Monthly Archives: January 2010

Bookstore Ideas, Bookstores, Digital Publishing, Publishing Industry News

Five Things I Want From My Local Bookstore

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Not ten. Ten is too many. But five is doable. I was shopping this weekend and stopped in a few local indie stores. They had nice tables showing “NY Times Bestsellers” and the like, all of which was great, but didn’t help me at all. So here I offer you five things that I want from my local bookstore. I’m hoping that, as a bookseller, you don’t mind learning new things and I’d like to encourage you to “hire a geek’. Book nerds and geeks are becoming great friends these days.

1. Keep event calendar online. Make it mobile-friendly. Better yet, use LibraryThing. Things have changed too much in the past 10 years to keep your book-signings and book-groups calendar held captive on the wall behind the register. Have it on your site, add it to LibraryThing local and please please please KEEP IT UP TO DATE.

2. Use Twitter correctly. Don’t give it to a kid. Do it yourself. Learn. It works. There is value there. You should have a Twitter presence before a Facebook page. Seriously. Yes, the part-time college kid can tweet, blog, text and email all with one hand… simultaneously. But they don’t have your working knowledge of your customers, the authors and what books you need to move. Folks on Twitter do want to follow their local bookstore and they want to talk to you and they want you to pass along calendar events on Twitter. Please please don’t just post links to your website or Facebook page. That’s missing the point and customers will not respond.

3. Have a working knowledge of digital options. Work deals with publishers. Offer bundles. If I have a eBook version, give me a reason to come to your store. Digital books are here to stay. Don’t be afraid. Work it into your product knowledge. If you sell books by local authors partner with them to run the text through free converters and bundle it with the printed product. Find small publishers who will work with you so you can offer bundle and discount deals to add value to the book you physically have in your store. At a minimum, you’ll begin to see what all the craziness is about and begin to start figuring out solutions for the indistry.

4. Know the value of a printed book. Don’t romanticize it for me. Know why I should buy that hunk of gorgeously bound paper at your store. With every purchase I make I weigh the pros and cons of print vs. digital. There are reasons I choose some categories as digital and others I will always buy the print version. You should know these, for yourself and your customers. There are reasons I will drive across town to buy a book. You should know them. Value is more than just price.

5. Organize your community. You should be in touch with the pulse of readers in your area, both online and off. Do you help start bookgroups? Of course you do. You have good bookstore. Ever hosted an “online event”, such as a book group or author chat? You should. It would make you a great bookstore. There is no reason your shop can’t become the center of the book universe for your town, both online and off.

    Birmingham, Bookstores, Events

    Milestone Books Announces Closing

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    It looks like Birmingham is loosing another indie bookstore. After almost six years in business and just weeks after setting up their Twitter feed, Linda Brown has sent out a very sincere and personal note about plans to close Milestone Books or at best, let it change hands. I have pasted her message, in its entirety below:

    Dear Milestone Friends,

    This is a difficult email to send y’all.  Around six years ago, a dream turned into  a reality, and Milestone Books opened right here in Vestavia Hills.  An independent bookstore for independent thinkers.. a community of intelligent, highly educated, upper middle class people.  This community had asked for a bookstore for years!  And we brought one here.  We have become a Partner in Education with the Vestavia Hills School System, a proud member of the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, and a valued contributor to our local economy.  You have told us so often how happy you are that we are here, and we value your loyalty and patronage.  And we’ve been successful on many levels, even ending 2009 profitably after enduring a severe economic downturn in late 2007 and 2008.

    But now my personal circumstances have changed and I’ve been offered a position with a progressive, growing company here in Birmingham.  This job will allow me to be a little more available for my 16 year old twins, who only remember Mommy working at the bookstore.  For those of you who may own a small business, you know that doing so requires a 24/7 commitment, and all the blood, sweat, and tears you imagine.  But not many people can love what they do every day….and that’s one thing I’ll miss.

    So.  If you’re down the road of life a little further than me…here’s your chance.  The first five years of any business are the toughest.  Done.  I’m offering my loyal customers an opportunity to take this little bookstore to the next level.  If I could stay, trust me when I say I would.  But responsibilities as a parent often require a choice…and anyone with children will understand when I admit that right now, this option is the right one for us.

    This window of opportunity is small.  So if you are interested acquiring the assets of Milestone Books, or the business itself, please let me know by the 17th.  If no one steps up by then, we will begin an Inventory Clearance beginning January 18th.
    Thank you for your patronage, your encouragement, your prayers, but most of all…thank you for helping me live a dream, if only for a little while.

    Linda Brown
    Milestone Books, Inc.

    This is such a shame. The Milestone Books crew love books and the people that buy them. I do hope someone will step into that space and keep things going. We’ll see.

    On the Web

    Black Books on Hulu

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    A lot of time, I’m a little slow and “British humor” escapes me, but one show that I enjoy is Black Books. It centers on a bookstore in England and every character is over the top manic and rude. It’s great fun. Especially, if you’ve ever worked in a bookstore, these guys say all the things you’ve ever wanted to say. I have only seen the first season, so I hope it doesn’t go downhill.

    But Hulu has all three seasons up now. So now you can watch from wherever you live, free.

    Hope all of you are having a great start to 2010! It’s going to be an interesting year for publishing.