Thinking of getting a "real" job - with books

[Christa M. Miller]

Long story short... we're considering a move south, but being the progressive couple we are ;) we don't want to restrict job opportunities to Rain Dog. So I'm looking online and I find a bookstore that's looking for a Community Relations Manager. Basically: the person in charge of scheduling author events, outreach to schools, etc.

I feel pretty confident that my years of freelancing would give me the ability to deal with sales types, and more importantly, that my ties to communities like this would give me an edge despite the lack of corporate experience. So folks, give me your perspective on this. What would you want this manager to do for you as readers and writers? What are the most important issues this manager would face? (Yup, I'm looking for cover letter fodder.)

[Steven Torres]

Well, having never done this job or anything similar, I think...your focus should be on the community. knowing the demographic that store serves would help. Is the neighborhood blue collar, white collar, minority, aging, etc. A librarian in that area might be able to help. Maybe not. Of course, you can talk about how you do know certain segments of the overall community of readers, for instance, through sites like this one.

[Patricia Abbott]

Steven's advice seems sound. I know, looking at bookstores here, the community they are in has a huge impact on events scheduled. You might call a few people already in place in areas you know you're not going to and ask them about their job. The woman here, who's been involved in several events we've attended or arranged, spends most of her time driving around from one store to another in the chain. You might look to libraries too. We have such a person in our library system.

[Anne Frasier]

ooh, not considering the savannah area by any chance?

you would be going into this with a solid awareness of the huge decline in fiction sales and fiction reading and how it's impacting people from both the writing and reading side. a realistic grasp of the scope of the problem could help you come up with strategies.