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Independent Bookstore Day is Saturday May, 2 April 30, 2015 – Posted in: Bookselling / Collecting, bookshops, Video

Are you ready for the first ever nationwide Independent Bookstore Day? Building on the success of last year’s inaugural California Bookstore Day, independent bookstores across the country are getting ready for this day of celebration.  And why not – after a brutal run that saw more than half our independent bookshops wiped out things have stabilized and a glimmer of hope has returned and seems to be getting brighter. Over 400 bookstores are part of…

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An Illiterate Bookseller Thrives March 17, 2013

Her name is Mary and she has been selling books for over 30 years. She is known as the bookseller who cannot read! She runs a bookshop in Chennai, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The bookshop does not have an address. Even though she “doesn’t know how to read, she digs out all the books her customers need – from 5th standard texts to engineering guides, law to Chartered Accountancy, test banks…

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house with bookshop and cafe March 5, 2013

Nothing like retiring to a nice vacation spot outside of Tokyo and asking your architect to build “a house with a bookshop and a cafe where neighbors and visitors can stop by.”It’s called the Izu Book Cafe and it also doubles as the home of a newly retired couple. It was designed by Atelier Bow-Wow. Selling books out of your home is far from a new idea, think of the throngs that abandoned a retail presence to…

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Pinterest meets Amazon at Scroll.Am December 31, 2012

Scroll.Am homepage Imagine taking a Pinterest-style scroll through the Amazon product database.Scroll.Am, was developed by Amsterdam-based designer and med student Jonathan Bouman. Bouman,  who derives his motivation from his love of mashups, scrolling and Amazon, built a similar site last year which provided a nifty way to scroll Reddit. Every product leads with a visual and  all the data and sharing opportunities you need is just a mouse-over away.   Books category home page   Clearly applicable to non-new books as…

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Advertising on the dust jacket November 15, 2012

Dust jacket used by The Book Inn Lending Library, Seattle Washington ca. 1930′s.  Long before the Kindle Lending Library there were actual brick and mortar lending libraries. These were not public libraries but part of the offerings of book and department stores. Most charged a daily, weekly or monthly rate and many used their own printed dust jackets to both protect the book and as a revenue stream. Above is one used by The Book Inn…

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