With the team, the brain trust behind the industries leading trade magazine for indy books, publishers in particular selfawareness. And they are janet risko is the cofounder and publisher. John better who is the other cofounder and he is the editorinchief and bob gray he was an editor and a columnist. So you have no doubt read his columns, hes basically a bookstore correspond at the bookstore correspondent if you like you are in americas great indy bookstores and see was going on in the meantime. So welcome guys really an honor and pleasure to see you all. To seal all work in the same as last time i saw it which i think was at the institute. Yeah january. Seems like a lifetime ago doesnt it . But its good to see everybody and i have to say, it seems to me has to become even more important publication than it was before. Really kind of a lifeline for indy booksellers in particular to see who is making it, how they are making it, to hear their stories. Some really great work going on. But also, this may be the worst moment for Media Companies and publications in my lifetime. Jen, as a publisher hows it going . Guest , businesswise were doing okay. Its shocking considering i dont know i read a statistic in ad age just yesterday that said most ad agencies are reporting to be 75 down. Which is shocking. We are trending nowhere near that. When this first went down, we had a few publishers cancel some events. The bulk of the publishers we push their ads to the fall, they push so many of their big bucks to the fall. And now we see a little bit of budget cuts here and there. What incredibly lucky in this way. I think theres a little particular i think the publishers are thinking of doing it to market my book to booksellers . Theyre not really facing the customers in their stores. But i would say this might be one of the most i dont know important times ever to get your book into the hands of a bookseller because they will either be selling online, or curbside or in their stores shortly enough. Host theres an argument to be made that ads might be more important than ever for publishers. As a media shutting down most where we are getting coverage for books it may be more important. Guest i mean john how many books are published everyday you know this. [laughter] give me this question. [laughter] [inaudible] thousands . Thousands. Okay so thousands of books are being still published every day, how do you, you know, how do you make your shine . How do you make your stand out . I mean i you know especially when you self bioassay shelf because it shall awareness it is self publishing theres just so many things being published. So how was yours going to stand out . Its not like people are not reading now, right . The reading i crazy now. Host they are, we are, we are seeing the numbers sustained. They go up the last year it looks amazing to me. Well, john, what a time to be your beach right now. So the despair, the closing of the stores, putting on her heroic efforts whats it like with the independent book trade right now . Guest ive been covering independent bookstores for several decades now. Theres never been anything like this. I mean there has been traumatic periods, but its more of a general thing. Its not so threatening. So for us, i liken it to going to a show like a book expo to doing intensive cover for three, four, five days. And unlike the shows, you finish, you take a break, you retain your sanity then, and then you go back to normal. Now, its like covering a show and now its pushing about three months. There seems to be no let up. Its like a synonymy of new and there stuff that continues and continues and continues. So it has been really stressful. Also the kind of stories we are doing, started some change in them like in the beginning, irem of the first Couple Stores that close we highlighted them and made a big deal about it. Then everybody pretty much closed. And we started to doing stores opening, how people are dealing with all of this. But, even though some of the focus is changing, it still this sort of a wave of everyday so much news. Not that long ago, sometimes bob and ill be scrounging around trying to find new stories for the next mornings issue. And its nothing like that anymore. Its more like well weve got 12 stories, which is seven should be run . Which ones should be saved, thats more like what were doing. It feels more like even on the weekends im doing a lot more work than i used to do. Not that i was totally off on the weekends. But its just an awful lot of work. Host yeah, can you check what how youre doing your work . Its run remotely you guys work remotely from each other on regular circumstances right . Guest on the editorial side yes. We sort of joke that weve been practicing social distancing and perfecting it for 15 years. Host be careful what you wish for. [laughter] whatsit liken your report your report you can get in a bookstore. Guest is more about paying attention to whats happening for it was much more and nationally i would say before this hit. I am seeing so much more say general Media Coverage of International Bookstores theres always coverage of publishing and the industry, but sort of human interests, a bookstore in italy or, thats International Side changed. You know, a lot of what i do in my little hobbits here, is relate scanning social media, looking at newspapers from all over the country, all over the world. Unlike john said, sometimes looking for crumbs liquor store someone thats reopening or opening or something. And now, its a combination of all of the general media people finding bookstores are newsworthy. But theres also a wide expanse of restrictions of what is wisconsin doing today . And how are the booksellers they are handling whats happening in wisconsin versus somebody in arkansas . And especially with social media its fascinating to see, allison and put together in the afternoon, go back in the evening and the rules of change. Ive noticed some really very delicate language concerning booksellers in places other political badges of some kind at the new area of sensitive reporting for you guys. Are there other things like that that are surprisingly touching matters now . Guest i will say that just thinking today, a lot of stores open monday, a lot of states had june 1 reopening phase, whatever phase that particular state was in. And what has been a constant monitoring of Human