you banked on for years.

A good percentage of our customers are people that are in a high-risk category for this virus, because they’re over 60. We have three or four retirement homes on the island, and I’ve been delivering books there, because they’ve been encouraged not to come out. So, they email us, or they call us.

. . . .

I live on the island, so I can drop books off anywhere. We’re promoting on our Instagram page and our Facebook page that you can support independent bookstores and independent retailers by ordering your books over the phone or sending us an email. We ship anywhere in the U.S. for free, and we always have. We’ve been pushing online orders a lot, but I really haven’t noticed an uptick in sales. We’re trying to be really smart about our restocking every day and what we’re buying. We might have to reach out to some of our publishers and contacts to figure out if we can extend terms on some of our bills, because if we’re not making money, it makes it very hard to spend money.

We’re trying to figure out creative ways to get people in the store, obviously in a very safe and thoughtful way, following the guidelines of the CDC and the WHO.

. . . .

We had four big events, a couple that were offsite, to sell books for authors, and unfortunately, I had to cancel all of them. There are probably about 10 boxes of books in the back of my store that I now need to return. I lose money on that, because I didn’t get to sell any of them. The publishers don’t always send us call tags to return the books, so you have to eat the cost of the shipping to return them.

People are hibernating, and it makes it hard for us as a place of community. You cannot be in the business of social distancing, as they’re calling it, when you are a place that people come to for book clubs. We have three book clubs, we have events at least three or four times a month, and we have story time every Wednesday with kids. Six feet is a big gap when you’re a community gathering place. Our knitting book club did meet last week. They all talked about it and decided to sit in a circle a distance apart. They always bring scones or something, but they didn’t bring any food to share. I think everyone is very cautious.

. . . .

I don’t have an answer right now as to how long the business can sustain itself in this kind of situation. I can look at numbers until I’m blue in the face, and I’m not opposed to calling in favors from my landlord, calling in favors from publishers, but we have to take this crisis one day at a time.