Bookstores don’t have events only at the store. Events now come in all shapes and sizes and in all venues. This spring and summer we’re having a variety of events off-site. I’ll mention them here and then do a follow-up report in the summer.
The first event is at a local library in South Burlington, which is hosting the wonderful Julia Alvarez in April. Julia asked for us to sell books at the event. I love that Julia asked for an independent store for sales help, especially when there’s a Barnes and Noble 500 feet from the the library. She gets it. And she knows that we’ll donate a portion of the day’s sales to the library. We get signed books (we always bring more than we think we’ll sell) and the library gets a great event and hopeful makes some serious money. Additionally, while I sell books I get to listen to Julia speak, which is always magical and inspiring.
Our second library event is purely altruistic: We’re just helping the Williston library get an illustrator, in this case it’s Harry Bliss for their big Reading Day Celebration in April. This is not a book sales event, but it IS certainly our pleasure to see if we can help a local library reach out to someone they might not know. This type of event goes under the “building a community” heading.  It’s a phone call or email for us and it’s a pleasure to help a local library have a great day.The third event is a ticketed dinner at our favorite restaurant, Bistro Sauce in Shelburne. We’ve been wanting to do something with them since we moved our store to Shelburne, and finally we’ve found the time to plan. In the middle of April we’ll have a “best of the new” preview event for as many book groups that want to attend. We’ll booktalk some of the hot new paperbacks and hardcovers coming out during the late spring and summer. Our goal here is to get readers excited about new books. Each attendee will be given a coupon they can use to purchase any of the books we mentioned at a discount. We want this to be a fun event that they’ll talk about and hopefully, we’ll become the go-to store for all book group members, not just the few who already shop here. We’d like to create buzz for both the restaurant and the bookstore.
Lastly, several towns away, in Panton, there’s the Basin Harbor Club, a vacation/resort set on a lake. They want to create a speaker’s night featuring local authors and some daytime kids’ events. They have a built-in audience of vacationers who just want to relax and have their entertainment come to them. We will help arrange evenings of teaching stand-up comedy, picture book writing seminars, and several events with Vermont authors. We’ll also work with their kitchen staff to do a “favorite cookbook” dinner.
The beauty of this arrangement is they will sell the books for us at the event if we’re unable to, and they’ll keep the signed books for sale in the gift shop for the duration of the summer; it’s like having a tiny satellite store. So, with this one venue we will have six to eight events that are not a drain on my staff. We’ll make the resort more enticing to potential guests by having some truly stellar events, and we’ll all make some money.
One thing I’ve noticed already for collaborative events is everyone from all parts needs to be organized and excited about working together. Promotion needs to be done aggressively and well by both parties. Signage stating “books provided by….” need to be visible on the sales table and in any programs. Bookstores need to be equally thoughtful about promoting their partners with brochures available at the register.
I’m hopeful, maybe too much so, that these events will generate a fair amount of extra income for the store. Here’s hoping.If you or your vacation spot or local bookstore does anything fun, I’d love to hear about it.