Announcing New Happy Hour Weekly Series for Booksellers

Wednesdays at 5 pm Central

Stay-at-home safety measures are affecting every bookstore differently depending on their size, staff, location, and community. This weekly Zoom series features a bookseller talking about the new business models they've implemented, highlighting ideas that worked and those that didn't. We'll share stories of success and struggle from bookstores of all kinds, hoping to capture a supportive spirit of camaraderie as we all figure this out together. This happy hour is intended to be interactive, so come with your ideas and questions.

• RSVP for the event series and talk to attendees on Facebook

​April 15 / Register via Zoom; this is required to receive the meeting URL
Danny Caine, owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, KS, a mid-sized college town with a strong downtown shopping district, has "tried everything" during the virus crisis and has managed to keep his sales steady. Hear about his creative forms of bookselling, from being a book benefactor to installing a delivery sign on his car.

April 22 / Register via Zoom
Kristen Sandstrom, manager of Apostle Islands Booksellers in Bayfield, WI, runs a bookstore in a small town whose sales are driven by tourists and warm-weather foot traffic. Hear about running a bookstore with a microstaff whose customers are spread across many miles, cities, and states. 

April 29 / Register via Zoom
Holland Saltsman and Melissa Posten from The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, MO talk about the success they’ve had selling books during the pandemic via digital promotions such as text, FaceTime, Facebook Live, and email—bringing the in-store indie experience successfully into the online realm--and how they have they managed to sell “an absolute Kilimanjaro size mountain of puzzles." 

May 6 / Register via Zoom
Join featured guests Kalan Bavinck (The Book Store, Appleton, WI) and Dana Westedt (Main Street Books, Reedsburg, WI) as we talk about how used bookstores and stores with a used/new mix of titles have adapted to pandemic safety measures, as used merchandise is often built on in-store discovery. Topics include how to safely take in used books again, what’s safest for staff vs. customer expectations, pivoting to more curb side and mail order, appointment shopping, and what the future of in-store shopping at used book stores with social distancing in place will be like.