Neil Gaiman Might Actually be a Rockstar

I’ve said it before that Gaiman is one of the most recommended authors to me, and American Gods is one of the most recommended titles of any author I’ve ever known of. Well I’m now understanding why. He’s actually a rockstar.

I know this because he recently released a new book and the store carried it. Our new releases are usually 20% off the cover price. Which is less of a discount than other booksellers, but that’s what it is. So when customers see the price of $20 or $22 they sometimes decide to go elsewhere for their book. But not for Gaiman. His books were signed and we got enough to take up an entire shelf on our new releases display (probably 12-16 books) and I think all but one has sold.

Not bad, Mr. Gaiman. You little rockstar.

We also did the same with Anderson Cooper’s new book recently.

Do you agree? You think Neil Gaiman is actually a rockstar?

Buy Books for Syria

It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from. I’d hope you know that a terrible civil war has been taking place in Syria for some time now. And no one seems to have the upper hand.

Well if you’re living in the UK you can do your small part without doing much of anything. All you have to do is buy specially marked books from your closest Waterstones bookstore. The stores, authors, and publishers will receive nothing for the buy. Which will probably freak out some of y’all. But it’s true. Everything will be donated to Oxfam’s Syria crisis appeal.

Their goal is to raise $1.5 million in October. The authors included are Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie, and Hilary Mantel.

I see no reason why people wouldn’t want to participate in this. So maybe you don’t want one of the titles, right? This is more important than just buying books. Hopefully you see that.

What do you think of some popular authors teaming up with Waterstones for the “Buy Books for Syria” campaign? I think it’s great.