Adriana Is Returning to Booknotes

As revealed on our home page and News/Events page, bestselling author Adriana Trigiani is returning to Booknotes for a book signing on Sunday, July 30 in support of her new novel Kiss Carlo coming out in June.  Some details are still be hammered out, so we hope you keep checking back to the website or our Facebook page for more information.  As of right now, the event will start at 3:00 pm or so, but that time might change due to factors involving the other tenants at the center.   We will be taking down names for anyone who wants to pre-order her new book, as well as anyone who wants to order any of her older titles.  Many of her older titles will be available along with her new one on the day of the signing, but ordering beforehand will be the only way to guarantee getting a particular one.  The last time she was here in 2006, we sold out long before the event was over; we had to order more and have Adrianna sign book plates for them.  We might offer some online ordering as well of her newest title and a few of her older ones.  The software for this only allows ten products if we go this route, but if we do, it will allow our customers to order their books early and have us deliver them after the signing.  This would be very useful for those who wouldn't be able to attend the actual event for a number of reasons.  In response to this, we have finally gotten a new credit card processor and are now taking credit cards again.  We also have a few more surprises that might be lining up for the event, but we are too early in the planning stages to reveal anything.  As a hint, if your remember her last appearance here, then you might know what to expect this time around.  See you next week.

Comics Are Books Too

Today is Free Comic Book Day and many local comic book stores around the country are participating.  While we are not part of this event, we would like to mention our support of such stores.  Recently, there were events celebrating independent record and book stores.  We were unable to show our support for the former in time and we were unable to participate in the  latter because we are not part of a retailer association.  However, it would be a shame if we didn't promote one of the earliest such events and the local store involved.  Pikeville's comic book store is Page 3 Game Zone , which we have had a long standing relationship with.  We have frequently sent customers over to them when they needed products and services that they were more suited to and we couldn't really provide.  [Author's aside:  I have been reading comic books since I was four years old, and I am fortunate enough to still have at least parts of some of them even after forty years and two floods.  I mostly started our on Disney reprints of Carl Barks duck stories which were still fairly recent at the time.  I didn't transition to super-heroes until I was seven or eight.  I still get five to seven most weeks.]  Since not everyone can be here, I suggest you check out your own local stores.  There are a wide selection of titles available, and many are acceptable to all age groups.  Many stores will allow to get more than one of these special issues, and some will even have older comics for free that are not part of this promotion.  We cannot stress enough how special this event can be.  Just make sure to look over some of the comics if you have very young readers as some of the titles involved are definitely not for children.

Unannounced Outages

Not much going on, so let's just go over a few things instead.  First, the internet was down this weekend, so we were unable to update the website and blog until today.  It was not due to the rally in downtown Pikevile this weekend.  We were far enough away not to be affected and were open normal hours.  Second, we cannot apologize enough for not announcing online that we would be closed last Tuesday.  We did put notices up in store and will do better the next time this happens.  Third, we might be planning a book signing in the next month or so featuring at least one local author.  On a side note, we have been asked to mention that M. H.  Wilson still has copies of both of his Galactic Seven novels available.  Next, there have been at least two wild turkey sightings at the shopping center lately.  While we have seen turkeys before, flying from the cliff behind the center to the hillside across the road and back, this has been the first time that the birds have actually been seen in the parking lot.  We will try to post pictures of this if it happens again.  Finally, this Saturday, May 6, is Free Comic Book Day, so everyone please go out and support your local comic book store.  We will mention more about this event in the next post, as long as we have the internet connection to do so.

Let's Try This Again, and Again, and Again

For what feels like the umpteenth time, we are trying to set up an online store for the website; we are experiencing problems again.  The free service doesn't allow for a wide range of products, we have no way of connecting to the internet at the store, we are unfamiliar will Paypal and other online buying solutions, and we don't know what we are doing.  Literally, the staff is almost computer illiterate.  For instance, the Facebook connection on the Home page has disappeared, and we have no way of knowing what happened to it.  Even the app's button has vanished from the app store.  We even had some difficulties getting into the blog today.  Anyway, at least we can show you the latest ad in the current campaign.  Just because we are closed today doesn't mean we don't have work to do.

Hillbilly Daze

As we mentioned last week, Booknotes will be closed on Saturday, April 22, because of Hillbilly Days in Pikeville.  Don't worry though, the website, including this blog, will be updated on Saturday as regularly scheduled, just at a slightly different time.  That being said, we are not against things regional or local.  In fact, we are currently involved in two projects with high local interest.  The first is our attempts to get a very popular-selling book at our store back in print.  A Pictorial History of Eastern Kentucky was one of our biggest sellers when we first opened the store.  In fact, we sold more copies of the book then anyone else.  Too many, as the supply quickly sold out and the book went out of print.  We have been in contact with a publisher to try and gain the permission to reprint the book and possibly update it with new photos and information.  Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the current copyright holder that are still being ironed out.  We initially contacted this publisher for another reason.  The other co-owner of the store has been trying to get a pictorial history of the Wheelwright and Weeksbury area based on the old Inland Steel magazines published in the last century.  The main problem we are facing here is that no one can seem to determine who currently holds the copyright on said photos because of all the mergers that have taken place over the decades.  All of this is being done without the help of other organizations that might hold similar goals, but any assistance would be grateful.  There is much that could be done here with the right connections, so contact us if you have any clues.  That is all for this week.  See you here next week, just not at the store.

Managing the Campaign

This week featured the debut of our new as campaign in various local newspapers.  We were a little wary of starting a new campaign so soon after our last one, especially since it did not work out too well.  We never did get to place our book review pieces back in.  However, with so much happening in town for April, we thought it would be a good idea to get a lot of publicity out .  (Personal aside:  This also macks the first time I have ever allowed my image to be used in any advertising.  All previous newspaper ads/pieces have either used the other co-owner or no image at all.  I also have never been in the radio ads/call-ins or on television, save for a few quick clips in the background.)  Since so many people will be in town soon for Hillbilly Days, we thought we should get the word out.  There will be at least three more ads that will be running, each one might be different -- we aren't sure yet what they will be.  The odd thing is, we won't even be open for all of the event.  We usually close early that Friday and not re-open until the following Monday.  While we are just far away from the main action that our business isn't disrupted, we aren't close enough to benefit greatly from the extra crowds.  People just park in the lot and walk to downtown and ignore the local businesses.  Oh well, maybe this can help us out after all anyway.

When Is a Box Really a Book

When coming up for the titles for the Upcoming Releases board at the store and the Upcoming Titles page on the website, we create a list of promising books and then narrow down the field to the best candidates.  However, sometimes mistakes are made, and this isn't an April Fool's Day joke either.  When making out the list for March, we mistakenly listed the James Patterson novel The Black Book as The Black Box instead.  This probably happened because the previous title on the master list was Vicious Circle by C. J. Box and the words got transposed somehow.  For almost the entire month of March, the book was incorrectly listed on the board.  It was only corrected when we (and in this case I mean me)  saw the actual book cover.  What is worse is that the title had also been incorrectly listed on the website since it was updated last Saturday.  Well, the website was also corrected as soon as possible, but not as soon as was liked.  Sometimes mistakes like this do occur, usually when a book gets delayed after we check the on sale date lists to make our list.  We do try to correct this type of error, but they can slip through.  In fact, we have been trying to correct some other errors on the site since we changed the color pallet.  We are still finding some even after a month.  Well, that is all for today.  Goodbye until next week.