Nineteen Years, and Maybe Stop Counting

First, let's apologize for waiting so long for a new post.  We were initially planning on doing at least one a month, but there really wasn't anything to report on, so we didn't post anything.  We still updated the rest of the site on a fairly regular schedule, but this part just fell to the wayside.  Since the last post, many things have happened.  First, we had to stop taking credit cards again.  Things were just getting too expensive for what we were getting in return.  We have been trying to look into alternatives, but nothing has come of them yet.  Second, we have had to severely restrict our ordering due to having to go through a different distributor.  We have basically only getting special orders in and nothing new.  We simply cannot order extra without more people placing orders and paying for them up front.  We hate doing that, but it is the only we can place the orders.  Third, today marks the nineteenth anniversary of our opening!  October 7, 2000 was our opening day.  It was a Saturday.  Our first sale was for three books, paid for by check.  We were not able to have a lucky "first dollar" to mark the opening.  We only had about four people come in that day, and the day was mostly quiet, a harbinger of the things to come.  Ever since that day, were have been quiet and empty the overwhelming majority of days.  We have gone a week and more without anyone coming in, and we don't just mean in the depths of winter during major snow events when six foot plus drifts get piled up in the center's parking lot.  We are trying to do better, but the odds are that we will be closing by the end of the year.  As we do every year, we would like to thank our friends and customers who have come into our store over the years.  While we know we aren't the biggest or always the best, we have always tried to do so.  We will continue to try for as long as we can.  We hope to see all of our loyal friends at least one more time before anything else happens.  Thank you all for your support.

And That's All He Wrote, for Now

This will be the last regularly scheduled post for this blog for the foreseeable future.  Quite frankly, there is nothing to write about.  Nothing much is happening with the store.  No events are planned.  No news to report.  Nothing.  Last year, when we decided to initially change the format mot twice a month, a large part was because the regular author had so much extra to do outside of the store.  Two times a month worked out fine then.  However, another part of the problem was that was less to write about.  When this blog first started, the author did not have as many outlets as he does now.  With those outlets, the need for writing here has decreased somewhat, especially since more is happening in his life outside of work than with it now.  With more avenues for communication and less need for this one for Booknotes, the urgent need to write about anything in this space has lessened to the point where it is no longer viable.  As of now, we will still publish at least one post per month, but it will not be on any sort of regular schedule.  If there is any pressing news, it will be commented on here, but it would be announced through our other social media channels first.  While this section of the site will be slowing down, the rest of it will b e updated on its regular basis--weekly book debuts, monthly sneak peaks, and holiday themed colors and pics will still be changed on a regular basis.  Store pictures and videos will also be present on our Facebook page.  In fact, a new video will probably debut in the next few days.    So, be on the lookout for new postings, though our Facebook page, and then come back here to read them.  We will be waiting for you.  Until next time.

What Had to Be Done

First, sorry about this post being so late after the last one.  These posts are supposed to be on the second and fourth weekend of the month.  Well, June had five weekends, so the second weekend of July is three weeks late.  There was supposed to be a mini-post, but we forgot to do one.  Our bad.  Second, we are now having to ask customers to prepay for most special orders.  It is a consequence of having to deal with a different major distributor.  Our previous one, Follet/Baker and Taylor, went out of the retail market.  With this change, also came a change of payment plans.  This means we must pay for our deliveries before they can be shipped out.  This means that most books will now have to be paid in full before ordering them.  It is the only way we will be able to get them for you.  Some books on the lower end of the price range will not have to be prepaid, unless multiple ones are ordered.  In that case, they would have to be paid for up front.  We regret having to ask our customers to change the way we do business, but it cannot be helped.  We are doing all we can to try and ease this burden, but there is not much more we can do.  Stay tuned for more updates, either here and elsewhere on our website, or on our social media pages, such as Facebook.  See you in two weeks.

Thanks for Everything

If everything goes right, there will be a picture of our certificate from the Appalachian News-Express for winning the award for best place to buy books.  We would like to thank everyone who voted for us.  We would like to thank you in person, so please come in at your earliest convenience.  However, we do have a few problems.  After one last order, going out this Monday, June 24, if possible, we will b e making major changes.  After this time, we will have to ask for at least half down on all orders.  We may have to add shipping and handling fees as well.  Also, we don't know how much longer we will be able to place orders.  We should know more by the next post.  Check our Facebook page for any immediate news.  In any case, we will have one more post this month, next week.  And again, thanks for everything.  It took awhile, but we were finally able to add the picture.

