Cathy Berner qualified as a school librarian up in the frozen north, but very quickly found her way to Texas, where she's been a bookseller at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston for the last 18 years. She's Children/Teen Coordinator and the Event Coordinator, and is the curator of three book festivals in Texas: the Bookworm Festival for picture book readers, TweensRead for middle grade readers, and Teen Book Con for YA readers.
In this episode, Cathy talks with Caroline about book launches from a bookseller's perspective, about what to do to help a bookseller (and as importantly, what NOT to do!) and she also shares the science behind her highly efficient signing lines.
You can follow Cathy on Instagram and on Twitter, and to check out Blue Willow, you can visit and buy lots of books on the website at Blue WillowBookshop.com, and you can follow the store on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and of course, if you want some really good fun, follow the store on Tiktok. Even better, if you're ever in Houston, why not drop by to see this beautiful little store for yourself?
Cathy recommended two great books:
Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald
Odder by Katherine Applegate
She also suggested we follow two of her favorites booksellers on social media:
The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas
Nicole Brinkley, bookseller at Oblong Books, and podcaster at the Misshelved Podcast
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Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine