"Nothing's worth noting that is not seen with fresh eyes." -- Bashō

Fresh Eyes Now  offers a frontline bookseller's perspective to authors, publicists, agents, editors, and others in the publishing industry.

I'm Robert Gray, and from 1992 until 2006 I worked as a full-time, frontline bookseller for the Northshire Bookstore, one the country's leading independents. I still work the sales floor there occasionally.

I am also a writer, a Contributing Editor at Shelf Awareness, the book trade's daily online news source, and a college instructor.

I communicate daily with people at every level of the book business, including that most mysterious of creatures, the bookstore customer. I explore online and bricks-and-mortar bookstores like a biblio-detective, searching for clues to their success or failure. I think about the publishing industry more than any rational adult should, and I love it more than it deserves.

I worry that too many books end up homeless.

Most new books require at least seven distinct conversations (aka sales pitches) to succeed: writer to agent to editor to marketing department to sales reps to booksellers to readers.

With so many bridges to cross, it's not surprising that most titles don't make it.

Fresh Eyes Now is in the bridge building business. As a handseller, I learned a long time ago that the first step in recommending books is to listen. Conversation is the heart and soul of the handselling experience.