A Video Is Worth at Least a Few Words

We are nearing the one year anniversary of our video series:  Making the Logo.  First, some history.  Within a year of our opening, we put an easel with the store's name on it, as well as other pertinent information that we deemed important to our customers.  Usually, this was when we would be opening/closing at an unscheduled time or when we would be closed for a day.  We would also place announcements for events we were having, mostly author signings or sales.  We would even place some major arrivals, such as new Harry Potter books, up there.  However, we would also start doing interesting things with the store's name.  Rather than just put "Booknotes" in whatever color that seemed appropriate for the time of year, we would jazz it up.  The earliest example, as we have mentioned numerous times, was by changing the first two O's into eyes and the straight line in the K into an exclamation point, forming "Boo!" for Halloween.  Since that early attempt, our logos have gotten more elaborate.  Remember, this was before we at the store knew about Google's similar explorations into graphic logos. We didn't know what we were doing.  Last year, after finally getting a computer, we decided to show our customer base the process of creating these logos.  Hence, the series was born.  At first, these were posted only on YouTube, as part of the writer's personal channel, as well as on the store's Google listing.  However, that part has mostly faded away.  It was just too difficult to place the web address in a post, especially since the link would never show up correctly.  Now, we cross post the vid to our Facebook page.  This allows more people to opportunity to catch it, as well.  Currently, we update the logo every two to three weeks.  The next time, the theme will probably tied to the fourth of July, but it is somewhat too early to be sure.  Anyway, be on the look out for this new logo, and vid, a week or so after this.  See you again in two weeks.

State of Flux

We still are not sure how we will be dealing with the fallout of losing our primary distributor.  We might be able to have one more order go out before Follett/Baker & Taylor leaves the retail market.  Once that happens, we don't know what to expect.  Aside from dealing with one distributor only, there will be many secondary problems that will pop up.  Along with shipping out books, Baker & Taylor provided online catalogs, two main ones as well as many secondary specialized ones.  While access to these catalogs might still be available, they may chose to discontinue them or limit their access.  The same holds true of their on-sale date lists.  We have using these lists to create both our Books page as well as our Upcoming Releases board sign in the store.  We have lists for the next two months, but we might not have anything to go on after that.  The library market isn't as strict in needing to know street dates for books.  Speaking of books, we should be able to continue to get most of your books, as well as many sideline supplies, but there could be some problems.  The biggest one would be for the customer.  We will have to have people pre-pay in total almost every book ordered.  We will not be able to get the books in otherwise, as we would need to pre-pay the distributor before shipping as well.  Also, shipping charges would be needed, especially if books are needed within a certain time.  Things are still up in the air, so stay tuned for official announcements of what we will be doing.  See you soon.

Where Did All the Books Go

As we mentioned on Facebook last week, our primary distributor, Follett/Baker and Taylor, has decided to leave the retail market to focus more on libraries and schools.  In a little over a month, we will no longer be able to place orders through them.  What does this mean?  First, if there are any books you want, we suggest placing the order as soon as possible.  Many backlist titles might no longer be carried, and some newer books might not be carried in some formats either.  Second, we will be needing to change some store policies.  From now on, we will be needing down payments in full for all books.  We will probably have to charge a shipping fee as well.  This will be due to the fact that the distributor we will be dealing with has a policy where we will have to pay for our orders before they are shipped.  Because of this, we will need most customers to pay for their books beforehand, as well as helping to cover any shipping fees incurred due to not placing a minimum order.  Lastly, we might not be able to keep going on, even with these new changes.  It will be difficult for us to place minimum orders and still have customers receive their products in a timely fashion.  While it is possible, some people might have long waits before we can place orders.  We are not sure just how long we will able to keep up once this takes place.  However, this is still month away before this takes place.  This will mark the third time in our store's history that we have had to change primary distributors.  Back in 2005, our first prime distributor, Koen, filed for bankruptcy, just before the sixth Harry Potter book came out.  Koen managed to hook us up with Baker and Taylor in time to get our order in time, even though the initial contact got delayed due to a missed phone call to our original contact number, instead of our current one.  Koen did get out of bankruptcy, but it only managed to go on as Koen-Levy for a year and a half or so, before going out of business.  Later on, about three years ago, Baker and Taylor either merged or got bought by educational book distributor Follett.  At first, there were only minor changes.  The biggest one was the discontinuation of their print catalogs in 2018.  Then, earlier this year, they ended their distribution of electronic media, which had been a cornerstone of their business for decades.  We didn't even get notice of this news directly either.  We found out about the ending of their retail division from an outside news article.  We are still recovering, so we don't know how everything will go, but we are trying to do something.  We appreciate both Baker and Taylor and our customers to do otherwise.  See you next time.

