The World’s Biggest Bookstore

bookstore El Ateneo in Buenos Aires. Photography by josephina

When I was a kid, I had one of those super thick paperback editions of The Guinness Book of World Records. This was back in the seventies when Sterling Publishing made the books into a household name—back when they had the heavy cowboy-hatted twins riding motorcycles and the fella from Calcutta with the longest fingernails. Every kid in high school either had a copy, had leafed through their friend’s, or checked out the one in the school library.  Everyone knew the tallest man was the 8’ 11.1” Giant of Illinois, Robert Wadlow, and that the fattest man, Robert Earl Hughes, was buried in a piano box. He wasn’t, of course. In the article in Guinness, the sentence read:  “He was buried in a coffin the size of a piano case.” But everyone remembered it as being a piano case. There was the fastest car, the Blue Flame, and the smallest violin that could fit in the palm of your hand, and everyone knew each of these better than they knew questions on any up and coming test, but no one to my knowledge could even guess at the biggest bookstore.

Granted, while Barnes and Noble was founded in 1873, the push toward huge discount bookstores didn’t come into being until a hundred years later in the late 1970s, so it wasn’t such a big deal back then. Not that the biggest bookstore would have bumped the fastest car or the fattest man from the top ten list of things a teenager had to know. We had a lot on our plates, Farrah Fawcett posters, streakers, pet rocks, platform shoes, and if you didn’t know the entire script of Monty Python’s many routines, who was on Saturday Night Live, or had missed Happy Days or Mork and Mindy there was something wrong with you. 

Bookstores didn’t really get big until the 1980’s, and ’90’s when they became so prevalent that Nora Ephron created the movie You’ve Got Mail about the little bookstore in New York being put out of business by the monstrous discount bookstore. I can almost imagine independent sellers these days crying “Remember The Little Shop Around the Corner!”

One of the very first superstores was the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, Ontario. What started out as a bowling alley was converted in 1980 into the world’s largest book store boosting 20 km of bookshelves. It was also the location for a brief scene in the movie Short Circuit 2. Since then the title has been in dispute.

Guinness insists the biggest bookstore is the flagship Barnes and Noble located on 105 Fifth Avenue at 18th Street in New York, that occupies 154,250 square feet and contains 12.87 miles of bookshelves. At the same time the Strand Bookstore, is considered the world’s biggest bookstore in terms of shelf space. In the East Village, it boasts “18 miles of books.” On the other side of the country Powell’s City of Books, covers a whole city block and occupies more than 68,000 sq ft. They claim to be the world’s largest independent new-and-used bookstore. So how does the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Ontario maintain its crown? By defining “biggest” as being the store offering the most titles.

Why am I telling you all this? For one thing if you’re reading this blog you’re likely into books and might find it interesting which are the largest bookstores in the world—probably more so than who the tallest man was, or if in fact Robert Earl Hughes was indeed buried in a piano case. More importantly—as far as I’m concerned at least—is that the World’s Biggest Bookstore has chosen me as their featured author in their fantasy and science fiction section. 

To either side are a list of interview questions I answered as part of this promotion and endcap display, which Jessica Strider will post in full to her site later this week.

So if you’re in Ontario, wander in and check out the display or look for a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records. Being the World’s Biggest Bookstore by title, I’m pretty sure they’ll have it.  

While working on this post I found this site showing pictures of "The Most Interesting Bookstores in the World."

Road Signs

There’s been a new development in my career. Long time readers of this blog, or those who have slogged through the back posts, will know that I see my progress as a writer to be a bit like driving on a lonely highway through Ontario or maybe the Mojave Desert. The landscape remains an unchanging featureless plain that is so expansive it's often difficult to tell if I’m even moving. I can look at the Amazon ranks and the BookScan numbers, but that’s like looking at the ground next to the car. You can see it moving, but there’s no context. The blur of gravel and grass is memorizing, to the point it’s hard to tell if you’re going forward or back.

Beyond this you have questions that can’t be answered. Are you making good time? How far to the next landmark? And what is the next landmark? 

Careers rarely come with maps, and if they do, they’re always out of date. The roadside diners your heroes raved about were torn down years ago leaving you seeking your own version of that dreamscape. New towns spring up, others sprawl and a few fade away.  Still, there are signs and it is always exciting to see one.

