Some tips from the Pros on how to operate a successful bookshop.
By Jas Faulkner One of the advantages of having friends who work in different fields is that one person’s talking shop is another person’s entertainment for the evening. Two friends from way back now run a UBS somewhere in Mississippi. It doesn’t matter how stupid the tort, how outrageous the fortune of those who call … Read more
An author friend had this link up on her facebook page, Little Free Library and now I am green with Little Free Library envy. The essential brilliant idea is to build a small waterproof container on a stand much like used for mailboxes, incorporate a plexiglass window for the door, and put free books … Read more
by Jas Faulkner The love of learning, the sequestered nooks… I wanted to find a place to sit and look through the books that intrigued me while browsing the stacks. My choices were pretty limited: Taking the armload of books I was deciding upon to the coffee shop area was a non-starter. I wasn’t about … Read more
To go directly to Indie GoGO to donate money to help get indie bookstore Monte Crisco up and running: http://www.indiegogo.com/montecristobookshop With major changes to the entire industry leaving the concept of a bookstore, period, on shaky ground, opening an independent bookshop during these uncertain economic times sounds like savings suicide. Yet, this is exactly what a … Read more
There is no place to buy new books anywhere within my radius, and I don’t live in Timbuktu. I live right outside a major city, suburbs with millions of people, and there are practically no bookstores. Three B&N’s are hanging on, but who knows if they will disappear the way the huge double decker one … Read more
After Lou left Lorry’s Book Company, one of many times–this one sticking, he disappeared from the book world, and mine, for years. I’d no idea where he was, what he was up to, if he was surviving in a world he seemed to shun, or hide from. Not that he was a total recluse, at … Read more
I had a recent conversation with a few writers about the common practice of writing a nice bunch of things about another person’s book. You’ve seen blurbs–on the back of paperbacks, mostly, but also on dust jackets. Hypothetical example; a new book by Denis Lehane has just been published, and fellow writers, Michael Connelly, Ridley … Read more
Organization is key. Maybe this is the librarian in me talking, but if a bookstore is to operate properly it needs to be organized. If the store isn’t, it costs staff and customer time and that costs the store money. If the sections of a store aren’t organized the customers can’t find what they are … Read more
