{"id":13518,"date":"2014-07-11T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=13518"},"modified":"2014-07-11T07:00:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T11:00:54","slug":"sideline-serendipity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=13518","title":{"rendered":"Sideline Serendipity"},"content":{"rendered":"

While we carry sidelines (i.e., non-book items) from all over the world, it’s a special pleasure to stock toys, stationery, journals, gifts, greeting cards, etc., from local folks.
\nEvery Christmas, my sister gives me either a small calendar or a packet of fine letterpress stationery on the most toothsome paper. They are made by Zo\u00ebInk<\/a>,\u00a0a Burlington designer whose aesthetic is delicious. The website gives just the tiniest taste of the range of designs available; suffice it to say that they are tasteful, bold, restrained, whimsical, and deeply pleasing to the eye.
\n\"zoenk\"<\/a>
\nThe first year, my sister gave me a little calendar, which I cherished. The next year, she gave me a packet of slate-blue-on-cream stationery I loved so much I had to save one unsent card for myself. The third year, it dawned on me that (1) this artist was local and (2) I happened to own a bookstore that carries stationery, so (3) it might be possible to share\u00a0Zo\u00ebInk<\/a>\u00a0with lucky customers year-round.
\nIt took me a couple of years of wooing, because it turned out that Zo\u00eb didn’t sell through stores. She didn’t want to become an “operation,” churning out mass amounts of stationery. I respected that. So we struck a trial deal: I’d come to her studio mid-December, timed so that I wouldn’t cut too much into her public studio sales days, and choose several styles of cards and stationery. I dedicated an entire side of one of our handsome Lucite spinners to her cards, and\u00a0Zo\u00eb printed up a sign for it.\u00a0Not surprisingly, sales went (and continue to go) gangbusters, and I was proud to provide the first retail home for this local artist’s work. I love visiting her studio to replenish our supplies; in addition to being a crackerjack designer,\u00a0Zo\u00eb’s a delightful person.
\nThis week, as I was heading out from her place with a shopping bag full of new goodies to take to the Flying Pig,\u00a0Zo\u00eb said, “Want to see something really cute?” I did. She took me to the front of the studio, where a stroller I hadn’t noticed earlier turned out to hold a sleeping toddler \u2014 who was, as promised, really cute. “She’s not mine,”\u00a0Zo\u00eb said. “She’s hanging out with me in the air-conditioned studio. Her mom is a friend. Her studio is down the hall. Do you know her? Maureen?”
\nKnow her? Not personally, but I’d been wanting to carry her work in my store for a few years, as well. How serendipitous was it that\u00a0Zo\u00eb not only knew her, but could introduce me? I left that day with not one but two armloads full of fabulous new sidelines for the store, and the kind of glow \u2014 personal, connected, engaged, invigorated \u2014 that is a pleasure unique to shopping locally.
\nReaders, what treasures can you find only (or mostly) locally? What sidelines do you most love in your local bookstores?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie booksellers also enjoy shopping locally … for ourselves and our stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}