Ep. 89: Behind the Scenes of Indie Book Buying with Elizabeth Barnhill (Fabled Bookshop) + Book Recommendations
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.9 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2021
⏱️ 52 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 89, Elizabeth Barnhill (book buyer for Fabled Bookshop) goes behind the scenes about what it’s like to buy books for an independent bookstore.
This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
Highlights
- How Elizabeth got her job as book buyer at Fabled Bookshop with no “official” previous experience (and if the owner was nervous to hire someone with no experience).
- The most surprising thing Elizabeth discovered about being a book buyer.
- What Elizabeth’s relationship with publishing sales reps looks like (including how far in advance they meet).
- What happens when Elizabeth ends up not liking a book she’s ordered for the store.
- How far in advance of publication date Elizabeth reads and orders books.
- How Elizabeth factors in other readers’ opinions of a book into her orders (traditional media reviews, early readers on #bookstagram, etc).
- How Elizabeth handles ordering in relation to trends (and her take on the trends of 2021).
- How Elizabeth decides how many of a particular book to order.
- How COVID impacted her ordering.
- The biggest book buy she’s ever done for a single book.
- How Elizabeth decides how much of each order should comprise a specific genre.
- What the initial book buy for Fabled looked like when it first opened.
- How Elizabeth decides which books to feature most prominently around the store.
- If she hand sells books she doesn’t personally like.
Elizabeth’s Book Recommendations [30:19]
Two OLD Books She Loves
- The Iron House by John Hart | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org
 [30:51]
- All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [34:35]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [37:38]
- The Ride of Her Life
by Elizabeth Letts | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [40:45]
One Book She DIDN’T LOVE
- Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [43:17]
One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (October 5, 2021) | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org
 [46:24]
Last 5 Star Book(s) Elizabeth Read [49:18]
- When the Stars Go Dark
Other Books Mentioned
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
- The Push by Ashley Audrain [15:34]
- American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins [16:14]
- Falling by T.J. Newman [20:04]
- Hostage by Clare Mackintosh [20:04]
- How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior [23:02]
- Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez [23:41]
- God Spare the Girls
 by Kelsey McKinney [24:24]
- Circe
- The Unwilling by John Hart [30:55]
- The Hush by John Hart [33:17]
- The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg [35:16]
- Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg [35:16]
- The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg [35:16]
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls [36:06]
- The Speckled Beauty by Rick Bragg [37:20]
- Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts [41:08]
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles [46:42]
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Barnhill is the book buyer for Fabled Bookshop and Cafe located in Waco, TX. Originally from Alabama, she has lived in Texas for most of her life.
Elizabeth graduated from Baylor University and worked as a speech pathologist before landing her dream job reading books for a living when Fabled opened in 2019.
Elizabeth has been married for 25 years and has three kids in high school and college.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm |
| 0:15.5 | talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new |
| 0:22.7 | release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things |
| 0:28.3 | books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends, |
| 0:33.8 | subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes |
| 0:40.8 | by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my |
| 0:47.5 | Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, my guest today is Elizabeth Barnhill. She is the book buyer for Fabled Bookshop and Cafe, |
| 0:56.7 | an independent bookstore located in Waco, Texas. She's originally from Alabama, but has lived in |
| 1:02.4 | Texas for most of her life. Elizabeth graduated from Baylor University and worked as a speech pathologist |
| 1:08.1 | before landing her dream job reading books for a living when |
| 1:11.3 | fabled opened in 2019. Elizabeth has been married for 25 years and has three kids in high |
| 1:16.7 | school and college. Welcome, Elizabeth. Thank you, sir. I'm so happy to talk to you today. |
| 1:21.7 | If y'all don't know, Elizabeth and I have had an Instagram relationship for a couple months now, So it is really exciting to get to talk to you live. And I have to also give credit to Meredith and Katie from currently reading for putting you on my radar and helping me realize that you and I are somewhat reading twins. |
| 1:43.1 | We are. I feel like I'm talking to a long-lost friend for |
| 1:46.3 | the very first time. I know. Y'all, if you did not see a week or so ago, I pulled all of my |
| 1:53.0 | listeners through Instagram and my Facebook group about what you wanted to hear Elizabeth talk about, |
| 1:58.6 | and we got a ton of questions in. We will try to get |
| 2:02.1 | through as many as possible. And some will also be answered in the superlatives bonus episode |
| 2:07.9 | for patrons as well. So I've divided these into three and possibly four segments today. First, |
| 2:15.1 | we'll talk about Elizabeth's background and how she got into book buying. |
| 2:19.4 | Then we'll talk about working with the reps from the publishing houses and what that relationship |
| 2:24.2 | looks like. And then finally, we will talk about buying and ordering. And if we have time, |
... |
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