The Written Nerd

It's not even blogging day (but I was gone Monday at the NAIBA meeting), so here are a few quick make-up links. According to Shelf Awareness, "Bookstore sales last December were $2.113 billion, up 2.7% from $2.057 billion in December 2006, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The year ended on a good note, with sales at $16.768 billion, up 1.1% from $16.589 billion in 2006. During the first half of the year, sales were below the previous year's levels, but stronger results in the second half of 2007 helped pull bookstore sales into the black for the full year." Hooray! And yours truly is beginning a series over at the Bookshop Blog , telling the story of this crazy dream of opening an indie bookstore. There's lots more going on at BB, so if you get bored with the story of my life there's plenty of links, advice, and personality to keep you there. I'm off to a morning meeting, then I gotta do some grocery shopping for V-Day dinn...

The momentum is building for TitleWave, the awesome (free!) event for booksellers I've been helping to put together at BookStream! Bookselling This Week has a nice writeup of the event... Today's Shelf Awareness mentions TitleWave (though I can't seem to link to today's issue in the archive yet)... And Megan at Bookdwarf gives it a mention as well... For myself, I spent the last week missing subway stops reading Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, one of the authors who will be speaking at TitleWave. I was trying to explain to myself its addictive appeal -- it's not unusual structurally or formally, and the setup is almost Greek or Shakespearean in its simplicity: struggling farm, stoic husband, unhappy wife, charming brother, plus nasty racist father, plus bright black WWII vet, plus resourceful midwife and preacher husband, and a big storm on the way. But I couldn't put it down, nor predict just what would happen. Jordan writes effectively in every voice (except...

Today is a busy day as usual, with the added delight that the internet is acting screwy in our house. The ALP and I are taking turns cursing at wireless and trying to find work to do that doesn't involve the network (not much). So while it's pointless to try to write a long blog today, I would like to share: some very good (at least for me) news: I'm going to BEA ! As most of you know, it's being held May 28 to June 1 in Los Angeles this year -- close to where I grew up but far from where I work -- and I'm grateful to my bookstore for deciding it's worthwhile to send me. You may see me on a panel or two -- I'll keep you posted. I can't wait to meet, confer, and otherwise hobnob with my fellow wizards -- er, booksellers -- and learn a thing or two. Anybody else got BEA plans? And speaking of a gathering of bookstores -- my buddy Steve sent me a link to this wonderful set of photos of bookstores . Some look like UK stores; many are in New York; some...

Can I rant for just a tiny minute? I guess I must have been actually reading back posts of my favorite blogs, because I came across this one on the blog of Lance Fensterman, conference director extraordinaire (BEA *and* Comic Con -- that's right, baby!) and generally funny and observant guy. He's got a link to this story in the MinnPost about Birch Bark Books in Minneapolis, owned by well-to-do and respected author Louise Erdrich but apparently not doing terribly well financially. Here's the opener: "Most writers believe in independent bookstores. But is a belief in past worlds enough to bring them back to life? The answer is yes, if author and store owner Louise Erdrich has anything to say about it. The renowned author of "Love Medicine" and "Beet Queen" opened BirchBark Books in 2001, while independent booksellers everywhere were closing. The 800-square-foot shop, on a quiet street in Minneapolis' Kenwood neighborhood, is a proper...

- Read the complete results of the latest ABACUS Survey from the ABA -- those stats from indie bookstores nationwide were a big factor in my business plan - Read bookseller Tova Beiser's account of WI3 - Catch up with my Brooklyn blog reading! I just met Myka of MotherSister Brooklyn this weekend (look for a chronicle of meeting with the amazingly wonderful Fort Greene Association soon), and I think I have a lot of back posts to read. There's always Louise Crawfords indispensible Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn , which will also lead you to almost every other Brooklyn blog worth reading (and she also had a supernice congrats on my PowerUp win). And I've recently discovered Brooklynometry , and specifically the write-up of a new Brooklyn bookstore practically in my backyard that I didn't know existed: Babbo's Books on Prospect Park West. Exciting news! - Post book reviews! Here's what I read in January but haven't yet found time to write about (and they...

So my win of the $15,000 PowerUp! Award for my bookstore business plan got written up in the Daily News yesterday , complete with photo of me with a goofy grin on my face (high on endorphins, as John T. surmised). I know the word got passed around at Winter Institute in Louisville, too. Thank you so, so much to all of your for your congratulations and your support. Got ideas, suggestions, thoughts? Email me, for goodness' sake -- I'd love to hear from you! (Forgive me if it's mercenary to mention it again, but the one thing still standing between me and opening the bookstore doors is capital -- I'm looking for grants, loans, or any other creative means of pulling it all together, so if you have any suggestions in that regard, I'll probably be interested.) Anyway, the congratulations keep coming -- from friends and strangers, many of whom think I should open the bookstore in their Brooklyn neighborhood! It's fantastic to know there are so many folks longi...

Welcome home from Winter Institute, booksellers! From all I've heard already, this year in Louisville was just as invigorating a session as last year in Portland. Here's where you can find out more: The lovely Lori Kauffman of Brookline Booksmith was live blogging from WI3 on her blog, Brookline Blogsmith ; check it out for some impressions of Danny Meyer's opening presentation on hospitality vs. service, Gary Hirschberg's bit on saving the world while making a living, some bookseller/librarian conspiring, and Lori's pick of the galleys. And I suspect there's more to come -- the intensity of the programming can make it impossible to find time to blog, so sometimes it's all about the recap afterward. Dan Cullen of the ABA was also live blogging on the ABA blog, Omnibus , and has posted exhaustive coverage of the whole thing, Thursday to Saturday, plus lots of pictures. Dan humbly admits the difficulty of finding time or a single perspective on a weekend ...