The Year That Was 2016

Well, the year is ending, so it is time for a review of all that was done this year.  Firstly, and most importantly, we set up the website.  There are still some bugs on occasion as we learn what we can do, but we are getting closer to a goal up setting up some major features.  The most important of these will be the availability of online purchases, but this is still a few weeks off at least.  We had Bob Morgan and Roddi Lundy come in for author signings.  Although we had hoped for others, we weren't able to get any more.  We are still trying to get more authors in.  We started out on social media on both Google + and Facebook.  Not everything is fully integrated yet, but we are hoping to devote more time in connecting everything together.  We are still trying to change our focus on to particular genres, but we might want to expand our offerings.  Your opinions on such matters would be greatly appreciated, so feel free to comment when we ask you what you would like to see.  Finally, we would like to thank all of our customers for choosing Booknotes as their destination.  Honestly, we enjoy your business as well as your company and insights.  Thank you all, and we hope to see you all again in the new year.

Merry Christmas to Everyone

Scheduling this post to save time.  One big announcement for now.  Huge year-end clearance sale to start Tuesday, December 27!  Still haven't worked out all the details, so it it kind of a secret.  That is one of the reasons this post is coming out at a different time than usual.  Hope to see all of you soon!

It Is Beginning To Look Like . . .

Sorry about not having the blog up properly, somehow it got disconnected.  Anyway, we have yet been able to get the old blog loaded back, so we have hidden it for now until we can fix it.  The Facebook connections might finally be solved, although it will take a few more days to make sure.  We are planning some huge announcements for after Christmas, so be on the lookout here and our social media sites for more information.  If you have not yet noticed, we will be open on short hours Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve.  We will probably be closing around 3:00 pm or so.  Call first and we might be able to stay open a little longer for you.  Also, remember the deadline for orders.  Anything after this deadline will have shipping fees, at least, or will have to wait until after the holidays.  Gift certificates are available if needed.  We can also make recommendations of our current selection.  Goodbye for now.

Mark Your Calendars

The deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery of special orders is currently 10:00 am, Wednesday, December 21.  Some products might have an earlier deadline depending on which distributor we will have to place the order with.  Additionally, some orders could theoretically be placed later, but with a hefty surcharge for delivery in time.  Even then, we might not be able to get it by Christmas.  So, place your orders early!  The later you wait, the less likely it is to get your gift in time.  However, gift certificates are available in case you aren't able to find the right gift or it won't be delivered in time for Christmas.  That being said, I cannot think of anything else to add  on that.  Be sure to check us out on Facebook.  We still haven't figured everything out yet on how to connect through the website, but we now have a book that might just help us out.  Wish us luck!

Let's Get Down to Business

As you may have noticed, we have been trying to get everything tied in together on the website.  The new Blogger blog is up and running, even if there are some technical issues with the original blog.  We are trying to get our connections to social media working, we are currently on both Google+ and Facebook even if there is little to show on the website about either.  We can't seem to find the right app to add the connectivity.  We are still looking into the possibility for online sales, E-bay might turn out to be the best choice.  Still looking into a partnership deal with another business as well.  At least we have updated some of the out-of-date references that we had accidentally kept up to long.  We just don't seem to have enough time most days to get everything working together.  Remember to start placing your orders for Christmas.  Next week we will be posting the deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery.  Tell us if you like the new game we partially hid on one of the pages; we would really like to know how you feel about it.

Here's to the Holidays

Well, it is that time of year again, Holiday Sales.  I know this sounds kind of cheap mentioning it, but almost everyone else is too.  I just wanted to get that out of the way before mentioning other things.  Actually, there is not that much else to say.  We wish everybody a peaceful experience over the rest of the weekend.  Remember to try local businesses first for your shopping needs.  If we do not have what you are looking for currently, we will try and get it for you in a timely fashion.  If we cannot, we will try and find where you can find it.  Running out of time (check my personal blog for more details) so I cannot do much more.  Apologies to any messed up elements on the site, we are still trying to work some new things out.  Bye for now.

It Is That Time of Year Again

I am having a lot of computer problems this morning, so I have to be brief.  We will having a Black Friday Sale, but it won't be starting on Friday.  It will be starting on Wednesday, November 23.  I won't give out how much of a discount we will be offering yet, or on what products.  However, if you check out our social media pages on Facebook and Google+, you might get a few other details.  Now, I only have a little time left to talk about the store's decorations.  While I usually think it could be done in a day or two, somehow it takes almost five days to complete all of the Christmas decorating.  Please be in mind that we will be open this Friday at our regular hours, even if it doesn't look like it.

Here's Looking at Us

In case you haven't noticed by now, we are on Facebook.  We still haven't worked everything out yet, but we are hoping to have everything connected real soon.  The official URL hasn't even been decided upon as of this time.  Hopefully, this will been done soon enough that it won't look too bad.  Still have yet to figure much out about it, but we are hoping to get a book (heh, heh) on it very soon.  Our distributor was out of stock when we placed our last order.  We also are still looking into online sales.  We think we have found a way around our problems.  In the meantime, there might be a surprise waiting for everyone on the Contact Us page.  Don't know if we can get to it today, but definitely before the next weekly post.

