Will you take a moment and help us?
On Thursday, Michael and I are doing a presentation at the New England Independent Booksellers Association called “Do I Really Need a Blog?
Social Media 101 for the Independent Bookseller”.
So we thought we’d ask you, our readers, for your opinions.
Does your local bookstore have a blog? If so, what do you like about it? What would you like to see more of?
If your local bookstore does not have a blog, do you think they should have one? What information would you like to see presented on a bookstore’s blog? Is there any other online presence that you think your store should have?
You do not have to identify the bookstore in question unless you want to — we are really looking for a general overview of what readers would want. Any other thoughts on this topic are most welcome.
Thank you for your opinions and your insights.
And if you are attending NEIBA, please be sure to stop by the Random House booth and say hi!
Have a comment, question, or book recommendation? Call our voicemail line and wait for the beep. Tell us if we may play your message on a future podcast.
My local bookstore does not have a blog. They have a basic, mostly static website. I wish they did have a blog, so I could subscribe to it, and I would thus be able to find out about author events, signings, etc., held at the store, if nothing else. It might also be fun to have them highlight new books they’ve added to the inventory recently (they sell new and used book); explain the system of returning books for credits on other books â they’ve been open only a few months now; and brief staff profiles could be fun, as well. It would be the perfect place to highlight media coverage.
Our local indie bookseller doesn’t even have a webpage, but I wish they had some kind of online method of contacting them and keeping track of any events happening at the store, maybe the new releases they’re excited about. They didn’t even realize how big a deal the rest of the world was making over the Breaking Dawn release… *sigh*
One of our local booksellers has a blog and does a great job with it. Lots of promo and advance info for events. Everything from author speakings, open mic poetry reads and concerts. He trades mostly in used books and even posts thanks to folks who drop off large amounts of books.
The other booksellers would do good to start a blog. They all have too many unique opportunities to speak with authors and interesting customers, not to be sharing.
My local bookstore (Andover Bookstore) does have a blog, but its updates are far and few between, as far as I can tell. My guess it that they don’t know what to do with it.
Their home page is nice, however. They have an easy-to-scan, accessible listing of author readings/signings, and also produce an events-based email newsletter.
I’d love to see them do a more content-rich blog. Ideas off of the top of my head: staff picks or favorites, quick book reviews, visiting author Q&As, stats on what books are selling in their shop vs. NYT bestseller list (or similar), a regular interview with an Andover resident (“What Andover is reading”), updates to the building/business (a “what’s new in the shop”… anything that gets me vested in buying my books from them, rather than Amazon or Borders, and gives me a sense of the personalities behind the business.
p.s. Two more blog idea for local bookstore: Staff members on Goodreads (link to their profiles) or other social networking sites; video book trailers that staffers think are particularly well done.
The bookstore I work for has a blog, as well as a presense on YouTube, Twitter, Goodreads, MyFace and more. The thing is, work on these sites are done in a “if you have time” basis, so updates are not nearly as frequent as our very busy 3 stores, with 600+ events every year needs. Plus, very few people are working on them and/or writing for them since our staffing levels have gone down with the economy slump. I recently VOLUNTEERED time to update their Goodreads site because I truly believe that these sorts of sites are the way to reach out to a HUGE demographic of people.
My local bookstore–McNally Jackson–does have a blog, but to be honest I am generally too busy to stop by. What is more helpful to me are the monthly missives sent out by the *other* local bookstore, Word.
To receive an update at the start of each month with readers, book club selections, and a few (no more than 5) highlighted books is incredibly helpful. Much easier for this consumer to read and digest.
Thank you all for your insights and suggestions. We will share these with booksellers. Keep them coming!
We truly appreciate your help.
Ann
my local indy bookseller, Headhouse Books, does not have a stand-alone blog, but does have a section on the main website, called Richard’s Log.
The only entry there is “borrowed” from someone else. I *may* be interested in a blog from Richard, but would be more interested in a rating system. Getting ratings from my neighbors would be very useful, and would probably also let the owner know what best to order in the future.
Wouldn’t that be easy to implement, with google’s gadgets?
Stephen (from the Goodreads group)
I wish my local indie store had a blog. I think they fall prey to the necessity of becoming more of a gift shop to stay afloat, and books end up less prominent.
I’d be happy to run a book blog on their behalf
My local bookstore does not have a blog. But they have a wonderful website where I can check the stock of books they have and request books to be ordered for me – they call when it comes in. I love that feature. I would love a blog too – something that talked about upcoming or newly released books, maybe author interviews – you know another source for great recommendations basically. Also, I have no idea if they do book signings, readings etc. They are the only English bookseller around so it would be nice to know of events around town for English readers.