About Bookselling

31 Mar

Booksellers Diary: Books, The Kindle Killer

This week BTW launches “Booksellers Diary,” an occasional feature of first-person accounts of bookseller’s experiences on the frontlines. The first entry is from Carol Chittenden of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

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31 Mar

Northshire Community Meeting Reinforces Bonds

On March 25, about 100 customers participated in a community discussion about the book business and how Vermont’s Northshire Bookstore can continue to thrive as the industry changes.

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30 Mar

Customers Take the “Five More Books” Pledge

Sandi Torkildson recently figured that if A Room of One’s Own sold just five more books a day, it could comfortably commit to a new lease.

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24 Mar

Russo’s: Smaller Store, Bigger Impact

In an era of retail when bigger isn’t necessarily better, Russo's Books in Bakersfield, California, has lopped off about one-third of its footprint. Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive.

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23 Mar

QR Codes – Ready for Their Close-up

With QR codes going mainstream, indie booksellers are increasingly integrating them into their shelf-talkers and newsletters. Among the results has been the opening of conversations between customers and staff about e-books, new technologies, and customer service.

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17 Mar

Square Books Owner Addresses Italian Booksellers

Richard Howorth, co-owner of Square Books, in Oxford, Mississippi, recently gave a presentation to Italian booksellers as part of the Scuola per Librai (School for Booksellers), which convenes every year in Venice.

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10 Mar

Nürnberg Toy Fair: Eat Sleep Play

Becky Anderson was “blown away” by the scope of Germany’s Nürnberg Toy Fair, where she recently found several new toy lines for Anderson’s Bookshops and came away with ideas for how indie booksellers can share information about favorite products.

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28 Feb

ABA Applauds Random House Move to Agency Model for E-Books

On Monday, February 28, ABA indicated its strong support of the decision by Random House to adopt the agency pricing model for the publisher’s e-books. Under the agency model, a publisher sets a retail price for a specific book, which establishes a level playing field for all resellers.

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24 Feb

Small Investment, Big Impact: Giving Away $5 Gift Cards

Cynthia Compton of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Indianapolis and Fishers, Indiana, uses the lion’s share of her advertising budget to give away $5 gift cards. And she can rattle off half a dozen reasons why it’s a good idea.

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17 Feb

St. Louis Bookstores Launch Alliance

Left Bank Books, Pudd’nhead Books, Subterranean Books, Main Street Books, and The Book House have formed an alliance to help raise awareness of their stores and their unique contributions to their local communities.

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10 Feb

A Day for Divas to Shop Local

To boost Oskaloosa, Iowa’s buy local movement, Nancy Simpson of the Book Vault has partnered with other indie businesses to offer “A Day for Divas,” an afternoon of shopping, sampling, and indulging.

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10 Feb

Booksellers Think Strategically About New Business Models

Last month’s Winter Institute session “How to Create New Business Models Through Strategic Thinking” revealed how indie booksellers are using their ingenuity and their roots in the community to come up with new ways to grow book sales. 

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03 Feb

2010 Verso Study Revisited at Digital Book World

At the recent Digital Book World conference in New York, Jack McKeown, co-owner of Books & Books in Westhampton, New York, and director of Business Development for Verso Digital, presented an update on the “2010 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior With Verso Digital.”

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02 Feb

A Twist on the Bookseller/Author Partnership

At Wi6’s  “Exploring New Partnerships Between Indie Booksellers and Authors,” Books & Books’ Mitchell Kaplan and The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza’s Susan Novotny revealed how they have used their curatorial skills to help publish authors (especially debut authors) and create new business models that improve a bookstore’s bottom line.

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26 Jan

SBA Administrator Discusses Challenges & Opportunities Facing Small Businesses

On Wednesday, January 19, hundreds of booksellers at Winter Institute 6 heard PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer interview Karen Mills, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, about the challenges and opportunities facing small businesses today.

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Pages

About ABA

The American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Independent bookstores act as community anchors; they serve a unique role in promoting the open exchange of ideas, enriching the cultural life of communities, and creating economically vibrant neighborhoods.

Contact

PRESS INQUIRIES: [email protected]

INDIECOMMERCE: [email protected]

ALL OTHER INQUIRIES: [email protected]

 

 

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