About Bookselling

By Jennifer Anglin of The Enchanted Forest The noted children's bookstore The Enchanted Forest in Dallas is closing. Here, owner Jennifer Anglin shares a letter about how she reached her decision, and what bookselling has meant to her.

Twice a year since July 1999, Paz & Associates Bookstore Training & Consulting Group, in conjunction with the American Booksellers Association, has been conducting weeklong intensive workshops designed to teach potential booksellers the ins and outs of the bookstore business. The next program, "Opening a Bookstore: The Business Essentials," will take place in Portland, Oregon, on September 9 - 15, in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association convention and trade show, held September 13 - 15.

This past May, the American Bookseller Association's insurance program, LIBRIS, launched its new publisher's liability insurance program at BookExpo America in New York City. According to Publishers Program Manager Patrick Haller, LIBRIS offers a competitively priced and comprehensive policy that is underwritten by Philadelphia Insurance Companies. "Just as we did for independent booksellers, we have created a package of coverage based on the specific needs of independent publishers," said Haller.

By Neal Coonerty When my Irish-born grandfather got really mad -- I mean really, really mad -- he would curse the object of his ire by muttering in his Irish brogue, "The curse of the seven Protestant gods on ye, and may ye have the dribblin' shits for all eternity." Well, I never have figured out who the "seven Protestant gods" were, but one thing I know is that my grandfather's curse expresses precisely the way I feel about shoplifters at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Booksellers Help Reading Groups Connect With Authors via Speakerphone Speakerphone conversations with authors are taking root as a new dimension for book clubs and booksellers. According to authors Donna Woolfolk Cross (Pope Joan) and Julia Older (The Island Queen) and booksellers Kiez Shultz (Prince & Pauper Bookshop in Rapid City, South Dakota) and Ruth Blake (Dickens-Reed Bookstore in Mount Dora, Florida), this kind of tele-networking is fruitful for everyone involved.

Any experienced e-mail user knows the drill: Log on, check mark the spam, and click delete. Then, if you have any relevant e-mail, you open and read it. For those e-mails you’re not sure of, you may open them -- but if you don’t see the point within two seconds, click! Deleted.

This week, comments from booksellers on print versus online publishing of BTW. Please send us your comments, suggestions, and queries. In addition, we are pleased to consider all letters to the editor for publication. Contact BTW Editor Dan Cullen at dan@bookweb.org or (800) 637-0037, ext. 1250.

Or, Get the New Gold Gift Certificates! By Carl Lennertz Bear with me; this is a "5!" plea from me. It’s that important.

By Kenneth Corrigan