Brick and Mortar Thoughts

Some tips from the Pros on how to operate a successful bookshop.

Five Family-Friendly Bookstore Events

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This is a Guest Post by Maria Hughes of childrensbookstore.com

Hosting activities and events at your bookstore can not only help promote literacy, it can also generate valuable business for your store, and establish you as a community place. There are a myriad of events and activities you can host, but if you’re out of ideas and all the activities you’ve been hosting seem to be a bit stale, here are a few more fresh, kid and family-oriented ideas that will help promote literacy and help you grow a customer base for your business.

 Host a Costume Party

If a popular book such as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games is coming out, a great event to host would be a costume party. You could also hold this event around Christmas or Halloween to go with the holiday season. If you have crafting books or books on making costumes, make sure you display them prominently before and during the event. Pass out flyers and perhaps provide some refreshments, and your party will be sure to start generating some buzz. Encourage a recitation contest where the children act quote lines from their character.

Host a Theatre Production

Although this is a rather ambitious idea, it may seem more daunting than it actually is. If you are interested at all in hosting a theatrical event, you may try starting out small, with perhaps a puppet show or even just an open mic for monologue or dialogue performers. Be careful that open mics don’t get off track though; make sure all performers know that the content of their pieces must be family friendly.

If you do decide you can handle hosting a play (you can decide how technical you make the event, based on your space limitations and other resources) you might charge or ask for donations to give to a local literacy or child-care charity. This is both a great way to get people into your store, and a wonderful way to raise money for charitable organizations.

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Amazon Warehouse, Up Close

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Warehouse in Lower Macungie Township in PA–the hot as hell warehouse inspected by OSHA.

Reading the interesting post of John Pollard, my memory kicked in, and reminded me of my up close and almost personal view of a real live Amazon warehouse, full of books to be pulled, and boxed and shipped to the various customers around the world. I happened upon it, as my husband and I often do, accidentally, while exploring a route to a giant something or other. Could have been a Catsup bottle or milk can or whatever, but after we found it, clicked enough pictures for posterity, I turned around, and low and behold a sign with the familiar word I’ve always associated with oversized super women, Amazon, appeared.  I had the husband adjust our direction to enter the parking lot of a long ugly warehouse with no visible humans, no openings, no windows, unless in the office part, and no activity. For around a minute I thought perhaps it was abandoned. But rounding the end of the warehouse we found a more congenial area, if congenial means one opening, with a couple of people handing out boxes, and, an area with one dinky picnic table, a couple of attached benches, and a lone individual eating. Oh, and did I mention, the spot was entirely caged with open fencing–up to the top–completely enclosed. By golly, no slimy picker person will abscond with the latest paperback, not from this joint!

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Is There a Bumper Sticker–I Brake For Books?

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Most of our recent road trip stash.

If not, there should be. On our road trips, we happen across books in all sorts of out of the way places-without planning to find a bookshop, or used bookstore. When we pass by a sign that declares–used books, we  brake, as safely as possible, and turn right around if necessary. Sometimes we are horribly disappointed–the shop is closed. Little garage stores, or hole in the walls don’t have regular hours, and even if they do, our cruising along the road can be from 6 a.m. to midnight–we  are oblivious to time. Once in leaving The Road Kill Cafe, on the way to The Pencil Sharpener Museum, we rounded a curve and there was a white outbuilding with a nice sign. We stopped, it looked deserted, but we tried the door

One buck each at small collectibles store in KY

anyway. And we saw books–rows and rows of lovely printed things. A middle aged gentleman joined us, we chatted, and found some wonderful tomes to add to our collection, as well as for fun and reading. We were just in time, he would have closed and locked the door if we’d been any later. His place was more of a storage area, less of a shop, but weaving through white washed church filled roads in New England, a small tasteful sign designated that within this private home, there was also an antiquarian bookman. Sometimes private homes make me nervous, the feeling is too personal and I’m afraid not to buy something, for fear of offending the homeowner. That of course, is completely silly, but it’s my hang-up. My husband has no such trepidation, and sallies forth, eagerly assessing the shelves of neatly alphabetized titles within. We had a terrific time. Half the pleasure of road trips are meeting fascinating individuals along the way. Booksellers without exception, fall into that category.

