What a fun month we have had. When I first opened the bookstore I was afraid that I would be bored with having to be in one place everyday. Being in sales my entire career it has been a long time since I have been locked into staying in one place all day. But guess what we recently learned – you can run a bookstore that moves!
In March we were privileged to provide a pop-up bookshop for the second time at The Readers and Writers Symposium. What a fun event. The symposium had four wonderfully talented writers presenting their works and their thoughts on writing. The Conundrum ordered their books and built out a pop-up bookstore in the front corner of the presentation room. At breaks attendees were able to buy books and get them signed by the authors right there. This set up is really a win-win-win for the attendees, the organization and the bookstore. The attendees get the ease of purchasing books right at the event. The set up helps the organization attract authors since they will be able to promote sales of their books and we share a portion of the sales proceeds with the organization so it is a fundraising effort as well. And I get to get out of the shop and hear great presentations by authors. Win-Win-Win !
We will be doing this again in March at the Birding exhibits for the Audubon Pilgrimage where we will get to be in the room with the art exhibits selling , of course, lots of versions of Audubon Folios, local interest titles etc.
Is your organization hosting an event where this type of set-up might work? If so give me a call and let’s chat, I would love to come hang out with you for a day!
And really, being at the shop is not so boring. It is a bookshop after all! Interesting, curious, well-read people come by all the time to chat about and buy books , kind of a dream job really.
Then there are days like this Saturday , March 11, 2017, when author Todd-Micheal St. Pierre and illustrator Lee Brandt Randall will join us for Storytime and Lee will bring along adorable puppets of the main characters who will “act out” the story as it is read. We will follow Story Time with a Book Signing with these two fun folks. After that a new type of event for our shop – a wedding engagement shoot! We were contacted by a photographer who has a couple that wants their engagement shots taken in a bookshop. Our kind friends the Lemoines recommended our shop to them as “The Cutest Bookshop”. I cannot wait to both watch the shoot and then see the shots. I just love the idea of a new relationship immortalized in photos inside of our bookshop.
Everyday brings new things and new people. I wonder what next month will bring ?