Celebrating Aunt Agatha's.

RHYS BOWEN: I first visited Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI when I was touring for my second book. Touring was actually a grand word for driving around with my husband, from Motel 6 to Red Roof Inn. The audience at Aunt Agatha's was 2 --Robin and a Welsh woman who had stumbled upon my books. Robin was so warm and welcoming then that I've kept going back.

And when Her Royal Spyness came out Robin emailed me to say there was a "Harry Potter like frenzy" which made me feel terrific. We've had dinners before my events. We borrow space to fit everyone in and I am not the only writer for whom Robin has built up an audience.

Today they celebrate their 20th anniversary with a big booksigning party/orgy featuring Steve Hamilton (who is in the picture with Robin), Loren Estleman, Kent Kruger, Louise Penny, Julia Spencer-Fleming, myself and many more. So I'm delighted to host Robin as our guest on Jungle Red Writers.

RHYS: Welcome Robin and let me ask you some questions about the store and the state of the industry in general:

I suppose the first question that comes to mind is how can a small and specialist store like yours keep going in times that are so unfriendly to bookstores?

ROBIN;  We've found that since the demise of the superstore - Border's mothership was a few blocks away - that we have been busier.  I think having a niche helps, definitely.  We are the only bookstore in our downtown area that sells popular fiction, which helps (the other new bookstores downtown are more new age type stores) and used books are a big part of our business.  The markup is better and the out the door volume is higher.  A $3.50 paperback is still a bargain.  And I think people still want some kind of community gathering place.  Our book club attendance has grown, and our author events can be lively.

RHYS.What made you decide to start a mystery bookstore in the first place?

ROBIN; Two things:  one, my husband worked at Borders and was unhappy with "corporate" life - Borders had been acquired by K-Mart.  Two, I loved mysteries.  It seemed like a good fit, and we had previously lived in Minneapolis where there's a wonderful store called Uncle Edgar's.  That really gave me the idea, down to the fact that he used to have his kid in a playpen in the front (we had a baby swing),

RHYS. Have e-books had a big impact on your sales? Are there any plans to incorporate them into retail stores somehow so that you get a share of this revenue? (I know Google was trying something once but that it didn't work).

ROBIN; E-books have certainly had an impact.  It's part of the market share - everyone wants a slice of the reading pie.  Our slice just won't be electronic.  We see that we have to feature and discount hardcovers we believe in - and it's worth it to us to help support authors we love.  That's what we're good at, anyway.  It may be a skill that's rapidly becoming antique, but we're clinging to it.  One thing we do see is that mass markets - which we LOVE! - are taking a big hit.  Thank heavens for Berkley Prime Crime.

RHYS. What trends do you notice in mystery buying. What's hot and what's not?

ROBIN; My husband and I were just talking about this.  Since we are selling more hardcovers by big names as there's nowhere else to get them downtown, we were trying to figure out the sweet spot.  A hot book will sell fast and furious for two weeks and then fall off the table.  It's figuring out when the edge of the table is coming up that's tricky!   We do well with mass market cozies, selling them 4 or 5 at a time to cozy readers.  We do well with (for us) established authors in hardcover, i.e. authors we've worked with to establish with our customers.  (A short list for us would be Loren Estleman, Steve Hamilton, Kent Krueger, Louise Penny, Rhys Bowen, Julia Spencer-Fleming.  We will sometimes sell a case of those author's book the first week of release.) Maybe the hot book of the summer was GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn, with a general tendency to psychological writing - Tana French, Sophie Hannah, S.J. Bolton - all do well for us.  So does international fiction though that's not as hot as it was even last year.

RHYS. Okay, give us some predictions. Which new or unknown authors should be be watching? 

ROBIN: Hmm.  So far this year I think Julia Keller's first crime novel, A KILLING IN THE HILLS, is a knockout.  My husband is a huge fan of Elizabeth Hand, who had her second crime novel, AVAILABLE DARK, out this past spring.  And we saw a breakout last season with G.M. Malliett's WICKED AUTUMN.  We're looking forward to the second book.  Cornelia Read - though she has several books out she's not as well known as she might be.  I loved VALLEY OF ASHES.  I was also a fan of Eleanor Kuhn's A SIMPLE MURDER, about a Shaker community after the revolutionary war.  And again, though she has several books out, both of us are HUGE fans of S.J, Bolton.  She is now writing a series rather than standalones.

RHYS:. Do you think that real paper books have a future or will we all be electronic in a few years?

ROBIN: I don't think ALL electronic, though I think as readers brought up on e-books age it will trend that way.  I hope at that point to be either dead or retired!  But I have hope when I see my children, who are young adults, and my nieces and nephews (all under 14) reading actual books.   I still think there will be collectors who will want a paper book.  They are beautiful objects that have been with us for hundreds and hundreds of years.  I don't see books going away completely.

RHYS. What book do you wish someone would write?

ROBIN:Now, that is why I am a bookseller and not a writer!  I did read an exquisite book this year, THE THING ABOUT THUGS by Tabish Khair, that was a combination of lots of things I love.  It's set in Victorian England and is really gorgeously written and put together.  But I wouldn't have thought of it myself!

RHYS. and lastly... you were president of the IMBA recently. What happened to the best seller list? Those writers who would never make the NYT got a terrific boost from seeing their names on the list. I know I did when I saw my first Evan book there and I still have the list on my board where I was number 1 over James Lee Burke, Janet Evaonvich and Daniel Silva!

ROBIN: Well, exhaustion!  I was president of IMBA but more onerously I was in charge of the bestseller list, which, because we are all pretty busy, mostly involved hounding people for their lists.  So a combination of laziness and busy-ness, I guess.  If there was a way to cajole everyone into participating we would still be doing it, and I may take another whack at it at some point.

RHYS: Robin, thank you so much for coming to visit. We hope the party today is a rip-roaring success and we hope that you continue to flourish (at least as long as we keep writing books!)
And I'll be posting pix of tonight's event on my Facebook page tomorrow (www.facebook.com/RhysBowenAuthor).
And the Jungle Red sisters are heading off to Bouchercon tomorrow morning. I'll try to get some candid pix of us too! More to follow.....