The Mystery of the "Sarah Cards"

In some ways, I think my greatest value-add as a collaborative writer is not that I’ve written three books.

It’s not that I was a journalist for a few decades and so I understand the difference between the story you want to tell and the story readers want to hear.

It’s not even that I write extraordinarily rapidly because for the last 27 or so years, I have written professionally EVERY SINGLE DAY.?

It's not that a decade+ as an editor and 13 years as a mom means I can be honest with you when you need to hear it.

It’s that I co-own a bookstore.?

I wish I had known the things I have learned in just a few years running a bookstore when I was writing my books.? I cannot begin to put this all in one post.?

Today I want to talk about our store’s famous “Sarah Cards.”?They live on the “Sarah Table.”?This is my only contribution to our store. Paul does 99% of the actual work.

I am not exaggerating when I call these cards famous. These cards–? not me, not Paul, not the store– were listed in Palm Springs Life Magazine in the "Best of Palm Springs" Guide the first year we were open because of their local cult following. People come in and steal them.?

Here’s the story behind them. The day we opened, like we flipped the sign and people started walking in, and I realized we had no signage. But we had some colorful index cards. So I wrote the names of sections on cards and taped them up on shelves. Then I realized we had a big table in the front of the store that had nothing on it. And then I realized we had no staff recommendations.?We had never opened a bookstore before. And this was, unbelievably, a side hustle.

So I went around grabbing some of my favorite books off of shelves and took the cards and black sharpies and hurriedly wrote index cards of why I liked those books.?

NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS REMARKABLE, RIGHT??

Every bookstore in America has staff recommendations. Usually in the form of index card sized notes. So when people started to freak out about these cards, I was utterly confused why.?

They were mentioned in every Yelp or Google review. People in the store always commented about them. They were in Instagrams and TikToks when people from all over the world visited the store. And then we got a call from Palm Springs Life, “Can we come photograph the cards for the magazine?” (That’s the photo below. Terrible. Neither Paul nor I had SHOWERED and had been lugging boxes all day. We thought LITERALLY they only wanted the cards in the photos. They also had close ups of the cards. ??)

I love nothing more than being celebrated, accidentally or otherwise. But I was so confused.?

Paul had to explain to me what I did.?

“You’ve written them in you language not me language,” he said. And I realized he was right.?

As I looked at cards in other bookstores, they were often written to say what it means about a staff member that they liked this book. It was more of a reflection on them. What it meant that they liked it. Even the fact that they always signed their names. Mine aren't signed because you don't know me. Why do I care that "Albert" feels this way about The Sun Also Rises?

My cards were about why I believed this book would mean a lot to you. Why you specifically need this book right now.??I was irrelevant. This sounds weird, but even the ones that mentioned me, were really about YOU. There were also sort of unhinged. They were passionate. Like I was grabbing you by the lapels telling you why you NEEDED THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW.

That was because at the time my job was still running our startup ChairmanMe and the number one thing I was doing was marketing for our courses. And I was so focused on writing extremely empathetic marketing copy. It’s like I could not write a grocery list without getting into the mind of Cheerios and understanding why they should want to leap into my shopping cart.?

And that was the other insight: I had one card and a thick sharpie, I couldn’t fit much on the card. (As you can tell from this newsletter I struggle to write short) And I put the cards on the cover of the book. So you had to pick up and move the card to look at the book. What I had inadvertently done is written an analog email subject line in the form of a card that you had to “click” on by moving it, and then you were already interacting with the book.

I even hand draw emojis.?One card is just a shocked face. Whatever we put it on sells. We really don't abuse this though. The Sarah Table only has things I have read and love.

If I draw an animal, books sell significantly more copies. But I will have to redraw the animal because those are the ones that people take.?

I know you are thinking, “What an egomaniac. . . these are a few index cards, lady. Shut up and tell us more about finding an agent.”?

Please consider: There is a book called Malice. It is a Japanese Murder Mystery written decades ago I happen to like. I wrote a handful of words on an index card about Malice. I called it a Venn diagram between Murakami and Dostoevsky, I believe. Our store sells more copies of Malice than any store in the United States of America. We have probably sold more than a thousand copies since we opened, and could sell more if we ordered more. A stack is GONE the within days of it going on the table with that card.?

The only reason we don't sell more is Macmillan gives us the smallest credit for some reason and also publishes Iron Flame, Kim Scott, Byron Lane, Christi Clancy and a lot of our other biggest sellers we need to keep in stock. Once we ordered an entire box of Malice to test if we could sell it infinitely. We did. (Future post about the frustrations of working with different publishers as a bookstore but Paul may have to write that one because he does all the hard work there.)

I have a fantasy that Malice's author Keigo Higashino will one day fly to Palm Springs just to understand why on Earth he keeps getting these royalty statements from us.?

We have many, many books that we sell more of than any other indie bookstore in America. Our 1,000 square foot store with no cafe in a 40,000 person town. BECAUSE OF THESE CARDS.?

WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS???

Because as you think about your book idea. . . what is the Sarah Card you would write? Go actually get a pack of brightly colored index cards and a sharpie. A thick one. No fine tip for you! That’s the size you’ve got to work with. Try to envision your book in four years on a shelf and sell someone your yet unwritten book in you language.?

Can you? What will they get out of it? This is not a plot summary. This is a vibe. How will it change them. This should get to the pain it solves. The promise.

Good email subject lines honor the privilege of being in someone's inbox as a marketer. Have you earned their $30 and 300 pages of their attention? Are you giving them something worth that?

Are you thinking about a book that may be for them?

Or are you only focusing on what this book can do for you?

(This is part of my awesome newsletter "The Business of Business Books" and YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS AN ISSUE. Go here to subscribe.)