PRESS RELEASE. This is my foundational campaign piece, and I write it carefully, with important facts in the first two paragraphs followed by lots of detail, including everything that makes the author fascinating and all the local connections that I can make. Whenever possible I like to send along a color—and colorful–photograph of the author. Once in a while I get a feature piece, including the color photograph. More often a quiet couple of paragraphs appear, hidden away and easily missed. It doesn’t matter. If you try this and are disappointed more than once, don’t give up! Publicity Rule #1: Never complain! Rule #2 (corollary): Appreciate any attention you get!

My press release also serves as an announcement sent to radio and newspaper community calendars. (Keep a current publicity address list and add contacts as you make them.)

ADVERTISING. For me this means the local newspaper. I run a boxed ad with my store logo, including the author’s name, latest book, and date and time of the event. There’s no point in having an event if people don’t know about it. The ads also keep your bookstore name in people’s minds, whether they attend a specific event or not.

BLOG. My blog, “Books in Northport,” currently carries a right-hand column feature of all summer author events. From time to time I write an entire post on an upcoming event or include a short reminder in an unrelated post. The press release is pretty objective; my blog is subjective, with my personal connections to the authors and/or feelings about their work as part of the story.

FACEBOOK. This works well to keep local people reminded of events at my bookstore–just a breezy line or two, sometimes with a link to a blog post. I’ll often get “Thanks for the reminder” messages on my status.

E-MAIL. I’m a member of both the local Chamber of Commerce and Friends of the Library, so the presidents of each organization forward my announcements to everyone on their mailing lists, and the value of these connections is incalculable. I also send e-mail announcements and reminders to a variety of reading friends and customers.

FLIERS. This season I have an 8”x11” flier on cardstock listing all my author events. As an event draws near, I xerox the flier for wider, less expensive distribution, circling in red the author nearest on the horizon. Cardstock and paper fliers are posted in the store, available for take-home, and distributed and posted in the nearby geographical area.

WORD OF MOUTH. Talk about events coming up. Don’t go on and on until people’s eyes glaze over, but mention what you have on the schedule and how excited you are. Your excitement may be contagious!

Pamela Grath
Dog Ears Books
106 Waukazoo Street
P.O. Box 272
Northport, MI 49670
(231) 386-7209
dogears@netonecom.net
www.dogearsbooks.net
http://booksinnorthport.blogspot.com/

What titles then, should one consider placing in a package as such? And come to think of it, what is this package supposed to look like…? Consider a canvas tote bag. Not only are these sturdy and can carry a whole heap of books, but with your logo printed on the sides, you’ve got yourself a walking piece of promotion – I’m sure your customers are more than likely to want to re-use the bag over and over, promoting the name of your bookstore wherever they go.
Inside the tote bag you might like to include eight to ten items, varying from fiction, self help, poetry, general interest titles, a journal, and maybe a magazine or two – and don’t forget to include a slow-moving title that you might be having a hard time trying to sell (there will always be some of those, and this is a great opportunity to get rid of them). Maybe even some postcards or calendars, a pen or bookmark. Quality is important – and so is quantity in this case.
So what are some good choices… and bad choices for that matter? If you’re looking into some fiction (say, four or five titles), choose several novels – including a short- story collection – that are light, interesting reads. It’s summer after all! Throw in something related to summer health, a puzzle-book, and a general-interest bestseller. Your choices should avoid the dense, heavy texts – stay away from politics, economics, and business titles – and always be sure to vary your genres.

You also might like to have two or three different packages, containing different reads for your different customers – parents might be interested in a package that includes children’s books; teenagers in sci-fi and fantasy, others in self-help, literature, knitting, or even cooking! The options are endless.
During the short summer months, the summer-reading packages should be placed at the front of your bookstore on a large table, where whoever walks in finds it right away. Make sure you also have a colorful promotional poster above your table, a pyramid sign or two on the table and at the counter, and of course, outside your bookstore – the bigger the better. You should look into having that same poster design reduced into A5 and A3 sized flyers, and distributed in local cafés, pharmacies, supermarkets, schools, collages, and nearby cork-boards. The wider you spread the word, the more curious customers you’ll get, and inevitably, the more sales you’ll have.
Happy summer!