For a couple years I’ve received a trickle of fan mail. The first few I read over and over with a big grin. People liked my books so much that they took the trouble to write me! The trickle turned into a fairly steady stream that demanded I spend time each day answering them. Funny how people are always shocked that an author will reply, as if we don’t have time for our readers.

Recently there have been a couple of changes. I still get the wonderful fan messages from people who just want to let me know how much they appreciate what I wrote, but now I’ve noticed a couple of new types of emails.

The first is from people asking me to come to their organization to speak. This kind of thing never happened before. Robin had to push to get me a gig on a convention panel of twelve other unknown writers discussing what comes first, the character or the setting—clearly a burning question plaguing the literary community just as much as the chicken and egg dilemma is frustrating leading biologists. All of us were jammed into a hotel room behind a folding table where we had played an unintentional game of musical chairs as there were not enough seats. After a few of these I asked Robin not to bother.

Now without trying I’m receiving invitations. Librarians, book clubs, conventions, podcasts, they don’t care what I talk about; they just want me to come speak for an hour. I’m an author not a politician or professor, so why they think I’m any good at speaking is a mystery. I have a whole bunch of appearances coming up in March and as you can see from the previous post, I just appeared at the Library of Congress where I delivered my presentation on the stage of the Pickford Theater, which is the kind of place you’d expect to see a Ted talk. I had a podium with an official seal and a working microphone. They also have a huge screen that I could have used to project images from this lovely computer system if I knew what I was doing. It was three-quarters of a world away from the folding table and jammed hotel room where honestly no one cared if I showed up or not.

The other new correspondence I’ve begun receiving are reading requests. Some are from aspiring writers asking for advice, but others are from publishers looking for me to provide endorsements to be printed on the covers of new books. I hate to turn anyone down, but multiple requests for me to read novels are too much considering how slow I read.

These requests for my time are road signs I never expected to see along the highway. I suppose I just assumed that authors just wrote each day, sent off their manuscripts, and received checks in the mail. Sure some celebrity names like King and Patterson might be asked to speak at some college commencement, or asked to read new releases for their endorsement, or newbie writers might approach them for advice—but me?

I saw these road signs fly by and realized I had crossed some line. Without a map I’m not sure exactly what it means: county line, state, whole new country? Who knows. Sometimes in this vast open landscape it’s just nice to see something go by and know you’re still moving forward.

Talk About Heroic Literature in the Age of Grit

There is some debate over the benefits of being traditionally published. And when I chose that route, it was for specific goals, all of which I’ve succeeded in obtaining, and yet as with any endeavor  there are unexpected surprises. One of those was that people have been asking me to speak at conventions, libraries, and other functions.

One woman was almost giddy when I said yes to talking at her library, then stopped and softly mentioned. “How much do you charge?  We don’t have a lot of money to spend.”

I had to cover the phone so she didn’t hear me laughing. When I composed myself I promptly demanded as my fee, the loftily sum of one bottle of water, but if that was too much I could bring my own. She didn't seem to believe me at first, then mentioned that the session was usually forty-five minutes and asked if I could talk that long. I explained the problem was usually getting me to shut up.

This sort of "celebrity status" invitations didn’t used to happen, and never spontaneously. Now I get calls from the strangest of places asking if I would be so kind as to grace them with my presence. And it was no big deal until I was contacted by Helen Hester-Ossa. She wanted me to come talk at her library too, another forty-five minute chat followed by a Q&A session. Only Helen doesn’t work at the local county branch where they have children’s readings in the morning and adult education classes in the evenings.

Helen works at the Library Of Congress.

That little place down at 101 Independence Avenue, with the cupola capped dome that looks about the size of the capitol building.  The one with the over abundance of marble that houses more books than the library at Alexandria. In fact, the largest most prestigious library in the world.

Helen had seen an article about me in the Fairfax County Times (another unexpected development) and after visiting this website thought I would be a great choice for guest speaker in their Science Fiction/Fantasy forum.

The topic I’m to speak on is: “Traditional Heroic Fantasy vs Current Trends Toward the Gritty & Dark.” The whole thing being sponsored by the library of Congress Professional Association, part of the What If…Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum.

