by Naomi
Being a bookseller has many benefits, unlimited access to books being a big one. It can be a blessing and a curse to read books that have not yet been published, since you will definitely never get through your TBR list. However, sometimes you read an ARC of a book that just completely blows you away, but you can’t discuss it with anyone yet since the book’s publication date is months and months away. What do you do then? You badger your colleagues into reading it, of course!
You may have noticed that we’ve been posting quite a bit of content about This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews on the blog (3 book reviews, to be exact, and an author spotlight as well), and if you’ve passed by our stores in The Hague or Leidschendam recently you will have seen our displays dedicated to this book. This was absolutely a passion project by all staff involved. Read on for a little peek behind the curtains of how it all came to be!
I first read This Kingdom in August, after receiving a digital ARC. I was already a huge fan of the authors, so I was just excited for new material from them. I did not expect this book to completely blow me away like that. Anyway, I talked Damla’s ear off about it, prompting her to also pick it up. She loved it just as much as I did, getting Sophie excited about it too. Lília was already a fan of the authors, just like me, so it was no surprise when she devoured it too. Of course it’s not uncommon for several colleagues to be excited about the same book (we’re booksellers after all, and we love talking about what we read), but the fact that this book had not yet been published did give us some opportunities. We had time to reach out to our lovely rep at Pan MacMillan UK, the publisher of This Kingdom, to see if they could provide us with some marketing materials for a big display window to celebrate the book’s release. And they did! They provided several copies of a gorgeous illustration, which is free with a purchase of This Kingdom, as long as supplies last.
Illustration by Candice Slater
And then we went to work! We had to design the window display, write the book reviews, and keep our fingers crossed that stock would arrive on time for the release date. Luckily it did, and we were able to roll out our own campaign on social media, the blog and in-store on time. Creating the actual display is always fun, as you can see your vision finally come to life. It’s also fun because it basically means arts and crafts day at work. Our display in The Hague turned out lovely, as you can see below!
All of this was possible because we at ABC are independent booksellers, and have the freedom to dive into a passion project like this one. It’s so much fun to be able to go all-out to promote a book that you’re truly excited about. This Kingdom is most definitely not the first book we are so passionate about, and it will absolutely not be the last (just you wait until the sequel comes out, ha!).