For almost a year, Carl Lennertz, v.p. of independent retailing at HarperCollins, ended almost every correspondence with, “Have you read the Pig yet?” “You’ll love the Pig!” “You’re missing out if you haven’t discovered the Pig!” So, finally, on a rainy Saturday, I made a pot of coffee and pulled my copy of The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell into my lap. A few hours later, I’d finished the pot of coffee and the book. With the ensuing caffeine rush, I drew up plans to make The Pig Did It and its sequel The Pig Comes to Dinner the Must Read Book of Summer for Joseph-Beth. It was a no-brainer — the quirky Irish comedy was perfect for the travelers who stop us every day asking, “I have a long plane/train/car trip coming up – can you recommend a good read?” After telling Carl he was right about the Pig, he informed me that Mr. Caldwell would be on a mini book tour in Michigan and could easily hop a plane to Cleveland if we were willing to host him. I was thrilled to hear JBB would be the final stop on a tour that included McLean & Eakin, Boswell Books, and Saturn Books. I got little goosebumps to learn the company we would be in — those three stores are the kind of indie bookstore I hope JBB can be someday.

After a quick trip to a local craft store, stuffed, ceramic, and wooden pigs bearing invites to the signing appeared all over the store. We had customers asking if the pigs were for purchase and when we said, “No, but the books are!” we doubled our usual week sales on the two titles within a few days. In the week leading up to the signing, close to 150 invites were picked up and I began to panic that we might run out of books. While the power of the Pig worked, gorgeous weather, an Arts Fest, and the Tall Ships drew the crowd away from the bookstore last Saturday but a dozen readers showed up, eager to meet Mr. Caldwell. For almost an hour-and-a-half, this adorable, charming man told his audience about the Pig, his writing experience, and his devotion to indie bookstores. As I watched the chuckling crowd nod their heads and smile as he read, I had my favorite indie bookstore moment — the one where you know you’ve just converted a customer into a regular. The audience thanked me as I thanked them and today, two people came to the store looking for the books saying, “A friend of mine was here for the event last night and is already halfway through the book. I had to get my own copy!” The pigs had worked, the event had worked, our independent bookstore had worked. That’s the ultimate moment — the one where a bookseller realizes we’re doing it right.

One thing that is often discussed here is whether an investment should be made in your local paper. Should your hard to come by dollars be spent with traditional advertising (coupons, local paper, flyers) or should you be thinking outside the box. I’ve always thought that the traditional methods of book shop advertising didn’t give you enough bang for your buck. People either throw out flyers before looking at them or glance at them with out paying much attention. The only way for flyers/newspaper ads to work is by being repetitive – doing an ad a week or a flyer a week over the course of a few months and this can start to get expensive.
Before we get into some other options and this will be crucial if you haven’t yet made the big decision on where to locate your store, we want to discuss your strongest method for advertising – the location of your shop. If it sits on the corner of Main and First then people will notice it, they will discuss it and they will visit it. If you are tucked around the corner on Cheap Street then you will always be climbing an uphill battle and it will eventually tire you out. Here’s an article by a guy who knows what I’m talking about. George now has 5 shops I think and here’s what he says on the all important location question.

It took me 17 years before I overcame the mental block about “low rent = possible success over many years” and tuned in to the reality “high rent (the rent required to obtain a legitimate retail location) = assured success within 2-3 years leading to continuous growth.”

The only cautions I would add – be sure you have a broad-based inventory of at least 15-20,000+ books and make sure your store has high visibility (try not to be in the middle of a block – look for a corner location). rest of story..

Now perhaps you already own a great little shop and you have just dropped by for a few tips on getting a few more visitors. Have you thought of some chalk marks on your sidewalk?

Advertising doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. A lot of in-store book sales come from walk in traffic. Even if you’re in a high traffic area getting people in the door isn’t always easy. Just because they’re there doesn’t mean they notice your store. To up the odds people do notice your store, or get them to travel the block over from the high traffic area to your quieter location, pull out the chalk.

Finally here are a few quick links to a few other book shop advertising ideas by our writers.

• Flyers put out at other book sales or church sales
• The high costs of traditional advertising
• How to effectively use Twitter for your bookshop
• Group Advertising (read the comments as well)

I hope you’ll find some of these tips useful in your quest for effective book shop advertising. If you have any other ideas, by all means please share them via a comment.

If you don’t already have gift certificates in your store, it’s definitely time to consider adding them to your inventory.  You can purchase pre-designed ones at local office supply stores, and personalize them with your logo on your printer.  These are relatively inexpensive, and if you have a smaller shop, might just fit the bill without causing too much hassle.

After a couple of years of moving those, we opted to design our own, and have them printed at a local print shop.  I’ve designed gift certificates in rudimentary programs like Microsoft Word using the draw tool, and have recently started using Microsoft Publisher.  Without a doubt, there will be sexier programs than either of these dinosaurs, but they do the trick for what I want. Need ideas?  Simply google “Gift Certificates” on-line to get some layout ideas.  Getting them printed and cut at the printing shop made my life easier opting for a semi-gloss finish and having them printed on stiff cardboard gives them a more professional look.

Maybe you’re already miles ahead of me, and have been happily flogging gift certificates for ages.  To that I answer, are you selling gift packs?  Upgrading your gift certificate to a more aesthetically pleasing package makes them a sure seller.  This is especially true around the holiday season where you get those glazed-eyed-shoppers looking for something to pop under the tree on a moments’ notice.

Opting for a personalized mug is certainly the most favourable option, as it allows you to continue advertising to the buyer every morning with their coffee, as well as allowing them to connect with your store in a new way. That being said, using a regular mug, or a cute basket is fine too.  I tuck chocolate or candy canes inside, and wrap the whole thing in cellophane.  These can be made on the spot, but making them ahead of time in a variety of denominations makes a customer’s shopping experience seamless.  If you include a gift bag to tuck the whole shebang into, it makes it that much more ready made and easy to give as a gift.

If you love merchandising, you can build up some pretty neat gift packs.  Perhaps your romance package, released right before Valentine’s Day, includes a book of love quotes and some silk rose petals.

Above all, signage indicating that you sell gift certificates will alert your customers of the perfect gift, and remember to reflect your labour and cost of goods in the price of your gift packs!

This is Part 4 of Caro and Susan’s foray into the land of bookselling. Here are the earlier segments:

• Part 1, We Got Handed a Dream In the Discount Card Aisle
• Part 2, The Auction
• Part 3, A Name, Some General Background, and We Go Back to School

Shortly before the auction-where-we-bought-all-those-books, we got a phone call from T. You know T., the man who lured us into even thinking that starting a used book store was a spiffy idea? His message was, ‘since you practically, almost, have a store downtown how would you like to participate in the Retail Trades Haunted House?’ All proceeds go to promote the downtown businesses. Only six days in duration, only five or six hours each day! Plus setting it all up and taking it all down, of course. And he suggested that having a haunted book store as a way of pre-advertizing our soon-to-be business. He actually talked us into this.

Now the problem with that is I have never really seen the point of haunted houses, which is basically paying big bucks to get the crap scared out of you. And I’d never even actually been to one up to that point And six hours is a long time to do anything in a place that does not have a working bathroom (there was a blue potty-in-a-box outside) or heat. But T. is a silver tongued devil and he offered to help. So we spent most of September gathering props. Some of it was remarkably easy. We had the bookcase from the college auction, and the stools. We had material for curtains and swags. We hit eBay for various props. And we went through our cheepie books and pulled out everything with a black or red cover, or/and that had a dripping knife or a skeleton on the front. Gotta tell you, there are more of those than I ever imagined. Found a lovely tall book on plagues to feature on a book easel. We even had a spooky branch to cast ominous shadows on the wall.

And then there were those things we used that were just sitting around. We accidentally acquire…odd things. Sometime I’ll tell about the time we bought a medical skeleton at a local garage sale, and sold it on eBay. At any rate, we had sitting about the shed, yard, and closets: two halves of a manikin we call “Chip” for the crack in his head and the state of his legs, several hundred glow sticks, a fake stuffed cat and an even more fake owl, a creepy candlestick holder in the shape of a chicken, a vintage artificial leg, flashlights, a wicker lamp and some rubber spiders.

