Social Media Blitz Is Go

Booknotes has been open for over sixteen years now, but we only had a website up since last spring.  On this site we had a non-Blogger blog going that has since been acting up and has been superseded by the blog you are reading now.  Yet we have only been on other social media sites for a few months.  First there was Google +, and while we have some presence there, we probably are not using it correctly.  In fact, we frequently forget that we need to do anything upon it.  Then, last November, we finally joined Facebook.  Now we are trying to get more information out on it as well.  Among the things we will doing is adding a list of all the author signings we have had over the years.  We thought it would be a nice thing to do for all of our customers to remind them of all of the authors they have seen as well as thank all of the authors themselves for their time and effort of appearing.  The only problem is not all of our records have years connected with them, only a day and date.  Since we have had many authors who have came multiple times, it will take some time before we can get every single signing online.  So, don't be too alarmed if we have not posted every single event this first go around.  We will be correcting them as soon as we can.   Also, we are still exploring alternatives to the credit card problem from last year.  Keep checking for the recaps from the original blog as well; there should be at least one more coming up.  Check back next Saturday.

Recap Spacer, Part Three

This is getting awkward.  Every time we try to update the original blog, it crashes on us and we cannot do anything about it.  Well, that what this series of posts are for.  Forgive us if we cover a post that had already been mentioned.

• July 23:  I mention starting my own personal blog.
• July 30:  Mentioning mistakes on the website and their corrections.
• August 6:  Complaints about delays in book releases (one mentioned in that post should be coming out next week, The Hanging Tree)
• August 13:  Didn't really say anything, or write on a theme that week.
• August 20 and 27:  Teasers about an upcoming event which would turn out to be a book signing.
• September 3:  Finally acknowledged our listing on Google + and started posts there as well.
• September 10:   Conformation of the Ronni Lundy book signing.
• September 24:  Started a second Booknotes blog on Blogger, that you are looking at right now.

This almost brings us up to when the original blog started to end.  Only a little more than a month to go.

This Is The Month For Books

As mentioned in last week's bonus post, we are returning to an old idea for this regular post -- the upcoming releases board and the books of the month.  The upcoming releases board features from 12 (usually December) to 24 titles, each one with a special color and graphic treatment.  The top portion features a heading with the current month and the words 'upcoming releases.'  The rest of the board features the books and authors following certain rules:

•  a mix of male/female authors
• at least one book from each of the major genres (romance, mystery, fantasy/science-fiction)
• at least one non-fiction title
• at least one children's title (usually middle-grade or young adult)
• at least one literary work or by a lesser known author

Furthermore, every letter of the alphabet is used at least once in the heading, titles, and authors.  If it isn't, then the unused letter or letters are hidden in the accompanying graphics to the titles or the heading.

    Every month, we feature a different group of titles at a discount of at least 20%.  These are our books of the month.  Over the years, some of the selections have shifted months or changed.  For 2017,  the following selections are scheduled:

•  January - Fantasy/Science-Fiction/Horror
•  February - Romance (with some Suspense)
•  March - Mystery (with some Suspense and Thriller)
•  April - Science/Technology, Computers
•  May - Reference, Study Guides
  
•  June - Self-Help (with Psychology and Sociology), Humor
  
•  July - Medicine/Health
  
•  August - Business/Finance/Career
• September - Literature, Language Arts
• October - New Age
• November - Cooking
• December - Crafts/Home Improvement

We hope this clears some things up and provides and update to a lost original blog post.

Recap Spacers, Part Two

Time to get personal again.  Here are the recaps for most of the posts from the original blog from June and July  2016.  Still trying to get the old blog back up, but until then this will have to do.

• June 4:  I told about some of my favorite type of non-fiction books, with New Age/Occult coming out on top.
• June 11:  I didn't really say anything that week, just went on more about non-fiction.
• June 17:  I did something off topic about a conspiracy theory I had.  I re-used it for a post on my personal blog for December 28.
• June 27:  I just mentioned how the post was late.
• July 2:  I talked about the new releases board.
• July 9:  I talked about the books of the month.
• July 23:  I mentioned the start of my own personal blog.

The last two posts will be the subject of the regular blog to be posted this Saturday, January 21.  I hope to have more to say by then.

Well Look At Us Now

We are in the midst of adding some more new content, including updating some of the missing original blog posts.  As you may have noticed, we have updated some of our image as well.  One of them is this picture of our upcoming releases board that has been mentioned in a previous post.  Or not.  There seems to be a problem in downloading the picture to appear in the post at this time.  Well, we will try again and maybe it will appear when a better opportunity arises.  There was also going to  be an image of some of our books of the month for January.  The covered genres are fantasy, science-fiction, and horror.  We will try to insert those pictures in here soon, but you may still check them our on the News and Events section of the main website.  We will try something else in a day or three to get those images up on this post.  Regardless, this post is done for now.
Well, I actually got it up now.  Sorry for the delay, but I hope everything is alright now.  Wait, I forgot something.  Here is the picture for books of the month.  Enjoy.

Recap Spacer, Part One

As mentioned in the last post, we are posting short synopses of the posts from the original store log until we can see if we can get it to work properly.  So, to get things started, here are some recaps from May 2016.

• May 10:  Announcement that we have a website and a blog.
• May 14 (2 posts):  Another announcement that we have a website with a blog and that the site had gone live.
• May 21:  Announcement that we were having time issues and other problems with publishing the site, as well as a general plea to wait for more.
• May 24:  I, personally and not the store, provided a list of fiction authors whose titles and series I liked; I have since posted an updated list with links on this blog.
• May 28:  This was supposed to have been a list of non-fiction subjects, but I ran out of time that day to finish it up, so it was actually done the following week.

 We hope this helps everyone out.  Next time we post one of these bonus features, we hope to go a little more in depth.

Where Did All the Posts Go

When the store website first come online, we had a blog based on the app our host provided.  Later on, we switched to a Blogger feed while keeping the original blog as a second format for the other owner to use.  Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, yet.  Also though, there have been some technical issues so that the original blog doesn't seem to be able to be uploaded any more.  We have been trying to fix this for awhile now, but beyond hiding the page from viewers, we have yet to do any major corrections.  So, starting later this we, we will be posting recaps of the original posts as bonus material.  Some of the posts will just be a synopsis of what was said; others will be a re-writing of the post in a new form.  After this has been done, the old blog might be removed entirely from the site, especially if we cannot get it to work properly.  Until then, enjoy the bonus posts as we can get them adapted.  It will also help out in case weather prevents the blog from being updated at the usual time.  Remember,  opening and closing time might be effected due to bad weather.  Finally, winter clearance sale going on now.  Come in right away.