Around Indies

R.J. Julia Takes Part in Great Big Book Club Event

Last weekend, Madison, Connecticut’s R.J. Julia Booksellers sold books at The Big Book Club, an author event series taking place at the nearby Mohegan Sun Resort. The event roster included more than 50 authors and presenters who came together to discuss their work with the readers in attendance.

This was the second year that R.J. Julia was approached to assist in promoting the event and selling books onsite, and it was a success, said Liz Bartek, events manager for the store.

“The turnout was great,” she said, “a larger crowd than last year, and the sales proved it! It’s a lot of work to organize all the books for a large-scale off-site event of this nature, but it’s worth it.”

WORD Owner Christine Onorati Featured in Kirkus

Last week, a Q&A with Christine Onorati, owner of WORD bookstores in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey, was featured in Kirkus Reviews. Onorati touched on everything from trends in 2014 to what makes bookstores unique, and she concluded:

“I think it’s a great time to be an indie bookstore. I think we have to work harder each year to make customers happy and stay relevant, but most of us are up for the challenge. People want a place they can walk into and feel at home, surrounded by books and the people who love them. It takes a bit of hustle to think of new, innovative ways to keep revenue coming in, but as long as the publishers keep publishing high-quality books, we’ll keep selling them.”

UConn Co-op to Celebrate Storrs Center Opening

This Saturday, March 1, the UConn Co-op Bookstore will join with the new Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and Le Petit Café to celebrate the opening of its location at the Storrs Center at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs, Connecticut. The festivities, which are free and open to the public, include puppet performances, a ribbon cutting, and refreshments. Guest authors will include Wally Lamb, Wendell and Florence Minsor, Barbara McClintock, and others.

Tattered Cover to Open Satellite Store

Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store has announced on its Facebook page that it will open a satellite store targeted toward travelers and commuters at the newly renovated Union Station. The new location will be a gateway to the Tattered Cover store just across the street. “Though small, it’s a big addition to our TC family of stores,” the announcement proclaimed.

Apostrophe to Relocate

Apostrophe Books in Long Beach, California, will be moving to a new, more central location. Last May’s closure of a neighboring Starbucks had an adverse effect on the bookstore, which led owners Valerie Kingsland and Lisa Somerville to make the decision to move. The stressors of moving has been made easier by a positive reaction from the community, Somerville told the Grunion Gazette.

“So many nice things have been said to us in the last month since we said we were going to move,” she said. “People are so glad that we are still going to be in the Shore. It’s been overwhelming for us and our whole staff to feel all this support from the community.”

The new location is about the same square footage as the old, and much of the store will remain the same. The owners plan to hold a grand opening celebration in early March.