The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. ~ Inspired by the meme In My Mailbox.~ It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.
I hope everyone had a good Halloween! I spent the morning at the local Amphitheater where our town was holding a Halloween festival. The store had a booth to hand out candy, and like my store it was Harry Potter themed. (You can see the HP decorations at the store on Instagram) I had planned to do wands to give out…but it turned out to be way more time consuming than I cared for, and nixed the idea. I might get enough done to sell for like $1 at the Christmas event though.
It was an incredibly slow month for the store…and it’s sort of hard to drum up interest in a town that sleeps. I say that because the vast majority of those that live here have no clue where Main Street is, or what stores are located off the first street. There is a serious lack of curiosity and I hear “I had no idea there was a book store in town” a lot…the sucky thing is that without that extra revenue each month I can’t afford to place ads. Circle logic is circle.
Books Read
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin
Last Week
Tuesday: Literary Costumes
Book Haul
None!
Bummer you aren’t able to place ads to reach those in your sleepy little town. I remember you making the wands and I imagine it was very time consuming. Hope business picks up in November.
Thanks Kimba, me too!
I need to get Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it looks like a nice book and I hardly remember those stories.
Hope business picks up, maybe for the holidays?
It’s a fun read! I’ll have my review up this week. And yeah, it usually picks up for the holiday season. We just have to make it through the initial slowly rainy portion first.
Maybe try to not use actual ads, but rather chat people up – if you spend half an hour in a local coffee shop, and you bring a couple of books from your store (with a bag with the store name, of course) and just see if someone else there look interested in reading?
I hope you’ll find a way to make it work well!
Have a wonderful week and happy reading.
I don’t have my license, so it limits what I can do in person. My mom and boyfriend do a pretty good job of it on their own, as far as chatting people up goes and I have a few friends I’ve made through the store that are basically walking/talking advertisements for me. We do free things like the Halloween festival and Christmas festival, to help advertise because everything else is super expensive. Also as a depressing side note…we don’t have a coffee shop, it went out of business like the last bookstore..
Well, that could be your niche, then, Michelle! Serve coffee while people are browsing books… kind of like the Rock Chicks do 😉
It’s sad when small businesses disappear, and I really hope you’ll be able to get enough customers to keep your store open!
Thanks Lexxie! And I do really want to have coffee service! I’m working on making more space for a little table for coffee. Even if no one comes in, at least I have can have coffee then too. 😛
Lexxie’s suggestion is pertinent ! Does your library have a website ? The wands were a good idea, bummer they took so long to make…
It has the website where you can place holds, but it’s a regional website and not just for the library itself.
I love Lexxie’s idea! Also do you have a Facebook page for the store, maybe get as many friends and family as you can to like it and that might raise awareness in your area too. Events like the Halloween festival must be good too for getting your name out there. It must be frustrating to hear people say that but at least at that stage they do know where you are!
The wands sound like a fun idea, how did you make them?
Yep! I have a facebook page, but we all know how the page views thing goes. They all try to like the posts they see, and it really does help…but facebook has to let them see it first, lol. The festival is definitely a really good stage for it, but we don’t see it’s affect for a few weeks…or at least that’s how it worked last year. In general people are sort of slow to do things, and I hear “I’ve been meaning to come by for weeks” all the time too. Which is baffling because how can you go weeks without getting a new book?
And the wands are super easy, it just takes a while. All you need are chopsticks, hot glue, and paint. You just decorate the chopsticks with glue anyway you want, and once it dries paint over them to make them look like wood. You can add beads and jewels as well.
Sounds like you had a good Halloween. Not much help with picking up business but Lexxie’s ideas sound really good!
Have a good week!
Thanks Heather! I hope you do as well!
Seems like you had a fun halloween! I am a bit envious seeing and hearing about all the cool halloween events there. Here halloween is getting more popular, but it isn’t as popular as in the US yet. I hope you enjoyed the illustrated harry potter book, it sounds like a fun way to experience the story again. I hope you have a great week!
Halloween is my favorite holiday, even though I sort of loathe the actual children coming to get candy part. (Why are they so loud and picky?) I full endorse any holiday that celebrates putting on costumes, lol.
I have no helpful advice on cheap store advertising other than maybe flyers for bulletin boards around town and beefing up social media. And I like Lexxi’s idea, too. Is that a real tattoo in the pic? So cool!
It’s a temporary tattoo…but I desperately wish it were real. It transferred perfectly so I had a lot of people think it was real, and by the time it finally decided to wash off I had kind of fallen in love with it myself.
So frustrating to get increased visitors to the store and I’m afraid I’ve got no suggestions. I’m a small town so my local bookstore is on Facebook and does lots of events – kids bedtime reading, bookclubs, philosophy groups and author events etc…
That’s disappointing about the store. Is it viable for you to add an internet component and ship books to customers?
The Halloween party sounds fun and the wands would probably sell well.