Using Google Docs for Collaboration
At Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA, booksellers have a neat method of knowing who has read what, as well as their thoughts on the books they’ve read. They use a Google spreadsheet to keep track, and they even have a column for IndieNext data. Rachel Watkins–the bookshop’s events and PR guru–shared the document with me.
“We have ALL of our shelf talkers in a Google Doc by genre as well as month read by bookseller. It is an incredible resource,” she says. “My two college interns have been going through this document and putting them on our website as Staff Picks.”
I asked Rachel if she has one person pull from the list to submit all of the IndieNext nominations, too. “Each reader is responsible for submitting their own reviews,” she told me. “Most of us have Edelweiss accounts too so we can submit to IndieNext simultaneously.”
On the spreadsheet, booksellers are asked to complete these fields:
- DATE read and WHO read
- Author – list by last name first, please
- Title
- If it’s an ARC, who’s the publisher/release date?
- Section of Store
- Recommendation Text
- Added as Staff Pick on avid website?
- Link to book from our website
- Date Put on Website?
- When did Rachel use in MailChimp NL?
- http://www.bookweb.org/indie-next-list-nomination (either this way or through Edelweiss)
- Submit to Edelweiss
- Does Janet/buyer have this on order or is it in stock?