So we set it up the bookcase of gory books, draped the windows, experimented with black light, and at the table we dressed up the top half of Chip as Death. He had an open phone book in front of him and a spider sandwich beside him. Death just dropped by to look up YOUR address, we would say in a hissing or cackling voice. We got to dress up as crazy old ladies. It was not a stretch.

Turns out that T. had scrounged up an actual haunted house to use. Or at least, a long abandoned apartment building. We were assigned the corner room of a two room suite. I’m not saying it was old, but the outlets in the kitchen room didn’t take regular prongs, they were round. I think the building was new in the 1920’s. Fortunately the outlets in our room were more up to date and we actually had electricity. The folks assigned to the kitchen next to us enthusiastically posed dolls in pots of “boiling” water amid flickering red lights. They were pretty good neighbors if you could ignore the shrieks and the implied cannibalism.

There was no heat. It was the end of October. It was loud. The vapor from the fake smoke collected in the corners. In other rooms there were screams and the roar of chain saws. Teenagers dressed in black with fake blood artistically applied staggered the corridors. The group running the place fed us free BBQ sandwiches, in between the kids hour and the four hours of adult fright we provided every night. Tours went through at regular intervals. A shout would warn us to be ready, and we would throw down our books, take our places and as the group toured through, do our thing. After they left, there would be another ten minutes before the next group came through. We read mysteries and science fiction by flashlight. Wouldn’t you? And some nights we wore gloves. And did you know, you can get gloves with glow-in-the-dark designs of hand bones on the back?

We learned so much. We learned that even with an hour set aside for the younger kids, there are adults who bring their toddlers and young children through haunted houses in the more frightening hours, and pay five bucks to have them screech. This offended my librarian genes. So for the youngest visitors we would crack a glow stick, make it into a bracelet and put it on the little wrist. We told the kiddies that a haunted house was all pretend, and they could hold onto this magic bracelet and nothing could hurt them. Oh, and we learned how to joke with the drunks. It seems a fairly large number of people sitting around in bars impulsively decide to go tour a haunted house on Friday nights.

One night, we even sold one of the books, and thought it pretty good for two old ladies who didn’t actually have a book store yet!

Book Promotion Tip from Lynda M. O’Connor of O’Connor Communications, inc:

The most effective way to promote a book is to identify the audiences most likely to be interested in your topic. Is it about war, sailing, football, politics, history, adventure or romance?  Does the action take place in a certain region of the country?  The key audience might be as broad as all men or all women, but can be segmented by marital status, special interest or age. Find out what magazines and newspapers your audience reads and what radio and TV stations they tune into to and contact the appropriate editors and producers.  Arrange presentations at clubs or organizations, which your audience attends, and do book signings at stores that sell products that target them.

Continuing with the discussion in an earlier post concerning creating eye catching display tables, pairing modern books with classics casts a new light on both works.  My favorite recommendation is to read The Great Gatsby, then The Double Bind by Chris Bohjolian and/or Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.  The Double Bind plays with the plot of The Great Gatsby; the main character in Bohjolian’s book meets the Gatsby characters and discusses their post-novel life.  Then, the book ends with a blindsiding kicker.  Netherland is often referred to as the “new” Gatsby because it deals with a similar underlying theme of achieving the American dream, whether it is possible and at what cost.

Reading a book that updates a classic for a current audience adds meaning to both works and is great for a bookstore discussion event.  Philip Roth’s Everyman is a modern re-telling of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.  Both books reflect their authors; the scene with the main character flirting with the woman runner on the beach is pure Roth.  Lovers of Tolstoy would pick up on his style within the first few paragraphs of Ivan Ilyich.  The similarities in the views of two aging writers who are, shall we say, extremely self-confident are thought and discussion provoking.  These books can be read in any order, but I found I understood Tolstoy’s book better having read Roth’s first.

