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A guest Post by Chris Ambrosia of Ambrosia Books - a follow up to her last post A Bookstore in Sanborn, New York

I wrote the previous post on an up note.  Things went well my first weekend, again thanks to many supporters, friends and family.  Since then, I’ve met some very nice people.  Some people grateful there’s a place to give their books another home.  I’m finding more and more people who, just like me, won’t throw away a book.  I’ve gone through so many basement boxes sorting and organizing along with trying to decide if it’s something I can put a price on or something to practically give away.

My shelves are full and my husband has had to build me another bin.  I wanted a table I could put discounted (even further) hardcover books I have weighing down the shelves.   In a month and a half I have filled four 4 feet sections of shelves.  I’ve had plenty of deposits and moderate withdrawals in my used book section.  I’ve tweaked my exchange policy to something I and my community can live with and have advertised to the best of my financial ability.  I started a website, www.ambrosiasbooks.com and signed up with twitter.com.  I’m networking through my business association and my children’s school.  And yet I still go whole days without one customer.

The Saturday before Mother’s Day I sat at the store from 9am until 5pm without one customer.  Talk about discouraging!  On Mother’s Day, I was torn.  I could spend more of the day with my children or I could spend a nice quiet day catching up on my reading at the store.  I chose the store for the morning (alone) and went for dinner with my family after we closed.  I never would have thought that day would be the best business day we’ve had since we opened!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were valleys.  A couple browsers came in and out, but no sales.  Another point I thought ‘What am I doing?’ Friday and Saturday, peaks.  Sunday again, a few browsers came through but no sales.  I’m doing enough business to cover the rent and utilities but I’m still supplementing with my income from my job.

It’s discouraging but it’s something I love.  I’m sacrificing dinners out, family vacations, and any regular shopping!  It’s worth the sacrifice to do what you love.  I have great children, a supportive family and many new friends who have encouraged me to keep going.

So I will continue to learn, to believe in the value of holding a book in your hand and reading until you’re lost in another world, and believing in the small business and communities around the country that one way or another, make our world a better place.

I just wanted to share a quick link to a Fox news piece on one of our contributors, Gottwals Books. Not only is it nice to see one of our writers get some free publicity but it is especially nice to hear that their business is doing well.

Here’s a link to the news story:

http://www.fox24.com/news/local/fox-in-focus/45189632.html?skipthumb=Y

Here are a couple of Shane’s posts here at The Bookshop Blog

How Many Hours should your bookstore be open?

Expanding your Book Business.

Here is a terrific post from a new contributor to The Bookshop Blog - Roberta Nevares

If you have some time take a look at her blog The Poet In You

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I am a relative newbie in the world of book selling, my dear friend Nora who encouraged me to travel down this path is not. In fact, book selling is nearly all she has ever known save for a very short stint as a barista with a well-known coffee chain. This brief foray of hers was put to an end with an intervention by loved ones. Nora finally relented to their fervent entreaties to, “be done with this torturous career path”, an occupation that had resulted in a traumatic and recurring nightmare in which she found herself seated opposite the half-rabid coffee swilling author Balzac wagering on the ever popular card game, Piquet. In this dream Balzac could not be restrained from leaping up and shouting, “Carte Blanche!”. Nora would then be obliged to prepare yet another demitasse full of brew by manipulating a very complicated piece of 19th century machinery, glass tubes and metal parts would sputter forth a few pungent and very black drops of a full bodied dark roast for the never sated author. Ah, the stuff nightmares are made of. Intervention behind her, she shrugged off her apron and stepped back into the world of book selling.

This dear woman was my first and primary teacher, a mentor if you would have it so. We’ve lived in different cities now for more than a decade. My “tutelage” has been by phone and email. In the beginning, the only experience I had was as a customer and fan of used bookstores, their decline was a subject we spoke about often. I loved finding an out of print or hard to fine title, even one with a dedication in a flowery script would have me buzzing. As a bookseller, I had no experience. I had a barrage of questions, all of the most obvious ones: what to buy, where to buy it, how to sell it. Five years later the book related calls are fewer and the need for consolation much less. When I feel that I’ve let something get away from me I remember the signed Kerouac that she let go for a song. Now we commiserate more than anything but she is still my go to girl in times of crisis.

There are so many sources of information, the key is to be open to them and to value them especially when they come from the first hand experience of your book selling peers. I know that most booksellers don’t like to give away their hard earned lessons because those lessons, they’ve come at a price.

