It’s funny - when I was packing up our 20,000 books and all of the
associated detritus that collected along with them over the past five
years, I swore that had to be the worst part of the move. Before that,
when I was pulling down pink plywood, plastering over holes, sheet rocking
and painting, I pretty much [...]

Bookstore Shelving
Bookstore shelving can be one of the more difficult decisions for a new shop owner to make. The look and feel of his shop will obviously be affected quite a bit as will his budget. Our bookstore has been open for three and a half years now, long enough to see how our shelving [...]

Yet another customer sighs and notes that owning a used bookstore is
the ultimate dream job. She muses on how lovely it must be for me to
be surrounded by books, reading in between helping readers pick out
the perfect novel; absentmindedly petting store cat Sam and sipping
herbal tea while ringing up stacks of books.
AS IF, as [...]

Signage, the bane of every retail store’s existence. It often seems like customers don’t read signs at all. A good sign can increase business and make your store easier to navigate. A bad one can just be a big waste of money.

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 [...]

Pastafarians take note, finally your own section in a bookstore!
Lots of bookstores have a Christian fiction section. However, in some areas it may be a good idea to have a section devoted to another religion rather than lumping it into the “other” section. Often you’ll see sections devoted to Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, or general “eastern religions”.

Part 2 of our 3 Part series on Inventory Management by Nora of Rainy Day Paperback Exchange.
What to do with an under-performing section
Just plain moving it or remodeling it didn’t work, so now you need to bite the bullet and get rid of some books. But how do you actually get rid of them?
Trim [...]

Here is Part 1 of a 3 Part series on Inventory Management. A great piece from Nora at Rainy Day Paper Back Exchange. It will get you thinking about optimizing your shop. It never hurts to do little a tweak here and there. We have sold many books right after moving them from one spot [...]

I’ve had crap days turn into splendid days just by noticing the smiles of strangers. - BH
There was a forum topic on MySpace just asking to write one sentence. That was what I came up with.
On to bookselling…
What percentage of your sales comes from sidelines?
One of our goals this coming year will be to increase [...]

Another terrific article from one of our regular contributers. Take a moment to say Hi to Nora at Rainy Day Paperbacks. If you’d like to contribute a posting just send me an email (editor@bookshopblog.com)
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When you have a limited amount of space, you must make the best use of what you have. This means you [...]