Washington NC is a sleepy town of 10,112, unless someone died or was born since we visited. It was deserted when we arrived, but it was 100 degrees in the shade and maybe most humans preferred to survive and declined strolling outdoors. Self titled “The Heart of the Inner Banks,” it’s bisected by the waters … Read more
My name is Janet Geddis, and I am proud to be an independent bookseller. I started my journey over three years ago and, despite some unbelievable downs and even more miraculous ups, I am soon expanding my business. Since 2009, Avid Bookshop has been an online and events-based bookselling business, but this summer we’re moving … Read more
Being a newcomer to the the life of a bookshop owner, this blog has and continues to offer me so much in ideas and advice. It is most appreciated, indeed. As a way of saying, “Thanks.”, and possibly offering ideas and advice to other newbies, here are my thoughts on a few items of importance: … Read more
In our town, there are a few places to get books. Wal-Mart and Safeway have a section of new books. The dollar stores sometimes have a few. The rummage shop has some used books. A classy gift shop has an estate collection it is selling at $2.00 a book as part of a charity that … Read more
[an ongoing series: all the posts are here..] Remember the historical society cases it took so much combined effort to remove, which I myself prefer to not remember at all, ever ever ever? They had not been moved since the flood of ‘65. So the wall behind needed some cleaning and work. And when the … Read more
Opening a UK Bookstore Part 3 (Jenks’ Story: Part 1 & Part 2) Doom and Gloom I didn’t write a blog last week. I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit that, since I started writing for bookshopblog.com about a month ago, the exact progress I have made in getting my dream of opening a bookshop … Read more
Shane Gottwals www.gottwalsbooks.com Want to open a bookstore? Don’t want it to fail? I’ll assume both of these are affirmatives since you have come to The Bookshop Blog. In the business world, there are few ways to “ensure” (not quite the right word… you never have sureties in retail) success. The biggest way is to … Read more
I don’t think I’ll ever feel such a mixture of inordinate glee and absolute terror as that thought gave me. Opening a bookshop, the very phrase, filled me with paroxysms of delight. I was completely in love with my imagined atmospheric and dark shelves, full of books and decorated with…