Interaction are the people react to only allowing fixed people in a store at a time. bob why am i being exploited. It is madness and is in it. Bob it is interesting. [laughter]. We still look when you drive by the crash. Dennis what are you hearing from your readers about your reporting. Either of the two writers. Bob one thing that struck me as, we have a lot of bookseller readers around the world. We have generally in the past, focus on the u. S. What is bubba saying, we are doing more more international coverage. Just this past weekend i got an email from an australian bookseller. And firstly saying thank you for writing up and so much detail about what is going on in the bookstores where the world. Because i am getting ideas. Our situation is different in certain ways but in certain ways is very similar not getting ideas from selfawareness that would not have gotten anywhere else. Selfawareness. I would agree, was its original practical aspect. In a column about plexiglass barriers. Leaders are ago. I got a significant rent an amount of mail from bookseller saying that, i am so good to see what it looks like. Like i keep reading about this. But saying and being able to see the photos of how their actually putting these things together. Any sort of became the information normal. Host jen, i would like to speak about how you are responding to the new world. And if youre still, extremely Innovative Organization as far as how it indirect with the bookstores. He talked to me about that area of your life. The changing are you trying new things. Jenn almost everyone works at the show, has been are worked in a bookstore. All kind of scrambling our brains trying to figure out the best way that we can help our bookstores. Enter publishers and our needs. And i can say that a while ago, if you recall, there was a lot of things going on about preorders. And were trying to figure out how you can help the independent booksellers with the orders. And we have been working on this for a while. But once the pandemic it, we ratcheted up to as soon as possible. In our thinking was if we can help them, with these ones that are getting preorder sales. And theres a new bucket of money for them. I cant think of a better time to gets money. And not that youll enjoy this at all dennis but probably taken away from amazon. I dont know. Kind of fun. Dennis will on publication date, you have this quick and large scale. Jenn and for the reporting period. Dennis but we were smart enough to realize that maybe the polish did which was the those preorders can come from anywhere. Jenn and this is been a process of just teaching the consumers in these bookstores and possibly just book readers everywhere that you know that stephen king that they look for all year round was just as easily get it from the neighborhood bookstore. And that will be a message that we have that will help the independent bookstores and bring that message that is selling books for them. And never had a product more quickly adopted by the book industry ever. So we Just Launched the month before last. Though we saw 77 stores and 410,000 bookstore customers. The read it. So did that and help the regionals put together a summer reading, issues that were coming out with the western regional. We have of the ada, with connecting with the list to the special messaging where each and every bookstore participates in say, we do it curbside. And only x amount of the time. We have just pivoting is much as possible and really trying to choose what we can do now the bookstores during this time. And giving them the information is paramount. Right now they know i can have them and then we try to give them products to continue to help them. Dennis honey see these products, into the future. The preorders obviously will continue. What are you doing things differently now that you think that this is a good thing that we learn how to do this. Jenn john and i were just talking about this yesterday. And we were talking about is turning 15 and couple of weeks and we were talking about the last crisis which is the financial crisis and how in 2008, we were only how old then john. Only three years old. It. Jenn and we were trying to figure out how to do this. I think the Publishing Industry no longer wanted to spend wanted to spend 30000 on a package. So during this time. We are trying to see it the same way. For scary as this is without a doubt, this is much scarier than financial crisis right. But this is a time of opportunity. Every either we can get on the preorder page on the behalf of bookstore. Every independent bookstore customer, that has learned to just order online from them. People are learning how to order online. We are seeing those numbers. You were saying the other day about a lot of independence, we are increasing online sales. Dennis and now its the savior, has been for the last month or two. Bob a lot of them are civilly learning how to do that. I have spoken to several bookstores who are overwhelmed. In a decent website. And there nowhere near this volume of what they used to be. The simple things like they dont have envelopes or packing materials pretty just giving up and doing business. You think that is going to stick around after this is over. Jenn i was just going to say, as soon as you can learn you can order a book just as easily from your indicative bookstore prayed i would hope you would keep doing that if you have a soul. [laughter]. I hope you would keep doing that. Bob i think the civil mining of this crisis. As Everybody Knows the transfer the past ten or 15 years is more more bookseller going online. So theres only one company that is been taking advantage of that and thats amazon. Some of them have done online sales pretty woman pass. But most of them, they offer it but its not a big deal. And then a lot of them, their people, some didnt have ecommerce. Just informational website still. I know some more overwhelmed with booksellers going to them and finally saying we won an ecommerce site. When this settles down or whatever happens, and hopefully it is soon. Theyre not going to go back to ignoring online sales component. I think theres also going to be a long time before a lot of people are comfortable being out in a retail environment. Especially vulnerable people, older people. And so will probably talking months and years of people, if they have learned to buy online during