National Bookstore Day Set for Saturday

This Saturday, November 7, is the first annual National Bookstore Day, an event launched by Publishers Weekly to celebrate bookselling and the "vibrant culture of bookstores." To mark the day, booksellers in more than 35 states and the District of Columbia have been developing plans for everything from raffles to special author events.

At Bank Street Book Nook in New Milford, Connecticut, Jennie Torres reported that the store would be enticing folks into the store by raffling off a $25 gift certificate. "We promoted the raffle in our monthly newsletter," she said. "People can enter as many times as they want." The store also has made use of the downloadable bookmarks and posters designed by PW to help generate customer interest in the day's event.

Customers "seem anxious to join the raffle," Torres said, "and we make sure to tell them it's for National Bookstore Day." Overall, she believes the national event is a good idea and that this year's raffle should at the very least generate "a lot more e-mails" for the store's newsletter list.

Across the country, at Cheshire Books in Fort Bragg, California, Linda Rosengarten reported that the store has several things planned for this Saturday. "We will be passing out complimentary balloons for kids, and will offer complimentary beverages," she said. "There will be two readings during the day, one for children, and one for adults." Furthermore, customers who make purchases of more than $15 will receive a holiday coupon good for a 25 percent discount on a future purchase.

Cheshire Books will also be kicking off its annual "Bookraiser," a promotion to help the local food bank, on National Bookstore Day. Customers can buy children's and young adult books at a discount that are then gift-wrapped and donated to the local food bank. The food bank hands them out to children who visit the food bank on Christmas Eve. The Bookraiser runs into mid-December.

"Being that it's the first National Bookstore Day, we used some of the suggestions that we found on the PW site," said Joe Hoffman of Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, New York. "We printed up a number of posters and posted them throughout the store."

For the event, the store will be raffling off a $25 gift certificate at the end of the day. On Saturday, people can come into the store and sign up for the raffle. "[National Bookstore Day] is a great idea, and something that is going to grow, something to look forward to," Hoffman said. --David Grogan