Archive for April, 2008

Take a look at Computer Books Online

By Bruce K. Hollingdrake • Apr 30th, 2008 • Category: Books & Mags

We are very happy to have a new sponsor here at The Bookshop Blog, Computer Books Online.
If you have a moment why don’t you pop over and give their site a once-over and if you like what you see then bookmark them for any future Computer Book needs. In our own shop we don’t currently […]



Report from a Beantown Book & Antiques Fair

By Tom Nealon • Apr 29th, 2008 • Category: Book Fairs, News & Opinions

Last weekend we had a booth at the Boston Antiquarian Book &
Ephemera Fair which was part of Boston Antiques weekend.
..It’s funny that a recent post here was about optimism, because no where is the typical
bookseller’s lack of optimism more evident than at a book fair…



Some thoughts on organizing your Children’s Section

By Dana Richardson • Apr 25th, 2008 • Category: Brick and Mortar Thoughts

Take My Advice-I’m Not Using It!
I love bookstores, all bookstores, in-print, out of print, paperback exchanges; whether they are dusty, dark and cluttered, or well lit and meticulously organized, if you take me to a bookstore that has a good selection of books, especially children’s books, be prepared to only see the back of […]



Excuse me; do you have this in Cantonese?

By Larissa Swayze • Apr 23rd, 2008 • Category: News & Opinions

Sure, I have a shiny new magnetic name tag that, in lieu of my real name reads, Bookseller. Yet, instead of this title, it could read Book Finder, Computer Tech, Cleaning Lady, Don’t ask me – I’m new and, most importantly, Customer Service Agent.



Guinness Record Update

By Bruce K. Hollingdrake • Apr 21st, 2008 • Category: Marketing Ideas, News & Opinions

Part 1 of Going for a Guinness Record can be found here
I promised an update on our attempt to set a
Guinness World Record selling Romance Paperbacks.
This was a case where the peripheral benefits
were far better than the direct benefits. The day
of the sale we sold 587 paperback romances out of
the 8,144 volumes we had. A […]



Are You An Optimistic Book Seller?

By Bruce K. Hollingdrake • Apr 17th, 2008 • Category: News & Opinions

In my experience, value isn’t necessarily in the book. It’s in the way one
sells the book. It’s in the person to whom one plans to sell the book. It’s
in the knowledge a bookseller has that allows him to identify a ’sleeper’ at
the bottom of a dusty cardboard box of library discards.



Chapter 2. The Epiphany (dreaming of a bookstore series)

By Jessica Stockton Bagnulo • Apr 15th, 2008 • Category: News & Opinions

“It doesn’t seem like you really wanted to be an academic, any more than you want to work in publishing,” he said. “The only job you ever really liked and were good at was working in the bookstore.”
My lightbulb came on like a dimmer – slowly, but steadily.



Shall I compare thee…In Praise of Ex-library books

By Tom Nealon • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: Books & Mags

Shall I compare thee to an unread text?
Thou art less lovely but more affordable
Rough hands withdraw them not nor their pages vex…



Blogger Unleashed (for serious bloggers only)

By Bruce K. Hollingdrake • Apr 9th, 2008 • Category: Elsewhere on the Net...

This quick post has nothing to do with books, unless you count creating a blog (not unlike this one) to help promote your shop. I have a few different online projects going on and read a Lot of blogs in an attempt to get them off the ground. Many were useful, some written by guys […]



Effectively Using Google Adwords

By Nora O'Neill • Apr 8th, 2008 • Category: Marketing Ideas

It seems every time I log into Google there’s a new toy available. The latest is the Site and Category Exclusion tool. This lets you tell Google to be more specific about …