Should I mention that I'm an indie bookseller in a bio?

Hey y'all .

I'm gearing to begin my first-ever round of queries (squeeee!), and I'm wondering what the consensus is on mentioning my job in my bio. I work as a bookseller at the only independently owned bookstore in my hometown (best job ever!), like I said above.

But I'm waffling. On one hand being a bookseller makes me very "plugged in" to the publishing industry, and having access to lots of ARCs and other goodies definitely gives me a leg up as a writer. It also means I'm intimately familiar with the YA market, especially because I'm the only bookseller at the shop who reads a lot of YA (so I get all the ARCs *grubgrubgrub*).

Or should I stick with just the facts, ma'am, and skip the bio altogether?

Hmm, no, my manuscript doesn't have anything to do with bookstores. My rational in wanting to include my job was that I'd read on a few agent blogs they like to see that the people querying them are familiar with their market. I was hoping listing my job as a bookseller would imply that... But it doesn't have anything to do with the manuscript itself, no. That twitter thing was a great suggestion, though, thanks for that.

Hey, thanks for the advice everyone! Bookselling is really one of the best jobs in the world. Getting to hang out not only with books, but book people all day long is great.

Yay! Oh, I'm so glad for the positive responses. Thank you Thank you