Book selling blogs have also been a great source of information. Sometimes I will find answers to questions that I didn’t even realize needed answering. One of the blog posts that I am most grateful for having found was right here on this site. It’s Tom Nealon’s post titled, Don’t Get Hung Up On Your Buying Mistakes - Sell And Move On. I swear, I think he wrote it just for me. After reading the article I finally started purging boxes of books. It has made a huge difference, both psychologically (I no longer have those foul books taunting me) and physically, it’s opened up a lot of shelf-space. Also, The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books
has recently made a comeback and has some pertinent posts for booksellers.
Book selling blogs have an appeal that the forums on ABE and Alibris do not. I am looking for and value constructive first hand experience, not doom and gloom.

My sources of motivation aren’t always other booksellers and they are not always online. I sometimes think of a veterinarian I once worked for who ranted when he found a box of product that was not on the shelf. “These aren’t going to sell sitting in this box in the office,” he railed. And he was right. When I see a box of books that I have yet to post I think of him in all of his annoyance. When I really need motivation I think of a Coach Bob Hurley at St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, NJ. He challenges his basketball players to give it their all and be their best. When my husband and I first watched this on CBS  I laughed and said, “Can you imagine if I had that guy here coaching me on book selling? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WATCHING TV????? POST THOSE BOOKS. POST ‘EM!!!!!”

In my very short history as a bookseller I have found that advice, inspiration and motivation can come from almost anywhere. If I have any advice to give it is to love what you do, do it well, and get those books out of the box and on your shelves!

Roberta Nevares
Bertski Books

The Poet In You

This post was contributed by Jason Ramsay-Brown and Haldeman-Julius.org. Take a moment to visit their site, it’s quite nicely put together.

—— About EHJ and the Little Blue Books ——

Emanuel Julius was born in Philadelphia on July 30, 1889, the third of six children. He was an ardent advocate of socialism throughout his formative years, in time taking employment in the ranks of America’s growing left-wing media.  His passions eventually brought him to Girard, Kansas, the epicenter of the nation’s socialist press, to work for the infamous “Appeal to Reason” newspaper.  It was here he became romantically involved with Marcet Haldeman, granddaughter of Senator John H. Addams, and niece of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams. The two were wed on June 1st, 1916 and mutually assumed the surname Haldeman-Julius.

wonderful little books by Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius

In 1919, Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius purchased controlling interest in the Appeal to Reason.  As his first act as owner, Emanuel ordained the publication of a “University in Print” - a library of classic literature, social discourse, and political rhetoric aimed at being attractive and affordable to the average working person.  These 3½ × 5 inch volumes were designed to fit in a worker’s back pocket, and printed with the cheapest materials possible in order to keep costs low.  The initial booklets, known as “The Appeal’s Pocket Series” were priced at 25 cents a copy, and available only by mail order. Over the next few years, however, the series would change names several times, and as distribution escaped the restraints of mail order, prices would plunge as low as 5 cents a piece.

In 1923 the publication would become known as the Little Blue Book series, a name that would last until its final days some five decades later.  Staunch left-wing tracts like #4 “Soviet Constitution” and #5 “Socialism vs. Anarchism” soon found themselves accompanied by volumes like #1013 “The Best Irish Jokes”, and #1111 “Prostitution in the Medieval World”.  By 1978, when the press & warehouse were destroyed by fire, some 2000 titles would have been issued, and hundreds of millions of booklets sold.

—— About Haldeman-Julius.org ——

Haldeman-Julius.org site is devoted to the history, identification and collecting of the various 3½ × 5 inch volumes published by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius (and his son) from 1919 to 1978. These series include: The Appeal’s Pocket Series, People’s Pocket Series, Appeal Pocket Series, Ten Cent Pocket Series, Five Cent Pocket Series, Pocket Series, and the most popular and prolific series title, the Little Blue Book.

Did I hear you say its time to go to the store?

The cliche is that every bookstore has a cat, but it’s actually fairly rare to encounter pets at bookstores anymore.  Chains definitely don’t have them, so only indies still have the classic bookstore cat.  One of the common notes in listings for books on online venues is “comes from a smoke free, pet free home”.  These generally appear in listings from people selling off items on ebay, Craiglist, and so on, who clearly aren’t operating a bookstore fulltime.  While allergies are a concern for some, I’ve never had a customer actually ask whether the store has a critter in residence. Nor ask if I smoke. I can only recall one person with allergies severe enough that they decided not to buy once they saw the dog (and that was largely an issue of being unable to browse with the dog following her around going “why won’t the nice person pet me?”)

Have the days of the cozy bookstore with a cat (or dog) asleep in the window gone away? Are used bookstores now expected to be dust and dander free zones where every book and surface has been cleaned ’til it sparkles with everything in neat alphabetical order?  Or is the dust, fluff, and the cat sleeping on top of the teetering pile of books part of the charm of the indie?

Sleeping on the job... again. Worst watchdog ever.

