13 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2023
  2. Jul 2022
  3. Oct 2020
    1. In the best of times, the margins at a bookstore are paper thin — traditionally, a successful shop hopes to make 2 percent in profits — but operating during a pandemic is even more expensive.

      Yes---they said paper thin...

    2. Like many other stores, Vroman’s is hosting online events to promote new books, which can attract attendees from all over the country but generally bring in almost no money.

      Maybe they need a book paywall for admission into those events? Buy a book to get the zoom code to get into the event?

      David Dylan Thomas essentially did this for his recent book launch.

    3. Take Vroman's Bookstore, a 126-year-old institution in Pasadena, Calif. It has more than 200 employees, 20,000 square feet of space and the rent to go along with it. In a normal year, it hosts anywhere from 300 to 400 events, bringing in authors for readings and signings, along with customers who buy books and maybe a glass of wine from the bar. But none of that is happening this year.

      Coincidentally I bought two books at Vroman's yesterday and it looked reasonably busy for mid-day. (Maybe because of this article?)

      It's a bit disingenuous to mention wine at their bar as their wine bar was only finally open for a minute before the pandemic shut everything down.

  4. app.getpocket.com app.getpocket.com
    1. The main thing that dissuaded him, he says, is that “I wouldn’t want to sell a book to a philistine, which is what every bookseller has to do.”
    1. Relatively new bookstores in LA:

      • Last Bookstore (Downtown) opened 2008
      • Stories Books & Cafe (Echo Park) 2008
      • The Mystic Journeys (Venice) 2009
      • {pages} (Manhattan Beach) 2010
      • Pop-Hop Books & Print (Highland Park) 2012
      • Book Show (Highland Park) 2013
      • The Ripped Bodice (Culver City) 2016
      • OOF Books (Cypress Park) 2017
      • Now Serving (Chinatown) 2017
      • Owl Bureau (Highland Park) 2019
  5. Oct 2019
    1. most college bookstores under-order as a matter of policy.

      I wonder if our "first year experience" classes teach this fact to new, first-generation college students?

  6. Nov 2018
    1. The main thing that dissuaded him, he says, is that “I wouldn’t want to sell a book to a philistine, which is what every bookseller has to do.”
  7. Nov 2017
  8. Aug 2017
  9. Feb 2017
    1. But now I’m wondering if the disappearance of those community book sanctuaries and the salons and discussions they promoted isn’t yet another factor in creating a citizenry that can’t tell fact from fiction, the truth from a lie.

      Good point!