Before you buy your bookcases for your new bookstore, take some time to figure out what display method will be the easiest for you to maintain and show your books off to best advantage.

Yesterday, I picked up the key for a strip mall storefront that I hope to transform into a
profitable used bookstore. The store, cleverly named Blue Plate Books, aims to serve up a
healthy helping of books at affordable – ‘blue plate special’ – prices. Our byline? “Feeding
Your Need to Read”

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 …

Imagine having a bookstore with a 12,000-square-foot lot filled with
Acres of Books. Now imagine having to move those books.

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 …

“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.

This is the beginning of a story that (I hope) will have in it the part about me opening my own bookstore. I hope the story doesn’t end there – as you booksellers know, it’s the ongoing narrative that’s the stuff dreams are made of, not the single moment of opening the doors.

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 …

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 …