How Late It Is, So Late

Apologies, for we have been a little busy recently, and that meant delaying this post for over a day.  We really should have scheduled it do avoid such messes, but we didn't.  So, sorries all around.  One of the reasons we are late is because of a weak wi-fi signal.  When we updated the website, like we do every Friday, the signal really wasn't strong enough to try and get blogging app to work.  We were barely able to get the rest of the changes to the site working.  We didn't want to extremely long wait times to try and write the regular post.  When we did get both the time and a better internet connection, we kind of forgot to do so.  That is why this post is being posted on Sunday instead of Saturday.  Very bad form, we know.  Anyway, back to some news.  We are currently running a sale.  Almost everything in the store is at least 20% off, some exclusions including books on consignment and some newer titles.  

Also, we are currently planning on staying open one more month, at least.  It is too early to know how much longer than that, as some plans are still up in the air for other projects.  Hopefully, we will have some news by the next regularly scheduled post in two weeks.  On this, you can be sure about.  See you next time.

An Annual Event of Taking the Day Off

First off, sorry this post seems a little late.  Usually, we only have posts up on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.  However, March had five Saturdays this year, so it has been three weeks instead of the average two since our last post.  We thought about putting something in before now, but we felt it would be better to just keep to the regular schedule.  In case you haven't noticed, it is time for the annual Hillbilly Days event here in Pikeville, Kentucky.  This is a three day event for charity to the Shriner's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.  While it is a noteworthy cause, it also causes a few problems at the end of town where we are located.  Generally speaking, business sucks during the event, as the few people who even come out this way (mostly to park) rarely come into the store.  The few times we were open on the Saturday of the event, no on came in.  Because of this, we are no longer open on that day.  In cause you haven't noticed any of the postings elsewhere, we are closed for the day.  It just wasn't worth it to stay open on a day when no one is likely to come in, especially when few people were coming in generally, both during the event and outside of it.  Sure, we would like to be open, but it is not profitable.  Furthermore, it is always a hassle to get around town to the places we needed to get to just to be open for the other two days of the event.  Let's not forget that, for the majority of the time, there is bad weather for the event, for at least one of the three days.  Even when the event is moved to account for Easter, there is at least showers for one of the days.   This year, a line of storms is forecast to pass through, connected to a blizzard well to the north (?!?!).  Yes, there are also warm temps for most of the days, too.  But for us, it will be a day off, well away from the crowds.  See you in two weeks.

Our Frog Friends

When the mudslide from last month smashed into the rear of the shopping center, we were afraid for the frogs that live in the drainage ditch in the back.  They had just started to wake up from the winter.  When the mud was cleared, we were afraid that the habitat, and quite frankly the frogs themselves, were destroyed.  However, in the last few days, we have heard the frogs again.  They sound about the same as they do every year.  No real difference, yet.  They really only croak in early spring (or late winter, as that's the time they have been starting the last few years).  As you can tell from our social media pics, someone at the store really likes frogs, particularly their croaking.  It is not the author, who prefers other hopping critters to frogs.  On a side note, we have started to change the site's themes over to spring and Easter.  We are still checking out palettes.  We would like one with more greens, but that can be dealt with.  The main problem is with clip art.  There really isn't anything for Easter.  We have already used the only appropriate rabbit art.  There are no lambs or chicks available with the free package.  The only eggs are cooked and/or broken.  No religious art at all.  So, we are trying to work around it.  It is a work in progress, so check back often for more results.  See you in two weeks.

A Missed Opportunity

For the past few years, we have had an interesting way of taking down the last of the winter decorations.  Instead of getting rid of the snowman and 'snow-covered' base all at once, we would allow the snow to 'melt' a little at a time.  We would remove some of the stuffing from the snowman every few days, until there was nothing left inside.  We would do something similar with the fluff inside the fence.  A few wads would be removed every other day or so.  We would start just after Valentine's Day and made sure we were finished in time for the first day of spring.  Some years, we would have to hurry the process along incase we had a major event in March or Easter was early.  Last year marked the first time we posted a picture of the end result online.  Soon after the process was going to start this year, the mudslide happened.  It disrupted our 'melt' schedule profoundly.  For a few days, we weren't able to do anything with the window.  Add into that a few days of opening late or just being closed, we weren't able to post a series of picture online of the process.  Only the people who were able to make it out to the store have been able to see it happen.  The process will new over soon, possibly the last time we will ever get to do it, and we didn't show the snowman melt online.  We might show the end result again, once we transition to spring, although we aren't sure how much we will do this year.  Anyway, see you in two weeks for our next installment.

