Booksellers Blog

Can you take two minutes a day to think about your business? I know that you are always thinking about it, but I also know that it’s usually while you are doing the seventy-seven things required to keep that business running. I’ve found much value from reading two blogs on a regular basis:  Seth Godin’s [...]

It’s fall trade show time, and there will be much buzz about booksellers and social media during educational sessions and panels. I think that’s a fantastic thing. My point of view has always been that participating in social media is optional IF you understand how social media works, the benefits, and the drawbacks. I look [...]

Don’t think of this as another twitter post, think of it as a continuation of yesterday’s post. Becky McCray at The Small Biz Survival blog has an important post today: Is Twitter worth it for small town businesses? She asks (and then answers) the tough questions that I know you have been asking: But what [...]

I know, you’re tired of twitter. As much as I love it, I am also tired of incessant press and portrayal of twitter as the service that will save the world. But there’s no denying twitter’s power as a tool for connecting. Josh Christie, a bookseller at Sherman’s Books in Freeport, Maine, has a great [...]

Everybody’s talking about Twitter. In the past month or so, I’ve seen several booksellers and publishing people sign on to twitter to try it out. And I think many are engaging with new people, learning a lot, and having fun. Here’s the thing: once you follow more than 30 people, the “standard” way of using [...]

I’m still trying to condense my thoughts about BEA into a manageable post. However, I do want to highlight one of the best sessions at BEA. It was also the only BEA-organized (as opposed to ABA-organized) session that was targeted specifically to Independent Booksellers. In this video, Gary Vaynerchuk is talking to YOU. It is [...]

Are you going to BEA? I’ve combed through the workshops, panels, and Author Stage events to pick out a few social-media related sessions that I think you shouldn’t miss. This is not all-inclusive — much of the BEA programming appears to be social-media related. However, I did want to highlight a few sessions that I [...]

Chris Brogan has written a very clear post about the 5 steps in the continuum from getting a prospective customer’s attention through the purchase phase, and beyond. Awareness Attention Engagement Execution Extension These phases hold true both online and in the real world. Brogan’s post describes the five phases in some detail, and is an [...]

There has been much buzz about Facebook lately because of their redesign. And if you want to spend the time setting up a Facebook page for your store, these changes are very beneficial. First, a few basics: Who uses Facebook? From the official Facebook stats page, More than 175 million active users More than half [...]

Today’s guest post is by Patrick Brown.  Patrick is the webmaster and blogger for Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA.  Before joining the staff at Vroman’s, he worked at Book Soup in West Hollywood, and briefly at Skylight Books in Los Feliz.  He has written book reviews for Publishers Weekly and was a regular contributor to [...]