About Bookselling

As Gayle Shanks, owner of Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, emphasized at the BookExpo America education session "Buying, Selling, and Managing Gifts, Sidelines, and Other Non-Book Products 101," sidelines are best served fresh, although, of course, this doesn't preclude keeping around those top-sellers.

Based on the results of the 2005 Education Survey distributed to bookseller members last fall, ABA developed a rich and thorough series of educational offerings presented in an all-day education program on Thursday, June 2, at BookExpo America. Currently, ABA is working to bring many of these sessions to the Web in robust audio/video presentations to meet the needs of all ABA member booksellers.

Until those presentations are ready, ABA has made available on BookWeb PowerPoint presentations of five of the Thursday morning education sessions:

To supplement the panel discussion at the ABA education session "The Bookstore as a Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events" at this year's BookExpo America, ABA asked booksellers to submit descriptions of innovative events that have helped to make their stores into community centers.

"Don't call them sidelines, junk, or stuff. Call non-book items 'gifts,'" said Mary McCarthy of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee during the panel presentation "Buying, Selling, and Managing Gifts, Sidelines, and Other Non-Book Products 201" at last month's BookExpo America in New York City. The session, moderated by ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein, also featured Lance Fensterman of Bound to Be Read in St.

When Pat and Walter Boyer bought Bookends in 2002, the Ridgewood, New Jersey, store was already on the map. The 21-year-old store's suburban location, less than 25 miles and under 40 minutes from mid-town Manhattan, is a convenient stop for major authors after a morning television appearance or an afternoon public radio interview.

Osondu Booksellers is an African-named general bookstore in Waynesville, North Carolina, owned by a woman originally from Massachusetts, who then lived in Maryland and who planned to open a bookstore in Syracuse, New York. Margaret Osondu, who adopted her surname with spouse, Scott, when they married 15 years ago, is very pleased that seven months ago she ended up owning a bookstore in this small town at the eastern entrance of the Smoky Mountains.

If you are a bookstore owner who has been in business for some time, you may have received the phone call: A customer service representative (CSR) is on the line and inquiring as to whether you, the owner, play music in your store. Assuming the answer is "Yes," the CSR explains that you need to pay his/her company money on an annual basis.

From the outside, Riverwalk Books in Chelan, Washington, appears to sell books in its 1,500-square-foot space. And, of course, it does. But a number of other activities take place in the nine-year-old store as well, thanks to the creativity of owner and founder Libby Manthey. She took seriously the lessons she learned at ABA's prospective booksellers school over a decade ago, and more recently at the education sessions given at PNBA meetings. "I know that I have to keep my eye on the bottom line -- always on the bottom line.

By Rhonda Abrams

Happy New Year! You have many goals for 2005: Make more money, have more loyal customers, get more satisfaction from your work. One simple thing can greatly increase your chance of success -- developing an annual plan.

Each year we create an annual plan in my business. We do our planning in late summer -- when things are fairly quiet -- but it's appropriate to do an annual plan at the beginning of the year.

In early November, Books & Books of Coral Gables and Miami Beach, Florida, opened a 1,000-square-foot store inside the Delray Beach headquarters and showroom of Levenger, Inc., a catalog and Internet seller of high-quality tools for reading and writing.

Over the past decade, as the bookstore market has become increasingly competitive, many independent bookstores began to delve into sidelines in an effort to broaden their stores' appeal and to enhance their bottom line. For many booksellers, that meant bringing in CDs and, more recently, DVDs.

Last week, BTW spoke to a number of booksellers about their reasons for carrying CDs, DVDs, or both, as well as how they handle security.

Over the past decade, as the bookstore market has become increasingly competitive, many independent bookstores began to delve into sidelines in an effort to broaden their stores' appeal and to enhance their bottom line. For many booksellers, that meant bringing in CDs and, more recently, DVDs. BTW recently spoke to a number of booksellers whose stores carry CDs, DVDs, or both, and many noted that they decided to carry these products because the categories seemed to be a natural extension of the store's inventory.

Nicki Leone, manager of Bristol Books in Wilmington, North Carolina, was recently invited by author M.J. Rose (The Halo Effect, Mira) to be a "guest blogger" on Rose's Weblog. Leone's assignment: To "write about anything related to getting books read." Thanks to Nicki Leone and M.J. Rose for allowing BTW to share with our readers this lighthearted look at the extent to which a bookseller will go to sell a book.

Jessica Stockton of Three Lives & Company in New York City was recently named the winner of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's contest that asked booksellers to write an essay that began with "I am a bookseller because …"

Traffic on ABA's four online booksellers' forums on BookWeb.org has always had its ups and downs, but as we slip into the final weeks of summer, it has dropped off significantly, and this is distressing to some ABA member booksellers who view the forums as a vital tool for the exchange of ideas.