Are You For Social Networking Or Anti-Social

First things first, the poll for the possibility for an online shopping system for the store should be up right now.  The options might not be spelled out clearly enough, so let me explain them.  First, we could offer a few select items up on a separate site (such as E-Bay) and then provide a link to that site for the actual sale.  This option works best since we only have one copy usually of any book to sell.  The second option is to offer sales directly through this site.  We would need to possibly upgrade the site to include other options to manage inventory and such, but the possibility exists.  The final option is to only showcase certain items here, and the allow customers to pick up and pay at the actual store.  The option exists to e-mail or phone in the order, as well as the potential to pay for it online.  We are still looking into that.  We would like to hear from you on what you think would be best.  Secondly, as the title of this post suggests, we might finally be joining another social network, Facebook.  The actual implementation is taking a little longer then we would have liked, but we might get there this week.  Don't forget that we are already on Google+, although some of the functions might not be working properly.  Be on the lookout for other features as well.  Finally, the original blog might be starting back again.  We just have to make sure that the author knows exactly what to do.  Good-bye for now.

Going Into Online Shopping

Internet was down, little time.  We are looking into ways of going into a online shopping platform.  Still comparing options.  Hoping to add a poll soon to see what options people like best.  No time to do so today, check back here Wednesday or so to see if the poll is up.  Not really leaning one way or another.  Just don't know enough to pick the best one.  Also, should we put in a computer game.  It wouldn't be themed, probably.  Just throwing out the idea since is a new app for the web-site that just became available.  Running out of time, so goodbye for today.

Preparing For The Dark Times

First, I am sorry about the misspelling of the title last time.  I didn't catch it until today, but I have since corrected it.  Sometimes my fingers are faster than my mind, especially on this type of keyboard.  Next, you may have noticed the demo for an online store.  This is just a preparation for the possible addition for more sales ventures for the business.  We are still going over the capabilities afforded by the site builder as well as those outside of it to make sure which one is the best for us  at this time.  We hope that this will supplement our business and not become the major outlet.  As another outlet, we have been looking into partnering with other local businesses in some way.  Anyway, remember us for your spooky book choices for Halloween.  We recently got in a few new appropriately scary titles in you might be interested in.  That is all for today, as I don't have anything else left to say.

Getting Ready For Something new

There are so many options available to install for this website, I still haven't figured them all out.  I am just not that good at too many of the technical aspects of design that I am not sure what to do or not to do.  For instance, the store now has followers on Google +.  I do not know what to do about that, as I am not 'into' social media that much.  I am waiting to see what everybody else does before I get to much more into it.  Another option that I am exploring for the site is the possibility of some sort of online shopping.  I myself have never shopped online before in any form, so I still need to look more into that before if we can even offer it and it what form.  The host site seems to have could a few versions of how to do it, but I still need to research them.  On to other news.  It had been confirmed; one of distributors has gone to digital versions only for all of their catalogs.  I just made sure that we have subscribed to the most important ones since they were usually published this time of the month.  We are also still looking for any authors for an event in November, or possibly December but that wouldn't be as easy to schedule.  As one final request, I might be setting up a gadget today for a poll on whether or not to go into online sales.  I don't know if I will be able to install it today or not, but here's hoping.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Well, it has been sixteen years since Booknotes was opened.  In that time, we have had many events take place.  We have had over a dozen book signings, with the most recent one just last month with Ronni Lundy.  We have also had Bob Morgan, Adrianna Triglianni, and Glynn Rubio as our honored guests as well.  I am sorry that I can't thank every single author who has been to our store, but there have been so many that I can't put all of your names in, as my hands are already starting to hurt from all of the typing.  We would like to thank all of our customers over the years for choosing us as your destination for books and other merchandise.  We hope to see all of you again, especially during our Anniversary Sale where almost everything is at least 15% off, with some up to 50% off.  It would be 16%, but that figure is just a little bit awkward.  Come join us as with celebrate all of the wonderful times we have had together.  Hopefully, it will be for a long time, as we will be transitioning into the next phase of our re-branding and development.

Let's See If This Worked

This post is just to check to see if everything is hooked up right.  Nothing to report on yet. See original blog for recent details.

Ronni Lundy Book Signing Report

Well, the Ronni Lundy book singing was yesterday afternoon.  We had an adequate turn out for an off schedule event.  We even had local television coverage from both WYMT and EKB news, although the newspaper reporter did not show up.  We still have a few signed copies of Victuals available in case anybody couldn't make it for the event.  Ronni even had some good news to report.  She has gotten back the rights to her popular Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken cookbook, and she hopes to have it back in print in the next year or so.  I did take a few pictures of the event, and I hope to have them online soon at both the website and here.  Note that this blog replaces the former Booknotes blog currently on the site.  The old blog will stay up for now, as I hope to transplant some of my old posts, when I can figure out how to do so.

Welcome to the new blog

This is just a test to see if I can add Blogger to the store's current blog listings.  I am not sure what will happen once I am done here, but we shall see.