this madness. It is a habit maybe they will keep even if they, what we cant, i dont know. I cant even modify how many people started ordering who had never really visited them especially when amazon decided that votes were not essential. I think amazon certainly has a part of the marketplace read i am not worried about them. Guessing probably will survive this. But note market shares. You can order a book from your local indian get it delivered in a couple of days. Speech of this i wanted to pray to start like a Million Dollar and campaign rated is like welcome to the upside down world. We can get from your local independent than you can from amazon. I have been saying this because i heard a certain marketing in the publishing world say it. And i think to some degree it is true and you have to think that certain percentages, that would work. And again and again. Ive seen in this reporting that theres this backlash when it is god kind of hard to get an people canceling in an online environment. Suet is exactly what i think. Ive seen sales go through the roof. Fiction is up. In the last couple of years. Publishers have been trying to get back up to where it used to be, 50 percent of the business. And it just wasnt working. We were all having trouble selling fiction. Its very interesting. Jenn were looking dennis that we have things like bookshop in place. During this time. Dennis shops are really having an amazing time. Now its there. And it is great and is working. I dont know if you can really predict what booksellers are going to keep from this moment or not. Can you tell me what youre hearing about what they are selling. I know for a while, it was all kids books. Everybody was having to homeschool. The seem to have slowed down. What kind of stories regarding about what booksellers are looking to be written now. Dennis told me to go. John was just thinking, it will be interesting to see how nothing was said more publicly, i saw more pictures on social media of tiktok and puzzles. Im not sure i can predict that post quarantined the people will retain that. Dennis we have something maybe going to eat maybe running in tomorrows issue about a store that they vanessa reopening in this and we are going to stop selling. They had a huge display of puzzles they just wanted to get rid of so they can get books back in. John sort of like the coloring book craze. Dennis sorry getting reports on oxtails. [laughter]. Jenn i continue that i saw something that talked about the ecommerce platforms and talking about a number of antiracism books. And over the weekend in fact we were talking about how does this innovate and what if we changed editorial but is here today. Dennis before the george floyd murder, we had a lead editorial for readers written and it was going to run, i think next week. And then suddenly come up with everything that is happened in the last week, we just realized this is the moment is now. Until we move things around. Jenn and talk about anti racism. Yes. Dennis we also highlight titles and why this one became a bestseller in the matter of a few days. That was published two years ago. So qualified, for us and we highlighted that. So we were able to commit very quickly. Jenn because for readers, and the independent booksellers, we have regular messaging and there about for everyone who supports the local bookstore prayed we think it is just a really important lesson to be driving home to everybody who resist. I know for the political books it really is the driver. And selling because theyre often a difficult book even if they are timely. But i think right now, we can see them turn on a dime. A newly published in 2016. Its just a history of what it is. So it exploded yesterday. And was on a Television Television show for it is yearold book now. And i really feel like the industry, was the publisher going out and getting publicity. There was something happening the bookseller said, i put the title for that. And booksellers and good steps of memory for that. Dennis i guess the last area that i want to talk about is the shelf of the future may cause i think this is think is going to have a very slow demise rated and totally until i came up with a cure. Maybe even then it will be slow. In doing Different Things now. Some of them are working and you will keep them. What do you see, how has your role changed and how we go forward. John think editorially, maybe bob on nine of us touch on some of the changes. Though we made in the past few months some of it will last. We have done regular, daily surveys. The book sellers and what they are doing with the issues are like. Its not that we didnt do surveys before, but we feel like almost ruling survey. And i can see doing that for a long time. And not just about pandemic related things. But just in general. It adds a certain depth to the editorial covers that we have that we really like. Dennis in a similar vein, we have traditionally covered individual stories, that are resulting of our started moving. One of the things that i think that is been really good, is in a very bad time, is looking at an issue or a thing with the perspective of several stories in the same article. I can six or eight different stories. How are they reopening on this past monday. And how to each of them. Thats a little different in the way that we used to do that i think. Dennis and know youre also getting stories that have already seen a few basically, book stories are being burned down or listed. Or the opposite and try to help the protest. And acting as a way station for people that needed some help for food or whatever. John and bob entered mentioned earlier, expansion and i can see that continuing to. About all kinds of things. The just pandemic related things. Dennis i know i read about new zealand more lately. John i think youll see russia and somewhere else. I forgot. Jenn we all love to travel and none of us can do it. [laughter]. John am i right in guessing that your subscribers are probably up. Jenn they are up. In considering what is going on. There up a bit. Is really up a lot. What is really interesting is the rights increase, the stickiness of the product. I have never seen more safety notes all the time. People writing to john saint just keeping us together. In helping us. I dont see any softness in the product. Its interesting. Because Media Companies, i dont know. Are you going to read daily