About Bookstores

 With the movement to pass a national sales tax fairness bill gaining momentum in Congress, BTW asked three booksellers who participated in ABA’s recent Sales Tax Fairness Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., about their experiences and the importance of meeting with legislators.

Food for Thought and Bookshop Santa Cruz celebrate big anniversaries; Mystery Lovers aims to outfit a bookmobile; Changing Hands owner makes the case for shopping indie; Malibu welcomes back DIESEL; RiverRun garners community support; Strand owner talks to Marketplace

Thanks to close to 600 customers who pledged to buy five more books a year and a renegotiation of its lease, A Room of One’s Own ended its fiscal year in the black and with plans to expand.

The best approach to promoting e-books is multiple approaches — feature them in general and targeted electronic and print newsletters, advertise online and in-store, train staff, and “just be relentless”— is the collective opinion of booksellers who shared their best practices with BTW.

Inspired by the Community Supported Agriculture movement, the owners of California’s Point Reyes Books have introduced a Community Supported Bookstore Program to help their business “navigate the crests and troughs of running a small retail operation” and to give customers a stake in its continuing success.

The Book Frog opens; HugoBooks to open fourth location; Grass Roots and Inkwood celebrate anniversaries; Pegasus in solidarity with the 99%; St. Mark’s wins rent concessions

Last weekend, 350 middle school students and their parents connected with 13 authors at the inaugural Tweens Read Book Festival, organized by Houston librarians with help from Blue Willow Bookshop.

DIESEL reopens in Malibu; Brookline Booksmith turns 50

After interning at several bookstores, attending BEA, graduating from booksellers school, and fundraising and planning for a few years, Janet Geddis hosted the grand opening of Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia, this past weekend. Community response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Author Ann Patchett and former Random House rep Karen Hayes are planning a grand opening celebration for Nashville’s Parnassus Books for the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Community cookbook store opens in Seattle; East Village community rallies to save St. Mark’s Bookshop; Bank Square receives Independent Spirit Award

Matt Norcross, the co-owner of Petoskey, Michigan’s McLean & Eakin Booksellers, recently talked to Bookselling This Week about his store’s strategies for e-book and online sales promotions — some successful, and others that needed a little tweaking.

After three years of running La Casa Azul as an online-only bookstore, Aurora Anaya-Cerda has launched a campaign to raise funds to open a bricks-and-mortar location in East Harlem.

Giovanni’s Room, the oldest gay and lesbian bookstore in the country, has had its place in history officially recognized by the state of Pennsylvania.

This past spring, Broadway Books issued a “State of the Union” address, which listed 10 ways the bookstore was committed to meeting customer needs and 10 suggestions for customers to help the store thrive. Five months later, Broadway Books co-owner Roberta Dyer said, thanks to customer loyalty and support, the store had experienced its best year yet.