Around Indies

Bookmans Flagstaff Returns

Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in Flagstaff, Arizona, reopened today, Thursday, December 16. A record snowfall last January caused the store's roof to collapse, destroying the building and most merchandise. A fun video on the store website provides a peek at the new store and chronicles staff saving inventory, moving it to the store’s warehouse, staying involved in the community while the new store is being built.

“I cannot express how humbled I am by the outpouring of passion by the people of Flagstaff for my little bookstore,” said Bob Oldfather, CEO and founder of Bookmans Entertainment Exchange, in a statement.

Between the Covers Changes Hands

On December 1, Stuart and Joanna Brown, longtime owners of Between the Covers, in Telluride, Colorado, sold the store to two of its staff members – Daiva Chesonis and Bobbie T. Smith.

For 12 years, Smith baked pastries for various Telluride businesses, including Between the Covers, and she has been a bookseller at the store for the last four years, eventually taking over as store manager. Chesonis became the store's book buyer in 2008, after transitioning out of a job with the Telluride Mountainfilm festival and prior work as a graphic designer.

The two are happy to keep the store in local hands, and plan to make a few small changes, including improving the store's website, and carrying Google ebooks.

“Independent bookselling is kind of an art,” Chesonis told The Watch. “We're just looking to be small, fat, and happy.”

The Browns made the decision to sell the store in order to be closer to their four children, who attend schools on the East Coast.

Book Revue’s “Pitchapalooza!” Inspires Writers

Book Revue’s “Pitchapalooza!,” in Huntington, New York, on December 2, writers pitched their book ideas to a panel of publishing experts, who offered their own advice to every presenter. One winner received an introduction to an agent.

Suzanne Wells was named the winner, and said she has already written most of her memoir, entitled One Wing – The Book, a personal account of heroin addiction and poverty.

“We try to inspire people,” Panelist David Henry Sterry told the New York Times. “We don’t want to step on people’s dreams – and you don’t know what will sell.”