In its earlier years, the bookstore — first located in Kettering and then at The Greene in Beavercreek — hosted as many as six authors in one week. As public relations director for the store, Roth was always there to welcome them.
We thought it would be fun to reminisce with Sharon about her fascinating career and the celebrities she had the opportunity to get to know.
QUESTION: How did Books&Co get its name?
Answer: The idea was to mix books with the company of other book lovers. In other words, you could come to the store for books and be in the company of other book enthusiasts.
Q. How and when did you end up working there?
A. I started in 1985. Before that, I was at Wright State University as Associate Director of University and Community Events. My first responsibility at the bookstore was to open Corporate Accounts with area businesses, schools, and libraries. That was new territory for a bookstore.
When Tom Peters, a hugely successful business author, was going to be in town for a Chamber of Commerce meeting , we invited him to sign books while he was here. So we planned a noon signing, not knowing how many people would show up midday. To our astonishment, 500 people showed up! That turned out to be our first big author event.
When actress Helen Hayes came to Wright State University to speak and promote her autobiography a couple months later, we offered to help WSU promote their event at a signing and afternoon tea. We again are had a 500 person audience.
The store owner at the time was Annye Camara. The two of us took photos from those two successful events and went to New York City to visit the publishing houses to show them Dayton’s enthusiasm for author events. It was a challenging “ask” since Dayton was not on publishers traditional author tour schedules at that time.
Gradually though, publishers decided to take a chance on Dayton because of our enthusiasm and the obvious participation of our customers. Once authors came, they always wanted to come back because they could see and feel the warm welcome they always received and the strong sales they experienced.
Time and again the authors told us that Dayton was their favorite stop on their tour. It always thrilled us when we saw the author schedules and noted they were going on a five city tour, often to New York, LA, Chicago, Denver and Dayton!
Q. What was involved in preparing for the author visits?
A. The staff was always very busy preparing for the visit: getting the books in stock, arranging publicity, setting up the signing area with book displays and signing table, as well as arranging seats for the audience.
We prepared a proper introduction for every author and read their book in advance of their visit. We had a team of four special event resource people to help with events.
We have our prized autograph books that all our authors signed. And we kept photo albums of every event in the early years. Now with digital cameras, the events are stored digitally. At last count, we had more 3,600 author events.
Q. Did you have any surprise author drop-ins?
A. I remember seeing a man browsing in the art book section and I went up to him to see if he needed any help. It was Jonathan Winters. He said he just stopped in to see if we had his book on the shelf. He was pleased to see we did. He signed it for us. He was his charming, funny self….just what you would expect.
I had a similar experience when I encountered Red Skelton who was in the area and asked his taxi driver where there was a good bookstore in the area. He was taken to Books&Co and we had the pleasure of meeting him. He was charming.
Richard Holbrooke was in the area for Dayton Peace Accords activities, and he happened into our store. I recognized him and invited him to sign copies of his book.
Q. What was your biggest author event?
A. Our largest event was with Colin Powell. We had 3,500 people go through the line to get books signed. It was just before the election and people were encouraging him to run for President. He had not made that decision yet, and I think every other person who came through the line asked him to run.
Other big events were with John Glenn, Nicholas Sparks, Buzz Aldrin, Gloria Steinem, Charlton Heston, Jodi Picoult, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jan Brett, Jeff Kinney, Fabio, Pat Conroy, Emeril Legasse, Garrison Keillor and Vince Flynn.
Q. What were some memorable events?
A. We had a weddings proposal once. John Gottman, author of “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work” was coming to the store. In the afternoon of the event, a man came to visit me. He told me he and his girlfriend were coming to the evening event.
He explained that he wanted to propose to her after Dr. Gottman’s talk and asked if that would be alright with me. I said it would be delightful and ordered in celebratory drinks to commemorate the event.
After Dr. Gottman gave his talk, the customer waited until all the other questions had been asked and answered. Then he stood and said he had read the book and felt confident he understood “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work.” He then turned to his girlfriend, knelt down and proposed marriage to her. The audience was surprised and felt included in a special moment.
The girlfriend enthusiastically accepted. We poured glasses of sparkling beverages for the audience and we all toasted the happy couple. It was a fun time.
We also hosted a wedding reception. A woman and a man were browsing in the Grief Book Section, since they had each been recently widowed and were looking for books to help with their grief. They got to talking and discovered they had each experienced a loss.
They started seeing each other and eventually decided to get married. When we heard their story, we offered to have their wedding reception at Books&Co.
Q. What was the longest author event?
A. Garrison Keillor holds that title. He started at 5 p.m. and we took him back to his hotel at 3 a.m. He had been signing books and chatting with customers all that time. He is a talker and there is no hurrying him.
Since we had given out line numbers, when people saw how long he was taking with each customer they took their line number with them and came back after stopping for dinner or visiting friends. Nobody seemed to mind the length of the event. Rather, they were enchanted with Garrison’s neighborliness.
We also had a very successful two-day author event with Allan Eckert, of “The Winning of America” fame.
Q. Which event was craziest?
A. That was the male model, Fabio, who was introducing his romance novel. I thought the roof would come off the building when we brought him onto the selling floor. The store was packed with what looked like thousands of young girls and women screaming at the top of their lungs to welcome him. He seemed unfazed because that’s the reception he said he always gets. Evidently, his flowing, over the shoulder blond hair is a huge asset.
Q. Did you always love books?
Indeed I did, and I still do.
When I was growing up, I was a frequent visitor to libraries and books were a common gift in our family. We had bookcases in all our rooms, so it was a natural thing for me to curl up in any number of favorite places and move into the imaginary world of books.
Today I still relish actual books, but I have expanded my liking to including audio books and books on my iPad. I am never without something to read and I read all across the spectrum from contemporary and historical fiction, philosophy, biography, personal growth and mysteries to political and science topics.
I’m always learning.
About the Author
