Of Love and Bonnets.

Week 5 Assignment 2     

What is popular with my customers?  What authors do I need to learn more about?

Well, let me tell you,  currently,  Amish fever seems to be sweeping Baltimore County.   This is even narrower than general Christian or inspirational fiction!  At several stops, I am specifically asked to provide Amish fiction.   I was told by one customer,  "the woman needs to be wearing a bonnet on the cover."    As a good librarian, I try to comply,  but having never read Amish fiction in my life,  I was at a loss as to where to begin.  

It seems that Early Word is at a loss, too.  I checked several of their links along the side, and came up with not a lot of Christian titles.  They DO list the Christian Bookseller's Association (http://www.cbaonline.org/nm/BSLs.htm)  and that is a place to start.  It lists the current bestsellers, but in text form without covers and no descriptions,  so you get what is current, but not a lot of information about that particular title.

I dug a little deeper  and found Christianbook.com  (http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=1999184&sp=1001&kw=amish%20fiction&event=PPCSRC&p=1018818&gclid=CLmPr6fZrLcCFUqZ4AodJFMAUQ).  This is a Christian bookstore, but it has an entire shop for Amish fiction and the hottest and newest authors.  It has a section on new releases, and also tells you the series numbers for series books.   This site seemed just the ticket, so I can quickly look for titles when asked, provide new authors, and reserve titles that may be coming.  It will also help me to pull books from the shelves when I need to stock my shelves when I am heading off on the road.

And naturally I learn my lesson. Wouldn't you know that my old nemesis, Goodreads, would have an entire Amish fiction list!  http://www.goodreads.com/genres/amish-fiction

It just goes to show you, that you are never to old to learn new things.  I still may not be reading a title about bonnets and buggies and the simple life.  But I know where to go to find an author and title, and get my customer just the book they desire.