As an owner of three bookstores with many years of experience I have a few things to say about the common mistakes and right decisions that I have made, and watched others make.
- The location is important, both for the material and for the store itself. Customers who enjoy discovering will not mind browsing through endless shelves, and will even enjoy it. Customers with little time and energy will appreciate books being accessible and visible.
- The employees should have information about the new books. Summaries and reports are a good way to ensure that customers who ask about a book get the feeling that the professionals behind the desk know what they are doing. It takes endless hours to read every new publication, but just a couple to learn a few phrases about the new books available.
- Classics should be sold in official editions only. If you buy a Sherlock Holmes edition and you don’t like the footnotes or the prologue, then my selection is to blame. If we offer the customer an official edition with the text as it was originally published and he doesn’t like it, then he is to blame for not enjoying Sherlock Holmes as it is.
- For books to learn Spanish or English, check external links and rankings from Goodreads, Listchallenges, Officialeditions, Ranker, etc. It is good to recommend books that the public has liked, instead of books that the publishing companies like.
- Consider adding activities related with your books to increase sales and merchandise purchases. Anything that doesn’t require competition, so that nobody feels belittled when they lose. An exposition of Tolkien drawings is positive, whereas a contest to select one winner will make you lose customers.
