Some tips from the Pros on how to operate a successful bookshop.
In North Carolina, disturbing news for booksellers blew in with the Ides of February – the announcement that one of our landmark used bookstores was closing in March. Nice Price Books, which also has stores in Durham and Raleigh, is shutting down its store on the west side of Chapel Hill, after 26 years. In […]Read More
by Jas Faulkner For those of you playing at home, I got to go to this rilly nifty sooper sekrit cabal of booksellers in Memphis a little while ago. The main topic on the dias was the untold history of those who are charged with the care and feeding of visiting authors. Chatter on the […]Read More
by Jas Faulkner “How are things?” I asked Sam as I flipped through pictures of Dore engravings. “Things are great,” said Sam, “Could not be better. Have I told you my wife is a marketing genius?” “Do tell. I take it there’s a good story about to happen.” Of course there was. And as many […]Read More
by Jas Faulkner Ed Cho* and I are visiting one of the stores that uses his designs. The sound system goes quiet for a second and then a familiar piano intro plays. A woman who has been browsing pauses and then upon hearing Aretha Franklin’s first lines: Though you don’t call any more I sit […]Read More
I am the first to admit, I don’t understand the publishing industry. I don’t get the way they will publish a title, it does quite well, so they publish the next, and then stop. And not only do they stop, they refuse to publish either of the first two in paperback, which means the audience […]Read More
Looking at a shelf undisturbed by browsing hands, I wonder, “Why don’t people buy plays – or more directly, why don’t people read plays?” I suppose those of you in the bookselling trade know, and maybe have always known, that people don’t buy plays. I was warned by my senior advisor, Dennis Gavin, not to […]Read More
by Jas Faulkner The covers of the books in the window of Sam and Tab’s book store featured well-toned abs, beautified, decluttered homes, language lessons, and a few self-help titles. For a characteristically grim touch, Sam dragged out a skeleton and had it seated in one corner of the window display reading Jim Fixx’s “The […]Read More
by Jas Faulkner A little over a year ago, I sat down and created a list of guidelines for dealing with misconceptions the public has about what writers do. It was directed at the newer members of the writing pool at another website. Last week I accidentally emailed it as a file to Sam and […]Read More
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