We Don't Care What Happens to These Books

I hit my first wall. I walked into this bookstore (to avoid a blog post in bad taste let’s avoid the name of the bookstore) knowing that they don’t do consignments, but they do take donations. A consignment is a deal between an author and a bookstore to sell the books and each party get a cut of the profit. I try to sell my books as cheap as possible. I’m not trying to make money, I just want my work to be out there. I walk into the donation area and this is how it went:

“I’d like to drop off these books,” I say as I remove the books from my bag.

“Oh we don’t do consignments,” says the man with a scruffy beard and wild hair.

“It’s ok,” I reply. “I just wanted to make a donation.”

“Ok,” he says and he takes my books and begins to walk away with them.

“So what happens next?”

He turns around and accidentally drops my books, “We send them to the warehouse.”

“And what happens in the warehouse?”

“They figure out which books go into the store.”

“So there’s a possibility that these books will never make it to the shelf?”

“Yup,” as he begins to walk away assuming I’m done with my questions.

“How do I know if they got on the shelf?” I ask, again interrupting his pivot away from me.

“Look,” he replies exasperated. “We don’t care what happens to these books. Some make it others don’t.”

At this point I was at a loss for words. I’d like to think I’m professional, even with this hobby that has yet to become anything else but that, I try to keep things professional. So I swallowed my pride, only left 3 books, and walked out.

A big part of my writing is inspired by my students. I want to promote literacy to my kids. I want them to have access to as many books as possible. And the way my students and I get along, they’re even more motivated to pick up my book and read it on their spare time. It’s a win/win. The kids have free access to my book through my website. But this wild haired man actually said we don’t care what happens to these books. Who says that? Who in their right minds, especially working at a bookstore, says something like that? I know I was asking a lot of questions, but to not care about a book is to say you don’t care about the thousands of people in the surrounding communities who don’t have access to books when they truly need it. I was extremely bothered by the encounter. I tried not to let it get me down, but it did. Hopefully this is the last time I encounter something like this. And to the crazy haired man, I hope you never know a day without books.

As always, below the photo is a link to my book. If you're a student visit www.LDannyPerez.com to get a free ecopy of it.

It Runs at Night