The Lifecycle Of Our Summer Reading Guide
We’ve been hard at work on our annual summer reading guide. In our opinion? This summer is gonna be one for the books!
Behind the Guide
Before we unveil the titles featured on our summer guide we wanted to take a step back and share just how much work (and reading) goes into creating the guide.
Get Talking
Phase one involves a lot of book chat. All the booksellers head over to a team Slack channel to just get things simmering. We hang out on Slack and brain dump any and all books that look interesting. It’s an easy first way to get thinking about summer, which in early March, when we begin the process, can seem so far away.
First Pass
Our team spends a lot of time on Edelweiss, where publishers share upcoming catalogs of their forthcoming books. We browse and download DRCs, which are digital review copies, and get reading. Our first pass of books under consideration is usually to skim a few chapters to get a sense of tone and style, to see if it piques our interest. Oftentimes if a book isn’t for us, we know it might be for someone on our team who has different tastes. In this way, the first and second phases are a loop of browsing, reading, and recommending. It’s a group effort!
The Group Doc
The group doc is a behemoth of a Google sheet where we track all the options that rise to the surface of phases one and two. Our booksellers list the authors, the publisher, the book title, and - most importantly - their reaction. Some books are sure shots from the get go. The group doc gets whittled down to guide picks by Ally, who consults with the bookseller who nominated the book.
Round Two of the Group Doc
Round two of the group doc is when we review the top picks, and discover holes in the list for introducing more diversity of voice, author, imprint, and publication date. This phase involves a lot of questioning: Do we have any books in translation? A short story collection? Good independent press rep? Some paperback options? After considering these questions we go back to the Slack channel and ask for more titles from the team, sometimes asking specific booksellers for ideas on a certain category.
Final Reads
Now with a semi-final list of contenders we do one last review of the books under consideration. If a nominated title had only been half-read by a bookseller we loop back to get a final review. We double check each data point about the book - author representation, debut representation, date publishing, etc. and essentially make sure each book is something our team will really get behind and that it aligns with the store and the guide goals - to get people reading!
Brochure Production
After the fun part of picking the titles for the guide comes the tedious but important process of organizing the copy and assets for the reading guide design. Book covers, links to our website, all th relevant data points organized in a clean spreadsheet for our designer. One fun part? We add a “feel” category - each book gets a little icon that describes what it feels like: Sticks with you. Warm hug. Goosebumps. All the feels. The icons let readers know the gist of a certain title.
Launch Time!
We launch our summer reading guide each Memorial Day weekend. To gear up we promote the guide on social media and in our newsletter, and create in store displays.
Our special new event this year? A summer reading kick off bash in the store! We’re unveiling the titles on the guide at a special party at the shop. Join us on June 2nd at 7pm to learn about all the books on the guide, and be the first to snag your bingo card!
Get Reading
Our community gets reading, and they chart their books completed on the back of the summer reading guide on a bingo inspired card. When a reader gets a completed row, they earn a free slice of cheese pizza from Andy’s Pizza!
Grab your own guide and bingo card in the shop starting June 3rd!