Catherine Linka's Blog - Posts Tagged "catherine-linka"
Booksellers: The Quiet Superheroes
For the last seven and a half years, I’ve been a bookseller--a children’s and YA book buyer actually. But I left book selling this week to focus on my writing.
While cleaning out my email before I left, I was struck by the many things I had done that were not part of the job description.
I wrote school recommendations for a talented young writer, acted as the official advisor for a Girl Scouts Gold Award, and cajoled publishers into donating books for an Eagle Scout trying to fill a library in Africa.
I advised entrepreneurs on how to package their products, and writers on how to find an agent, self-publish, or position a book for the market. I’ve recommended novels to screenwriters looking for a story to adapt.
I judged the PTA writing contest, located board books in Spanish for a hospital, and found young readers to test the manuscripts of aspiring writers. I brought ARCs to schools for foster children and placed books in alternative high schools.
I supervised young interns and trained them how to handle themselves at their first job. Plus, I spent countless hours reassuring anxious parents who feared their child would never read or was reading the wrong books.
Staffs at indie booksellers give of themselves in ways like this every day. They aren’t part of our job descriptions, but they connect us to the communities we serve. We don’t just set books on a shelf and take the cash at POS1. We are a quiet, caring force, trying to make the world a somewhat better place.
While cleaning out my email before I left, I was struck by the many things I had done that were not part of the job description.
I wrote school recommendations for a talented young writer, acted as the official advisor for a Girl Scouts Gold Award, and cajoled publishers into donating books for an Eagle Scout trying to fill a library in Africa.
I advised entrepreneurs on how to package their products, and writers on how to find an agent, self-publish, or position a book for the market. I’ve recommended novels to screenwriters looking for a story to adapt.
I judged the PTA writing contest, located board books in Spanish for a hospital, and found young readers to test the manuscripts of aspiring writers. I brought ARCs to schools for foster children and placed books in alternative high schools.
I supervised young interns and trained them how to handle themselves at their first job. Plus, I spent countless hours reassuring anxious parents who feared their child would never read or was reading the wrong books.
Staffs at indie booksellers give of themselves in ways like this every day. They aren’t part of our job descriptions, but they connect us to the communities we serve. We don’t just set books on a shelf and take the cash at POS1. We are a quiet, caring force, trying to make the world a somewhat better place.
