When you hire an employee, it means that you take a step back and a step up to bookstore manager. You are doing less of what you love – that of dealing with books – and more of your time is spent setting up meaningful work for an employee…

A remodeling project at a bookstore goes awry when the owner discovers a boarded over door in the wall. It sounds like the set up for a horror novel, but this sort of thing is common if you’re remodeling an old bookstore.

Must-haves in Your Stock (II)
Part I of Must-haves in Your Stock
By HeeJin Lee
It’s great to hear from those of you who have also been thinking about your must-haves. One bookshop that carries an eclectic selection …

“Do any of you feel like exploding from your chair when you’re at work?” Maybe some of you enjoy the experience so much that you never tire of it. I wouldn’t say that I’m “tired,” but I want to do more. Is this a claustrophobic chronic disease of the independent bookseller?

All booksellers of used books will have at one time or another come across the word dog-eared. What does that word mean anyway, and where did it come from? Dog eared pages are less common in today’s fast turn around of used books. Many used book are almost new. It might be that more readers are using the bookmarks we stick in our books for sale, who knows? But the term dog eared means a turned down corner of a book page.

Thanks to a snowstorm and a fairly quiet day at the store, I was able to sneak into my office to begin sorting out the holiday piles. As I crunched numbers, I looked …

Ever feel like you just don’t belong in the book business? Ever think that you don’t know half of what you should in order to be a proper bookseller?