every day. I dont know. But everybody in the book industry is there location. We can all make lots of money representing pharma. But we dont do that. Because we love this. So we love what we do. I dont see any softness in the numbers on that. Bob is a good place to leave the discussion on the up note i dont think you guys were talking to me and doing what you are doing for our brothers and sisters. Thank you. Jenn thank you. This was fun. [background sounds]. You are watching the tv on cspan2. Television for serious readers. There are some programs to watch out for this weekend. Under Author Interview program, afterwards. Political analyst Serena Maxwell offers her thoughts on identity politics. And creative more inclusive Democratic Party how to create it. And republican of maryland reflect on his life and career. Fox news is Chris Wallace, provides a history of the lead up to the bombing of hiroshima in august of 1945. From her schedule information, check your program by to visit booktv. Org. During a virtual interview with book tv, Freedom Coalition founder and chair, ralph reed discussed what evangelical christians continue to support president trump. It is. I got to know the president in 2011. He literally cold called me. Never met him before in my life. Honestly, didnt have a very high opinion of him. I told him that. When he called me. And he said the next time you in new york, come see me. And i did. I told him if he was serious about running for president , he should come to one of the events of my organization, Freedom Coalition get to know some of these even joe legal activist and he did that and he did it repeatedly. In one of those times in a mess with them, and trump tower, without me eliciting it he raised it pretty said, you know hes to be prochoice the me tell you what happened. He said i had a good friend of mine who became pregnant. And it was an inconvenience or unplanned pregnancy. By the way, most are. And she didnt really know what to do. Her husband wanted her to have an abortion. And this woman who was a good friend of his, any in millennia millennia were good friends of this couple. Sent what he think i should do when he literally did not to not know what to say to this person. A long story short, to make the decision to keep the child. The child does not know that she was nearly aborted. She certainly doesnt know the trust knows that. But he watched this woman grow up, knowing that. In his telling to me that she is an amazing woman and a star. And he said so i started thinking to myself, she almost not make it. And thats when i decided that there were probably millions of people who were probably like that were not with us. And i cant judge his heart. I dont know whether or not a change of heart was genuine or politically calculated. But it sounded genuine to me. And whatever the facts are, and only god can judge her notes. The fact is that hes the most prolife president weve ever had. He kept his word. I think it is real. You mentioned that you do not have a high opinion of donald trump in 2011. The right in your book, the questions are not seeking a political savior in donald trump. So there is political calculus here. Mother certainly calculus thing here and work through it in my book. And took a little bit about it in an answer to a previous question you had that we are called upon as citizens i believe to first of all defend our rights and to talk about in the book about how when the apostle paul, was arrested in jerusalem, and this is a detailed in the book of acts. He was about to be put on trial. It was going to be a kangaroo court. He was going to be executed. He exercise the most precious right of a roman citizen. And that was to appeal his case to caesar. It was an unbelievable sacred right of a citizen. And in the roman world, very few people actually were citizens. Certainly most jews were not. He was. And is caesar he went. And he did ultimately die that i thought it was interesting that while he was willing to die for the gospel, he was not willing to surrender his rights as a roman. So first of all, we are called upon to defend our lives pretty trump has offered to defend our rights. And by the way, the caesar at that time, the occupant of that office was siberia. It was a notorious sexual deviant and pedophile pretty murder his opponent. And had their bodies float down the river to intimidate his critics. He was not a good man rated but thats who he appealed to. So that is the first thing we are called to do in the second thing we are called to do is to advance, carl good. Ronald reagan in his famous address for the National Association of evangelicals in 1983 where he said, you dont get to check out the citizenship and say both sides are flawed pretty good to choose a side. And he was talking about communism versus capitalism but in the place today in our own context and the third thing that we are called to do is resist and resist evil nonbelief that abortion on demand is a moral evil. And trump is offering to resist that. So that is the argument. The christian case. Not that he is perfect. Because none of us are perfect. Not that he is without sin because all of a sudden. When on these aspects, of a true understanding of citizenship. He is someone we can work with and is offered to defend and advance the common good. To watch the rest of this program, visit our website book to be. Org in search of ralph reed, and for god and country is the title of his book. An excellent book tv, republican senator jenny artz of iowa discusses her upbringing. Her military career and journey to becoming the first female combat veteran and to serve as the United States under the Harvard University africanamerican studies professor walter johnson, rice and cosh issues in america through the history of saint louis. Later foxbusiness Chris Wallace provides a history of the lead up to the bombing of hiroshima in 1945. For more information visit booktv. Org or check your program guide. Joining is now is senator republican from iowa and shes written a memoir. It is called daughter of the heartland and senator, what prompted you to write this book at this time. Thank you so much. This is been a journey before me. Joni i grew up in southwest iowa. Very rural part of the state. In with perseverance and dedication, hard work and my parents taught me really has carried me through so many different challenges iny