The September 4, 1991, issue of For Your Information, the newsletter for the employees of B. Dalton Bookseller, featured an article about Robert McCammon. Thanks to Eric Smalley, who provided the scan of the article. Click the image to download a high-res image.
Ex-B. Dalton Employee Hits the Big Time
FYI recently discovered that Robert McCammon, author of the recently published Boy’s Life, used to be a B. Dalton employee. Interested in learning more of this tale of success, FYI placed a call to his publicist at Pocket Books and arranged for an interview.
“I used to work at a B. Dalton,” says McCammon with a hint of pride in his voice. It is immediately obvious that he looks back on that time fondly. In 1976 McCammon saw an ad in a paper announcing employment opportunities at the soon-to-be-opening Brookwood Village B. Dalton (#256) in Birmingham, AL (his hometown). A true lover of books, he thought it would be a great place| to work.
“I remember being down on my hands and knees rubbing linseed oil into the new floors right before the store opened,” recalls McCammon, who worked behind the counter and was responsible for the fiction section (how’s that for foreshadowing?!). Robert worked at B. Dalton for two years, during which time he was hard at work on his first book, Baal, which Avon published as a paperback original in 1978. “I would work in the store all day and then go home and write…It was a fun time for me, especially because I worked with such a good group of people.”
“Working at B. Dalton was an educational experience for me in many ways. Not only did I learn valuable lessons about the business such as how important it is to keep up on the market and to know what’s selling…I also learned a great deal about people. I think everyone should have to work behind a counter at some point in their life.”
Robert, like every other bookseller, past and present, had a favorite bookselling story to share with us. “My first day working in the store a woman came in, dressed to the nines, with her son who was about to go off to college. She wanted to know the difference between a collegiate dictionary and regular dictionary. Well, at this point I had about two hours of bookselling experience and wasn’t really sure of the difference so I told her that a collegiate dictionary has more words used in college than a regular dictionary. She seemed satisfied with that answer and said she would take the collegiate dictionary.”
“Being around ideas and wonderful books inspires a person to create.”
When asked what advice he had to offer a bookseller who hopes to become a writer he said, “Read! Don’t limit yourself to reading only what you’re interested in writing; take advantage of working in a bookstore, of reader’s copies, and of what you can read at the store.”
McCammon believes that working at B. Dalton was an inspiration to his writing because, “Being around ideas and wonderful books inspires a person to create.” Let these serve as words of encouragement to all of you aspiring writers.