Around Indies

Greenlight Partners With BAM

This fall, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, will be partnering with Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to provide a curated selection of books and online merchandise.

The bookstore will become the kiosk vendor at each of BAM's major performance spaces, which will be open before, during, and after all scheduled performances. Additionally, Greenlight Bookstore will sell BAM branded merchandise through the store's website.

The Greenlight at BAM kiosks will open in September 2011, in conjunction with the beginning of BAM's 2011 Next Wave Festival.

Indies Recognized for Novel Ways to Promote Books

The September issue of Fast Company recognizes several indie bookstores for their novel ways of promoting books:

•  Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Massachussetts, for clustering products – placing sidelines near books with related topics
• Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, for acting locally, including hosting a radio show and delivering books to customers within a mile of city limits
• Village Books in Bellingham Washington, for being a printing press, via its Espresso Book Machine
• St. Louis booksellers who, rather than viewing themselves as compeititors, have banded together for their common good and formed the St. Louis Bookstore Alliance
• BookCourt in Brooklyn, New York, for broadcasting events via bookcourt.tv.

BookSmart to Open Branch in Steinbeck Center

Morgan Hill, California’s BookSmart will open a branch store, including a café, in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas in October, the Monterey Weekly News reported.

Colleen Finegan Bailey, the center’s executive director, told the paper that selecting the indie bookstore to fill a former café space, was both a response to the impending closure of a nearby Borders and a nod to the center’s community-oriented vision.


BookSmart, which is owned by Brad Jones and Cinda Meister, was named California Assembly District 27’s Small Business of the Year in 2010 and was the recipient of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association’s 2009 Debi Echlin Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Bookstore.