Sold by hand, sold by heart: the independent booksellers

We speak of independent booksellers as selling by hand, and that they do, and for that, we (readers and writers) are grateful.  But it is also enormously true that independent booksellers sell by heart.  We see that each time in the Indiebound lists are unveiled—booksellers putting themselves on the line for books and, consequently, for those who write them.

Today I send this flower—a burst of light, an otherworldly shimmer—to Mandy King of The Boulder Book Store in Boulder, CO, who put her heart on the line for Dangerous Neighbors, suggesting it to the Autumn 2010 Children's Indie Next List, where it joins a remarkable slate of new titles.  She's bigger and brighter and better than this flower.  My picture is but a mere approximation.

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HEART Day

A dear soul from a Colorado bookstore sent me this image yesterday—a gift of many proportions and a reminder that today The Heart is Not a Size is officially launched on the market.

Those who know far more than me—about how to share word of a book in a bookstore, about how to throw a book party, about how to create a Facebook fan page, about how to design a blog tour—are helping me in countless ways with this release, and I'll be forever grateful. Heart is my eleventh book. My second was the memoir, Into the Tangle of Friendship. Were I to return to Tangle after all these years, you better believe I'd be making room for a few new chapters.

Today the cover story for Heart is posted over at Melissa Walker's blog. Today Anna Lefler, that wild and crazy, smart one over at Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder informs us (which also means me) that there will be a Heart contest in her neck of the woods. Today I learn that there's a badge for Heart Facebook fans and a big blog tour planned. Last night I learned that Elizabeth Mosier has not just planned a Children's Book World party (in the Haverford book store, April 20, 7 PM), but like a party party. With watermelon juice and a pinata and salsa and Mexican chili-chocolate cookies (did you know there was such a thing?) and even a Beth Kephart trivia quiz as designed by her two brilliant actor/singer/writer daughters. (I hope I know at least two of the answers.)

Like I said, and I mean this:

I need to write a long addendum to Into the Tangle of Friendship. For now, this blog will have to serve as its proxy.

Additional thanks of the day to NomadReader, an aspiring writer and future librarian, for her review of Heart.

And even more thanks to Priya and the good souls of Readergirlz, for posting Priya's review today. Priya was one of the very first to read this book, and I will always be so grateful to her for her early words.

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The Heart is Not a Size is IndieBound!

Okay, so I just had to remove a few exclamation points up there in the title, so as to appear more my age, but: I cannot even begin to say how happy this news makes me. The Heart is Not a Size joins 11 other teen titles such as Carolyn Mackler's Tangled, Jennifer Hubbard's The Secret Year, and Swati Avasthi's Split on the American Booksellers Association's Spring 2010 Children's Indie Next List.

Here's what makes me feel even more blessed. Heart was nominated for this huge honor by none other than Mandy King of The Boulder Book Store, who wrote this:

"Beth Kephart has written another must-read book for teens in this story of a group of teens who travel to a Mexican border town to work to help the residents there. She isn't afraid to tackle such big issues as parental pressure, anorexia, and death, and she does it all with compassion, honesty, and beautiful writing." --Mandy King, The Boulder Book Store, Boulder, CO

Mandy King: Sunlight.

A few months ago, I created this video—a brief reading from the book's opening pages, accompanied by the photographs of the gorgeous children of Anapra.

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