The Trolls Of Lorry's Bookshop

I’ve mentioned the two diminutive people, whose son owned Lorry’s and Pace University bookstore, but never explained their particular presence and role within the workings of the business. They didn’t have one. Or, let me rephrase that, they didn’t have a role conducive to actual bookstore business. They ‘trolled’ the stores, guarded their son’s investments, … Read more

Wonderful Online/Brick and Mortar Antique Bookshops

    I say bookshops, because although they have a website stating Stella and Rose’s Books, Stella is at one location, and Rose another. Both stores are open 7 days a week, and look to be at lovely locations within the British Isles, Tintern  and  Hay-on-Wye. I bought several of my sought after versions of … Read more

Niche Bookshops In Manhattan Inspiration for Indie Stores

A super article highlights some fantastic bookstores in NYC. I frequented quite a few while  living there, especially the superlative, Partners & Crime. Read some tidbits about why they continue to be successful. http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/little-giants-in-the-bookstore-world-big-is-not-better-1.2689092

Getting Boots Into Your Bookshop

Online shops and physical bookshops share some challenges and one is called traffic, getting people to actually come in the door.  Physical shops do this by being in a good location and by advertising, online shops do this with SEO.  There are many different forms of SEO, there’s all the traditional forms of SEO which … Read more

Shane needs help with used bookstore book..

Shane Gottwals Gottwals Books www.gottwalsbooks.com Bookseller needs help with bookselling book! I am in the process of writing a book all about the struggles of the independent used bookseller. I am a semi-accomplished writer but, more importantly, I AM a struggling independent used bookseller. My goal is to garner an appreciation for our trade, but … Read more

Ultimate Free Advertising Idea for Used Book Shops

We all know that we need to advertise, and we all know that it’s very difficult to know how and where to advertise. It tends to be expensive, and so often it doesn’t work. We know that people aren’t going to come to our book store if they don’t know we are there.

I’ve given this a lot of thought.

In my previous piece – ‘The Second Renaissance’ – I wrote about the internet and how it is changing communication and attitudes. It would seem that the internet is a good place to advertise. Websites are neither difficult nor expensive to set up and maintain. The downside is that there are, literally, billions of websites so the book buyers aren’t likely to find your website unless they already know about it.

We also know that book people – and especially used book people – like to visit as many stores as they can, because, unlike B&N or Chapters, every one of our stores is different. So I thought it would make sense to have a lot of used bookshops on one site. Actually, it would be best if ALL the used bookstores were on one site, searchable by location. If that were the case, anyone going for a drive, or moving, or visiting another city, could go to the site and find out what bookstores there were in the area, their hours, location, number of books, etc.

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