Special Report: Caught Beneath the Mudslide

In case you have missed our social media posts, a mudslide fell onto part of the shopping center where Booknotes is located.  The major impact occurred sometime around 1:00 am Thursday, February 21.  It crashed into the back of the section where CosmoProf is located.  Mud seeped into and through the store, oozing out of their doors.  The impact knocked down part of the access way to the upstairs apartments, making access to them almost impossible.  The electricity was cut off to make sure there were now secondary problems.  The mud blocked the drainage ditch behind the center, forcing the need for pumps and hoses to be brought in to help drain the ditch.  Unfortunately, the C + R Office Supply storeroom was the best location for these hoses.  Their doors have had to be kept open as the hoses sucked the excess water from behind the center, splashing it into the parking lot.  The electricity was allowed to be turned back on around 1:30 pm that Thursday.  We are open, but with some distractions.  In case something else happens, we have rearranged some of our products to offer some protection.  Some of the books and furniture have also be moved to aid in this.  The parking lot is going to covered with muddy water from both CosmoProf and the storeroom for the time being as cleaning up continues.  There is still parking, but it will be tougher to get to it.  We also suggest you call first, as weather changes could force us to not be open.  We would like to thank all of our customers and friends for your support in this troubled time.  Thank you.

When Will It Come Out?

One of the services Booknotes offers is notifying customers on when new books by their favorite authors come out.  However, few take us up on it.  Part of the reason is that they might already know about them.  Another reason might be because the information can change at a moment's notice.  We get our information from many sources.  Primarily, we use the catalogs from our distributors.  These monthly catalogs have a very long lead time and don't always cover an exact four week span.    Some books might arrive a week or two late or early, based on the actual month of title.  The long lead also means that a book's on-sale date will have changed since the issue is made.  That's one reason why we also use the online version of one of the catalogs.  Not only does it cover almost all of the title that are arriving for a particular month, but the information is updated to reflect a new ship to date, even if the title remains locked into its catalog month.  Unfortunately, there are thousands of titles in each online catalog.  We usually only look at about forty categories per month.  This can range from only one or two books to a few hundred, and we still can't seem to catch everything.  The final source is an actual listing of street dates that is updated every week.  However, we usually only double check it every month or so, as not many titles change dramatically.  Also, each list covers about three months worth of titles.  Again, this is in the thousands. Pouring over such a list is time consuming.  The first pass can take an hour per month.  Even then, titles slip through.  We usually can go online and check directly is a particular author has anything in the pipeline, regardless of format.  While things can still change, such listing can go up to a year or more ahead.  Pretty good odds, until something changes.  See you in two weeks.

Details Do Matter

We make minor change to the website every few weeks, usually based on the season/holiday.  After Christmas, we took down all the pictures of reindeer and presents.  We also flipped the color scheme from bright red and green to the general range of blues that match our store.  The way that the website creator is set up, when the color scheme changes, everything based on that scheme changes too.  One would expect that would mean that every little detail would end up still being workable.  Not true.  It was only this week that it was noticed that some details had become unreadable.  Specifically, the viewer counter and business card features had become problematic.  The previous color scheme ended up being transposed into basically all black with the latest update.  Since those apps are at the bottom of the pages, they had escaped notice until now.  This features have been corrected; others are still being looked over.  In another week or so, the color scheme will change again, this time reflecting Valentine's Day.  So instead of blues, you will be seeing pinks.  Also, there will be heavy accents of red and white.  Hopefully, one of the presets schemes will have that exact combination.  Otherwise, who knows what this site will look like.  See you next time.

The Time of the Dragon

Many, many years ago, when we first started doing the special "Books of the Month" discount, a painting was brought in to showcase the January theme.  The theme that year, as it has been every January since, was "Fantasy, Science-Fiction, and Horror."  The painting, which should hopefully be reproduced somewhere on this page if the Blogger/WIx interactions are working, is of a knight looking over a dragon he presumably slayed.  However, menacing eyes are looking out from the cave behind him.  (Confession, I was the one who painted the picture.   It was an early attempt in a college painting class I took.  Not sure why I chose the subject.  The anatomy shows some promise, even if details are missing.  The knight is mostly a blob.  The trees aren't lifelike.  The cave could use some detailing.  The eyes are the best feature.  I got better as the class went along, although the subject matter remained mostly real-to-life.)  The painting was only supposed to stay that one month.  However, we have now made it an almost year-round feature.  It is place somewhat prominently over the main children's bookcase.  The only time we take it down is for the Christmas season.  Dragons and Santa don't really go that well together, especially dead dragons.  Disclaimer:  Booknotes is decidedly pro-dragon nowadays.  Any portrayal of dragons in anything less than a neutral or somewhat positive light is out of times.  This picture is included only as an historical artifact of previous times.  If the picture doesn't pop here, it will also be on the website's home page for the rest of the month.  See you back in two weeks.