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.