August News & Updates

Hello, bookish friends! I hope you've had a wonderful year, so far, and that this summer has treated you well. I'm writing today with news and updates about the bookstore. 

The first item on my list is the newsletter. The newsletter has been difficult to keep up with, for various reasons, and I've felt awful for not being able to send out an update every month. After much thought, I've decided to change up the way we share information about the store. From now on, all important updates, sales, interesting information, and anything else that typically would have gone in the newsletter, can be found in blog posts that I share on our website--just like this one. This way, the important information will go out to anyone who is interested in reading it, not just those who have signed up for the newsletter. This doesn't mean I'm getting rid of the newsletter though! I will send out a newsletter inviting our dedicated readers to check out the new blog posts and a newsletter with our event calendar at the beginning of each month. These will be combined as often as possible so that we don't overwhelm your inbox. I've put a lot of thought into this and feel confident that this is the way our customers can get the information that is most relevant to them and that they are most interested in reading. 

If you have not signed up for our newsletter and would like reminders about our new blog posts and our monthly event calendars straight to your inbox, you can sign up here. 

Kell

Jane

Second, with new people in town and lots of people returning at this time of year, I want to gently remind our customers that the cats need to be treated with respect when you visit the bookstore. Our cats are very friendly and love our customers but, like all creatures, need certain things to be happy. If you are visiting the store with a group, please take turns petting the cats and do not crowd around them. This causes both cats to get anxious and I'd like to avoid that as much as possible. Also, unless they show you that they want to be held, DO NOT PICK UP THE CATS. While they enjoy being petted, they don't always react well to being scooped up--especially if they're sleeping. Jane, the grey cat, is the only one who will ask to be held. She will reach her front paws up to you or lean up against you when she's on a counter top to show that she wants to be held. If you want to spend time with the cats, they enjoy when you sit next to them and will often crawl into your lap. Finally, please do not try to get them riled up by playing roughly with them, particularly Kell, the black cat. Jane will not respond well at all and Kell, once excited, will often harass Jane and cause a variety of other issues. 

Cats, like humans, use body language to convey many moods. If you are unfamiliar with feline body language, we suggest you look over this guide by Tuft & Paw. 

The next item on my list to discuss is our online store. Earlier this year, our primary distributor and the host of our online store decided to pull out of the retail wholesale market. This was a huge blow to us and is something that we've been struggling to accommodate for the last few months. We've been working to get accounts set up with various publishers and to replace our online store with another option. We've decided to try out IndieLite, a program offered by the American Booksellers Association, as our new online ordering option. Currently, we are working to get the new site set up and organized but it's going to take some time. I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of August so that we can go into the fall season with a fully functional website. When it finally goes live, we will share that update on our social media, in a newsletter blast, and in the next month's blog post. We apologize for the inconvenience but want you to know that we are happy to place orders for you at the store or over the phone and, during the month of August, we will be offering FREE shipping on all special orders that request it. 

Next up, an update for students! Students, we are here to help you get your assigned reading. While we do not carry textbooks, we do order class titles and textbooks for you and give you a 20% discount. Just show us your syllabus with the titles you need to get the discount! We can order new and used titles. New titles can take 2-4 business days to arrive, while used books take longer, typically 7-10 business days. If you need a used title, please plan ahead to allow plenty of time for it to arrive. 

The final topic on my list is used books. We do take used books and will give you store credit for them. This store credit can be used to purchase ONLY other used books and your credit will cover up to half of the cost of your used book purchase. If you would like to receive credit for your used books, please make an appointment to bring them by. We will not take walk ins and I apologize for this inconvenience. We are a very small staff, with each person filling many roles in order to provide you with the best bookstore experience possible. As a result, we typically have a very tight schedule and won't have time to go through your books unless we've specifically made time for you. Please check out our used book page to learn more about the program and to see what kinds of things we won't take or are looking for right now. ​​

That's it for August! Stay tuned for more updates & check out our events calendar to see what we're getting into this month!