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A Personal Best as a Bookseller-Or How I Sold The Carter Burden Collection

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One of the books sold that night–I think. If not, it was another very rare in dust jacket Stout.

There were days when I sold well over a hundred hardcovers. Mostly hand selling, some via The First Editions Club I managed. My enthusiasm for a certain title, and the collectibility would combine to convince an already interested party to buy the book I was praising. If I had read the book, naturally, my sales pitch would be more informed and rooted in personal pleasure. If I’d not yet read the book, or it wasn’t something I was likely to read, I still sold it well based on fellow booksellers’ thoughts, Publisher’s Weekly, The NY Times Book Review, and again, collectibility. I became obsessed with making sure a book was in pristine condition when selling it as an ‘investment’. Not a visible wrinkle, tear, spot on the dust jacket was permitted. The book must have no bumped corners.  (bumped is when the tips at top and bottom of the book’s boards have been squashed via falling, or bad packaging) No damage to the interior pages was acceptable either, nor was any kind of scratch or stain on the boards beneath the jacket.  I was looked at askance by fellow employees and the boss, at one place of employment. Which was slightly ironic, since I was hired for the express purpose of selling hypermodern mysteries to collectors.

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Readercon and Sexual Harassment In Many Forms

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Book by Genevieve Valentine who bravely lodged a complaint with Readercon

I’d never heard of  Readercon. Obviously because I’m not a fan of fantasy writing, and am unfamiliar with authors or conventions within that community. While I was away on a road trip, an incident at the 2011 Readercon and its subsequent handling, caused internet outcry and anger. I didn’t catch wind of it until today. A female convention goer was repeatedly harassed by another participant during the convention. The man in question would not go away. Luckily for the woman, her friends were aware and kept a close circle around her. Not all women at these things have her kind of back up. Genevieve Valentine is a writer with several published stories and a highly praised novel to her credit so far in her career. The harasser is a fan, apparently a well known one and apparently liked by the board of Readercon, because despite having a 100 per cent no tolerance on harassment, they sent a statement essentially saying the policy was too strict, and anyway, Rene Walling said he was sorry, so, let’s cut him a break and ban him for 2 years rather than banish him completely which should be the outcome of documented, undisputed sexual harassment. Too augment the board’s terrible behavior, they had in their possession another woman’s statement  about being accosted by Rene Walling, but seemed to disregard it, not pausing to consider the implications of 2 woman complaining. For some atrocious reason, they felt there should be room for ‘reform‘ on Rene Walling’s part, despite his complete acknowledgement of inappropriate behavior.

Ms. Valentine wrote a marvelous blog post about the incidents with these rules for men who think they can behave in a harassing manner.

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The Birth of a Used Bookshop

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This is the first of what I hope will be a series of reports on the birth of a book store. From where I sit today, 21 days after the idea was first conceived, the future looks like a maze of unanswered questions. As I go along, I’ll describe how I figure things out, and then share the results. First, though some background.

Some thirty years ago, for several years, I helped run a used book and record store in Carrboro, N.C. The rent was $200 a month and we sold many books for a dollar and most records for two dollars. We kept the money in a shoe box, didn’t take credit cards and we never had a telephone.  We had lots of websites – and the spiders who built them.

All that makes me an experienced bookseller, but one with practically no useful expertise. Still, the idea of going back into the stacks had been poking around my mind for several years, and last month I noticed an empty storefront in downtown Pittsboro, N.C., near where I live. What appealed to me about the store site was that it’s a corner building with windows on two sides and a long wall facing traffic coming into town on which to place a large sign. And the driveway that runs along the side goes with the building, with space in the back for four cars, giving me control of eight parking places. The building has the look of a small cottage with stuccoed walls that I will paint in a yet to be determined color. Inside, are 1,220 usable square feet, plus a small bathroom. It was once a law office, so there are several walls of built-in bookshelves.

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Monte Cristo Race To Become a Bookstore–A Fight to the Finish

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The almost  bookstore I wrote about a month or so ago has an update on their financial progress–they have lowered their goal from 45, 000 to 10,000 and with loans etc, they can make the business a go. But only  two weeks remain until their deadline, if they don’t make their monetary goal, all the … Read more