It will be held at the Pickford Theater, Library of Congress, Madison Building (LM-302), 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20559  at Noon tomorrow, February 16th.

I’m no formal speaker. I know even less about talking publically than I do about writing, but I’ll give it a shot. Hopefully people will ask questions I know the answers to, or at least be forgiving of a man who spends most of his time locked in a small room.

I was asked to speak at the Library of Congress.

Covering Crown

Most of you know by now that the Riyria Revelations was not originally published by Orbit. The series actually faced a very long road taking turns being self-published, small independent published, self-published again, and finally traditionally published through Orbit. These changes can perhaps be best followed by the changing covers of the first book of the series—The Crown Conspiracy.

Initially I never intended to publish the books for money. Before ebook readers were invented, when Amazon had only recently started turning a profit, I had decided to just post my books online for free download. I never sent them to a publisher, never sent a query to an agent. I had given up on that waste of time. I was going to write and put them on the Internet, feeling this was better than in a drawer.

I built a website and created this cover for the first book, which at that time I called Heirs to the Throne.

In all the time I had it on the Internet, I doubt a single person ever read it.

Then my wife found me an agent and I took the site down. My agent wasn’t thrilled with the title. Turned out no one was. I pondered the options for days until I settled on The Crown Conspiracy, that everyone agreed was much better.

When my agent was unable to get any traction, and eventually quit the industry for personal reasons, Robin and I set in motion plans to self-publish. This was still before the ebook evolution and we were saving up for the printing and warehousing costs. In the meantime I created this new cover that played off the new title. 

My daughter hated it  having a bias against computer generated art. Turns out she had a point, but the point became moot when before we could implement our plans for self-published world domination, I was offered a contract by AMI a small, independent publisher.

They inquired about what I would like to see on the cover. To give them an idea I pulled some images off the net, most by Alan Lee and sent them this concept art: (you'll notice that Nyphron Rising was at that time entitled Legends and Lore.)

They liked the look and feel and hired their own artist who returned with this sketch. 

I became concerned. The castle was too imposing, more like Dracula’s, the river looked like Harry Potter’s scar, and there was an aqueduct where the Winds Monastery should be. I also couldn’t figure out where they planned to put the title. With Robin’s encouragement I did a cover painting of my own and sent them this:

 

Which in their wisdom they changed to this:

After financial problems caused AMI to return the rights to me, I then had no choice but to self-published, but this was the Spring of 2008. 

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Amazon released the first generation Kindles on November 19th 2007, but after selling out in five and a half hours, the devices remained out of stock for five months. Kindles became available in April 2008, the same time Ridan began selling the Riyria Revelations.

Then in 2011 I signed a contract with Orbit Books, changed the title, and work on the covers began all over again. This was the first cover idea I saw back in February of last year. A far cry from the simple, subtle landscapes that I created. 

Eventually this was paired down to the more shelf/series brand friendly:

And this is where we are today except that Royce and Hadrian have escaped and gone international.  Orbit’s UK arm produced this cover using Orbit’s original art.

But I have presently signed foreign language rights contracts or have deals pending with: The Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Denmark, and most recently, Bulgaria.  The first of these covers have been appearing as the books are finally being released overseas.

Czech

Polish

Spanish

French

Funny how many different ways a single book can be packaged.

Audiobooks

“Is it in audio?” the guy asked. “I don’t read. I drive two hours to work and two hours home each day. I don’t have time to read, but I have lots of time to listen, and I got bored of music, and irritated by talk radio a long time ago. Now I listen to books. So it is on audio?”

“My problem is that I would love to share them with my sister,” she wrote. “She is legally blind and doesn't read anymore.  I get all her books on Audible for her.  Is there any chance that yours will be available as audio books?  I feel guilty telling her how much I am enjoying the books - don't know if I could hold out reading them all to her .”

These are just a couple samples of comments and emails I’ve received inquiring about the availability of the Riyria Revelations in audio. For years, I’ve had to say, “Ah yes, one day…maybe.” For months it was, “Absolutely, I’m just not sure when.”

Today I can finally say this:

THEFT OF SWORDS audio, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Projected Pub Date: 03/01/2012

RISE OF EMPIRE audio, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Projected Pub Date: 06/01/2012

HEIR OF NOVRON audio, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

Projected Pub Date: 09/01/2012