About Bookstores

In the three-plus years since Eric Wilska of The Bookloft in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Susan Novotny of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, founded The Troy Book Makers, the print-on-demand service has "never not grown each month," said Wilska.

Video might have killed the radio star, but it's doing some great things for bookstores and authors. At Skylight Books and Vroman's Bookstore in Los Angeles staffers recently collaborated to make a trailer for Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply (Ballantine); San Francisco's Green Apple pits The Book versus The Kindle in its latest video series; and The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, created a hilarious plug for buying local. All of the videos have attracted both customer and/or media attention.

This summer, at Harleysville Books and BookPeople, young bibliophiles get to be the story. Kids responded so positively to events and readings at these stores that both have developed summer programs that regularly sell out and raise revenue. Here, BTW talks with Harleysville owner Shelly Plumb and BookPeople Children's Outreach Coordinator Topher Bradfield to get a primer on literary summer camp.

Harleysville Books

Titcomb's Bookshop is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 40 different ways throughout this summer and fall. From July 1 to November 1, the bookstore is hosting a series of author events featuring Richard Russo, Wally Lamb, Mary Oliver, Jeannette Walls, and others. Also slated are special programs for children, a shop local event, and a cross-promotion with a local yarn shop featuring author and knitter Ann Hood.

Tom Campbell and friends of The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, have created a campy, fun 1940s newsreel-style video with a serious message: Shopping local is green. The spot, "Just Around the Corner," uses archival and newly shot video to dramatize how a book shipped from an Internet retailer rather than bought at a local bookstore ups the carbon load in the environment significantly.

Web-based chatroom, micro-blog, whatever you want to call Twitter, booksellers have been using the free platform to generate sales. Beyond plugging upcoming events, some have created Twitter-themed parties or used the real-time capabilities to broadcast quotes from readings.

With temperatures reaching nearly 115 degrees in Tempe, Arizona, the staff at Changing Hands Bookstore put their heads together to find a way to help customers keep their cool.

"This year, the buzz around Independents Week preparation and celebration has been palpable," said Jennifer Rockne, director of the American Independent Business Alliance, the event's sponsor.

Booksellers Dorothy Massey and Mary Wolf are off to an auspicious start in the new location of Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. On June 12, the same day the 31-year-old business reopened in a new 4,000-square-foot space, the co-owners were presented with the New Mexico Book Association's Book-in-Hand Honor.

Early this year Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, reevaluated its print newsletter. The stores' needs had shifted from promoting the Powell's website to increasing sales both in-store and online while cutting costs. The result is The Powell's Books Reader, a full-color eight-pager with a circulation of nearly 100,000. "We're spending almost exactly the same amount each month to reach twenty times more people," said Dave Weich, Powell's director of marketing and development.

Bunch of Grapes to Reopen

Bunch of Grapes bookstore will reopen on Saturday, June 13, according to the Martha's Vineyard Times The 37-year-old store has been closed for nearly a year after a fire last July.

Newmarket Announces Special Offer

Newmarket Press has announced a special offer on the July Indie Next List title How Shall I Tell The Dog?And Other Final Musings. Booksellers will receive an additional discount of three percent on their first order of How Shall I Tell The Dog? by Miles Kington (Newmarket Press, July 2009).