Following a reference to an Industry Returns Initiative in an article at theBookSeller.com, I’ve run across Book Industry Communication. As its homepage states,
BIC is an independent organisation set up and sponsored by the Publishers Association, Booksellers Association, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the British Library to promote supply chain efficiency in [...]
Here’s a question for the other booksellers (and avid book shoppers) reading this:
I’m about to publish my book 19th Nervous Breakdown: Adventures on the Path of the Bookseller via my own Ephod Press. I’m going to do it in just about the only way affordable for a small publisher with close to no budget: using [...]
Cheryl Anne Gardner, on the POD People blog, has a clear, succinct post about “juxtaposition of elation and frustration when it comes to writing and editing,” and what she calls the afterburst, the joy of having ideas come together while you sleep. One quote:
Dreaming is where vision is given life. Editing is where the alchemy [...]
Paco Underhill, the marketing wizard and author of Why We Buy and Call of the Mall (two of my favorite books, which is probably just another sign of my deep geekiness) spoke to Business Week recently about how stores are changing to appeal to more frugal shoppers. The interview includes a six-minute video [...]
Hmm… According to MSNBC, there actually is something to the idea that putting a book in a customer’s hand will make them more likely to buy it.
Of course, if they don’t buy it, it also make it more likely that the customer will end up putting it on a random shelf where you’ll never find [...]
There's more at josephzitt.com.
From the author of 19th Nervous Breakdown: Making Human Connections in the Landscape of Commerce
"Customers have told me that I approach bookselling like a ministry. Sometimes I find people exactly what they want; I hope that sometimes I find what they need. And helping the store make a profit is probably a good thing, too. But what I look for is the human contact, the communication, the chance to help people leave the store happier than they came in."