From the comments from my customers, much of the charm is indeed that there is a dog in residence.  People bring her cookies.  She amuses children while parents browse.  And generally looks cute sleeping in the window or amidst a pile of books.  People stop in just to pet the dog and something catches their eye while they were there and they walk out with another book they just had to have.  They never would have come in if it weren’t for the dog in the window.  She is the best form of advertising.

The dog also appears on the frequent buyer discount card. When someone else is minding the store and the dog is left at home, people are often disappointed that there is no dog to pet.  If she doesn’t immediately come scampering at the sound of the bell on the door, customers first question is often “where’s the dog?”

The book you want is ALWAYS under the cat

While I don’t have a cat at the store proper, I have two cats at home that patrol the stacks of rare books, sleep in the shipping boxes and generally sit on whatever it is you’re trying to work on. There is, of course, the occasional crash noise as they tip over a stack.

Cats and dogs seem to be the only pets that appear at most stores, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a store out there with something unusual like an iguana or parrot.  If you own a bookstore, do you have a creature in residence?  Or if you’re a reader, does your local indie have a furry little helper? Is a pet in residence a turn off or turn on? (assuming that the pet is well mannered.  Nobody likes a cat that bites your hand when you pet it… like the white beast shown here.  There’s a reason he’s not at the store proper.)

Who rules the bookstore pet world, cats or dogs? (pictures are of course welcomed)

We have another new contributor here at The Bookshop blog. I’m pleased to welcome Shane Gottwalls to our group of writers. Here is his first introductory post. ********************************* Is it time to expand? Gottwals Books has been open ...

I was born and spent the first 2/3rds of my life in the UK, in a world in which health care was simply a human right. You got it, like an education, by virtue of being alive. And then I came to America and simply it isn't that way here, and, even after 16 years, that still keeps surprising me. (Every now and again I've told people who can't understand why from time to time I write movies, who say things like "You don't need to, you're a best-selling writer, you get paid more for a novel than for a film script," that it keeps my Writers Guild health insurance current, and I'm at least half serious.)

It's always hard to put up medical appeals, but Caitlín R. Kiernan needs financial help -- you can read about it at her journal, over at http://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/428785.html.


Here's the "Absolute Sandman Not Included" ad that DC will be running for the Mark Buckingham bookends.

Neil, I am getting impatient with you! I read part of The Graveyard Book in the "M book" and now I would like to read the whole story. Now.

When is "The Graveyard Book" coming out? A tentative date would be kind....thanks!

You can't get impatient with me until the book is finished. I still have to finish writing Chapter Eight (which will happen in the next few days), then do the second draft of Chapter Seven, then read the whole thing through and make sure that it's all the same book and that Mr Pennyworth doesn't become Mr Pennyweather somewhere in the middle.

But the book will be out by Hallowe'en. Come high water or Hell. Probably in the shops end of September.

...

I'm playing with Last FM whenever I'm in front of the computer. I love having Radio Me -- the idea of a radio station that magically plays only stuff I like when I'm away from home or away from the iPod. And I was surprised to discover there are people out there with musical tastes so scarily close to mine (which is, in my head, so all-over-the-place as to be uncategorisable) that I've started checking out things they like too. Gave in on the friending people thing, because, as someone pointed out, it made it easier for people than just bookmarking my page.

(The music it hasn't been scrobbling is an advance copy of Who Killed Amanda Palmer which arrived as a gift from Amanda Palmer, all wrapped in ancient lace, along with DVDs. It's amazing stuff. It was a great day for things-to-listen-to swag, as it also brought Hera's Feels So Good, on CD and also on DVD. I'd somehow assumed the song was about sex, but I learned from the video that it is actually about chocolate, bubble wrap, being covered in puppies, and destroying televisions.)

And I just went looking for the query someone sent me about Mr Croup's use of the word "Scrobble" in Neverwhere, used to mean "get at" or "kidnap" and couldn't find it. But for the record, I got it from John Masefield's wonderful book The Box of Delights... (Now out in the US, curiously published before the book it followed, The Midnight Folk. I suppose you don't need to have read The Midnight Folk first, but still.)

And talking about classic children's fiction,

Dear Mr Gaiman,

I read with interest your recent advice on fountain pens and ink.

Personally, I use a pen that was designed for me by, Cowgill, my engineer. It is superbly engineered and I have only ever had to fill it twice.

I use a special concoction of Wizard Blenkisop's - his Black as Night Everlasting Ink. Suffice to say that the refill was only necessary when the pen was used to counteract an attack by Beaver Hateman.

If your readers desire to improve their penmanship may I recommend the services of the writing master Benskin. I know that he is always on the look out for new students.

Yours Faithfully

Uncle

http://talesfromhomeward.blogspot.com/