Indie Bookstores redux

Mark Leslie Lefebvre brought to my attention another nifty indie bookseller in Ottawa, Collected Works. The Ottawa Citizen article sums up the bookstore better than I could, so I’ll leave it to you to click through. While you’re at it, take a gander at Collected Works’ website. Pretty decent. Informative, interactive, even has a link to an online shopping cart. Wonder how they feel about indie publishers? I’m going to find out. For now, I’d…

The Indie Store of the Future

Reading Lorina’s rankings of Independent bookstores in previous post, I tried to imagine the sort of store I (Robert) would like to see. My vision of the independent bookstore of the future is one with an Espresso Machine, a coffee bar, a flat screen monitor flashing random 30 second shots of coverart/coverblurbs from the available Espresso catalog, and a set of bookshelves filled with ‘staff picks’ off the Espresso machine. Maybe a couple of computer…

Indie Bookstores

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of huffing and puffing from independent booksellers about their pitiful lot in life, about mice trying to survive in the presence of mammoths, about lack of customer support, of government support, of financial support. I’ve listened carefully to the arguments, considered, researched, and I’m still of the opinion very few independent booksellers get it. What do I mean by get it? I mean it remains most independent booksellers…

Motivate to Create: a guide for writers

Five Rivers is pleased to announce the June 1, 2010 release of Nate Hendley’s revised and updated book, Motivate to Create: a guide for writers. Originally self-published through Lulu, Motivate to Create offers straight-forward advice on a largely unexplored topic — what is it that motivates us, and keeps us motivated, to create? Whether it’s creating an harmonious environment or keeping our bodies fit, veteran freelance writer Nate Hendley explains how to start up or…

What Type Are You?

Casey Wolf drew my attention to the website that asks the question, “What type are you?”. It is an amusing bit of pop-psychology and well worth 10 minutes of your time. I was particularly pleased that this is a free-standing webpage, not one of those annoying Facebook apps that tells you what character in Avatar you are, or whatever, and then raids your Facebook info to sell to marketers, because you had to allow the…