Switching to the other end of the age spectrum, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld gives a 21^st century female take on The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  Many readers are familiar with Salinger’s classic since it is on most middle school reading lists, but it felt different reading it as an adult after Prep.  As with many pairings, one of the takeaways is ‘nothing is new under the sun,’ the facts and circumstances change but the themes resonant over the decades.

For the truly ambitious, War and Peace inspired portions of The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud.  The opening scene in both books is a snapshot of high society.  As a modern novel, Messud doesn’t try to give every perspective of a period in time as Tolstoy attempts, but she still provides a sweeping panorama of New York literary life.  I liked Messud’s book much better after reading War and Peace, I recommend tackling Tolstoy before Messud.

Finally, a current favorite, The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey, boldly declares a literary godparent for each of the four main characters.  As Keats was an observer of life, so Sean watches and reacts to circumstances.  Admiration for Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland helps the reader sympathize with Cameron.  The plot of Jane Eyre is directly quoted in Dara’s life.  Abigail is Estella from Great Expectations.  Reading each of these source books adds tremendous depth to the meaning and style of Fortune Street. I read Great Expectations right before Fortune Street, remembered Alice as I read it, and went back to Keats poetry after finishing the book.  As for Jane Eyre, I’ll re-read it again to better empathize with Dara’s decisions.

Pairing classics with modern literature highlights back-list books and encourages customers to try the classics they wish they had read in school.

The First Prize winner:  ”German Toast” by Soxy Fleming

Encouragement Award winner: Jake Budge (middle) with his “Book View”

A glimpse of the Biblio-Art exhibition.

I set aside a wheelbarrow full of 80 vintage books, of various subject matter, condition and appeal.  Artists could select a book, either in person or online, and create an artwork inspired by the book.  The artwork could make use of the book (as in we are not against the books being given a new physical arrangement) or simply be informed by the book.  Out of the 80 books barrowed, we sold 65.  Not bad for a first year, we thought.

Now, two weeks after the (flexible) deadline of 14 August, we have exactly 30 official entries.  A reasonable turn-out, all things considered.  And the entries are, with only two or three exceptions, nothing short of spectacular!  We are so overwhelmed by the work that has gone into them and the quality of the works produced that we are now feeling incredibly humbled.  What on earth are these brilliant artists doing trusting mugs like us, who have never owned a gallery before, do not have any real artistic qualifications (apart from a lifetime appreciation) and have only ever pulled one exhibition together before (and that was for a relative!)?!  Humbled we are.

Charli Simkin

Next weekend is Port Fairy’s Ex Libris Book Fair, which attracts plenty of booknuts.  There is a massive secondhand book sale, and other dealers come from across the state to set up stalls.  There are also author sessions and this year we also have a few artists attending (a children’s book illustrator, Leigh Hobbs, famous for Old Tom, and now Mr Chicken, and newspapers cartoonists).  I put myself on the Committee of this Book Fair earlier in the year, something I have been meaning to do for the past five years, but with babies haven’t felt able to give any time.  This year I could give some time, but not nearly enough!  What my husband and I did do, though, was offer to sponsor an author, in the hope that our sponsorship could help make the Book Fair a more memorable one.  A result of this is that Sonya Hartnett, an author that is a personal favourite of mine, is going to be speaking in my shop.  There are several other sessions being held at Blarney Books, and, perhaps needless to say, the weekend is looking exciting!
The launch of our Biblio-Art Awards exhibition is on the Saturday night of this Book Fair.  We are making it open to everyone, and have specifically invited each of the artists to attend.  We are putting on champagne and nibbles, and will be announcing the award winners at this time ($1000 first prize, $250 people’s choice).  We have a judging panel which does not include ourselves, but does include friends who have owned an art gallery for a good 15-20 years, and an art historian!  (At least our judges have credentials!)
We will also be launching the online exhibition over the weekend as well, so for all those who cannot make it to town will not miss out!  We can’t wait to show everyone what has come of this competition!  As the interest has been substantial and we have had a lot of extremely positive feedback, we plan to run this event annually.  Financially, I doubt we’ll come out ahead this year, but personally this has had incredible rewards.  Check our website next weekend to read all about it!