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Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide To Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips For Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies
Book by Portzline, Larry
104 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2004
69 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 30, 2012
I first heard of this when, well I forgot when. I just know that recently, I was googling and ended up stumbling upon the concept of Bookstore tourism. Needless to say, I was very intrigued by the concept. And thankfully, the founder of this concept Larry Portzline, has a free ebook primer about Bookstore Tourism. You can download it for free here
The book is divided into five parts - a history of the concept, an explanation, a book industry primer, a "how-to" guide and a suggestion of great towns to tour. It's a rather short book (104 pages in pdf format), but full of lots of interesting and useful information.
Simply put, Bookstore tourism is when you go around town visiting different and unique indie bookstores rather than the normal tourist destinations. It's aimed at the bibliophile (like me) and is supposed to help support the indie bookstores by bringing them customers.
One of my favourite parts of the book was the examples of successful and unique indie bookstores. It proves that the idea of selling physical books isn't outdated, and like any business, a USP (Unique Selling Point) is needed.
The book is interesting and simple. The suggestions given are also really practical and can be put into practice. Personally, I can see this happening in Singapore as we do have a few indie bookshops that should be more well-known - such as Littered With Books. But as yet, I can't think of how to use this idea in Japan. But that's because so far, I've only been shopping at BookOff and I haven't seen any unique stores yet.
For some reason, I'm very very inspired after reading this. I want to organise something like this when I grow up (or when I find some indie bookstores in Japan). From the author's personal experience, this sounds really fun, and doesn't need to be a full-time commitment. And personally, if it's going to let me buy more books, I'm all for this concept!
So, who's interested?
First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
The book is divided into five parts - a history of the concept, an explanation, a book industry primer, a "how-to" guide and a suggestion of great towns to tour. It's a rather short book (104 pages in pdf format), but full of lots of interesting and useful information.
Simply put, Bookstore tourism is when you go around town visiting different and unique indie bookstores rather than the normal tourist destinations. It's aimed at the bibliophile (like me) and is supposed to help support the indie bookstores by bringing them customers.
One of my favourite parts of the book was the examples of successful and unique indie bookstores. It proves that the idea of selling physical books isn't outdated, and like any business, a USP (Unique Selling Point) is needed.
The book is interesting and simple. The suggestions given are also really practical and can be put into practice. Personally, I can see this happening in Singapore as we do have a few indie bookshops that should be more well-known - such as Littered With Books. But as yet, I can't think of how to use this idea in Japan. But that's because so far, I've only been shopping at BookOff and I haven't seen any unique stores yet.
For some reason, I'm very very inspired after reading this. I want to organise something like this when I grow up (or when I find some indie bookstores in Japan). From the author's personal experience, this sounds really fun, and doesn't need to be a full-time commitment. And personally, if it's going to let me buy more books, I'm all for this concept!
So, who's interested?
First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
December 19, 2007
Bookstore Tourism is a new way to help independent bookstores by marketing them as tourist destinations and encouraging booklovers to plan bus trips to towns with unique bookstores. Instead of, for instance, taking a bus trip to the Statue of Liberty, why not take a trip to the bookstores in Greenwich Village?
The book looks at the present situation for the independent bookstore. The news is not very good. While some store are able to survive, even thrive, more stores are closing every day. There are a number of reasons, including the coming of the chains, the economy, skyrocketing rents and the internet. Another problem is the sheer number of new books published, reaching 175,000 in 2003 from over 78,000 publishers.
What can indie bookstores do to survive? First and foremost, customer service is everything. Selling used books creates more profit than new books. Get creative with entertainment and special events. Consider a makeover of the decor to find that balance between fun and functional. Including a cafe encourages customers to linger and buy more books. Get involved in the community. Perhaps shrinking the store is the way to go. Cross promote with neighboring businesses.
The book also explores the mechanics of setting up a bookstore tour. Included are things like making sure that the destination stores are still there, anyone can plan a bookstore trip, handling reservations, the best day to go, the best kind of transportation, seeing if the destination stores will hold special events during your trip, where to eat, things to do while in transit, publicizing the trip and dealing with the bus company, among many others.
Bookstore tourism is a wonderful idea (anything that helps independent bookstores is a wonderful idea) and this is an excellent book that ended much too soon. I really enjoying reading it. The author mentions that more books on independent bookstores are planned in the future. I can't wait.
The book looks at the present situation for the independent bookstore. The news is not very good. While some store are able to survive, even thrive, more stores are closing every day. There are a number of reasons, including the coming of the chains, the economy, skyrocketing rents and the internet. Another problem is the sheer number of new books published, reaching 175,000 in 2003 from over 78,000 publishers.
What can indie bookstores do to survive? First and foremost, customer service is everything. Selling used books creates more profit than new books. Get creative with entertainment and special events. Consider a makeover of the decor to find that balance between fun and functional. Including a cafe encourages customers to linger and buy more books. Get involved in the community. Perhaps shrinking the store is the way to go. Cross promote with neighboring businesses.
The book also explores the mechanics of setting up a bookstore tour. Included are things like making sure that the destination stores are still there, anyone can plan a bookstore trip, handling reservations, the best day to go, the best kind of transportation, seeing if the destination stores will hold special events during your trip, where to eat, things to do while in transit, publicizing the trip and dealing with the bus company, among many others.
Bookstore tourism is a wonderful idea (anything that helps independent bookstores is a wonderful idea) and this is an excellent book that ended much too soon. I really enjoying reading it. The author mentions that more books on independent bookstores are planned in the future. I can't wait.
February 2, 2014
Larry Portzline had a great idea: Help save struggling independent bookstores by promoting "Bookstore Tourism," the goal of which is to get booklovers to group up for road trips to nearby mega book hubs like Greenwich Village. He provides most of the necessary tools, and several recommendations for making a successful trip. He also provides a few examples of destinations. I would've preferred to see a much more extensive list of destinations (and one less eastern-centric). Also, a more detailed chapter on the bookstores themselves with brief descriptions of their histories and quirks would've added options, as well as fodder, for potential book-tourists. One idea that Portzline described that strongly resonated with me was that of "Bookcrossing:". Where people are encouraged to read a book and then leave it "out in the wild" for others to find and read before passing it on themselves, Participants are encouraged to record their transactions online so that the books may be tracked, creating a sort of world library. Lots of great book-related ideas around! Portzline promises an updated, and potentially more-detailed, next edition. I have high expectations for this version.
Want to read
September 19, 2008Putting this on my to-read list for the idea of it. Before I would ever be able to get around to reading it I'm sure it would be dated.
November 12, 2016
I so want to do a trip like this now!!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews