book sale bonanza

Our big spring book sale at the library is now underway. The preview sale was last night and I've seen the numbers we brought in from new memberships and purchases. We aren't where we usually are, but as I've discussed with the other die hard volunteers, a new normal will slowly begin to emerge. With the store generating an amazing amount of income on a monthly basis, the biannual sales are bound to reflect that impact. We have less to sell and although we organize beyond belief, it is still harder to shop the sale than it is to shop the store.

But, I'm off to spend a wonderful morning with folks I love to work with doing what I love to do...talking about books. Bittersweet for me....so very bittersweet.

I broke the news to my two best buddies yesterday and the tears flowed. I do hope that I can continue on in my role with the Friends in a scaled back capacity. That work feeds my soul. Too bad it didn't feed our budget!!

Happy Friday.....I hope to continue on blogging, it is a wonderful outlet for my thoughts and feelings. But, if the entries are a bit haphazard for a while, bear with me. I will find my footing again.

preview sale

The Fall book sale is well underway. We unpacked and organized a TON of books yesterday. I worked on hardback fiction along with four other devoted Friends and we were able to get the books out and on the tables in a loose alpha order in just under 5 hours.  Today we will finish fine tuning the tables and group titles/authors together.  We've already filled the floors under the tables with those books that seem to multiply in the dark storage areas. We have yards of Grisham, Steele, Clancy, Higgins Clark, Francis etc.  We had over 20 copies of The Da Vinci Code this time. Good Grief!!

But we also get books that are from authors who might not be so well known. Mid list authors, debut authors, foreign authors.  Our Town reads...a lot.

Tonight is the Preview Sale. We allow members to shop from 5-7 and we are trying a new approach this evening and allowing non members to buy a shopping pass for $5 instead of joining the group for $10. Believe it or not, some folks join just to shop early. This way, we don't 'waste' time adding them to the membership rolls and mailing them info etc. Just let them come and get their books and leave happy!  I hope it is a win-win and we may even see our sale numbers go up as a result once we work out the kinks and publicize the idea.

Regular sale hours begin tomorrow from 10-6.  We usually gross around $6,000 on this sale and I hope that we do at least that if not a bit better. The weather is going to be great and folks are looking for bargains in this economy. 

We have great books at incredible prices! What more could a reader want?

the book sale is coming

The Friends of the Library's big fall book sale is just two weeks away now. I'm not sure what I enjoy more, setting up for the sale or watching the people find great deals on books they haven't read.

Setting up can be a lot of work, but we always share a lot of laughter too. After holding several of these events, the organizers have the set up process down to a science. This time, we have finally convinced the main organizer to let us keep the book store inventory closet closed. Yes, for the past two years we have emptied every item from that closet and moved all of it into the store. Then we filled the closet back up with books for the sale, mostly romances, and then when the sale was over, reversed the process. It was extremely labor intensive and took four ladies working solid for 5 hours to get just one half the work done. So, this time, the doors will be locked and the romances put out with the other books on the banquet tables. The four of us went out for lunch to celebrate the fact we didn't have to move the contents of that closet, twice, this year!

I always work the fiction room during set up and have organized the hardback fiction for the last two sales. We also have a nonfiction room and a children's room.

We always have interesting customers. The only thing more interesting is what they buy. You just never know what someone will 'find' and have to purchase. Then when we start the bag and box sale late Saturday, wow, people just grab books and fill those containers.

I'm working the sale on Wednesday, Thursday during set up and then on Friday for a bit. Soccer tournaments will prevent me from being on hand Saturday.

We've raised as much at $8K at a sale, but since the store has been open, our total has dropped a bit and we consistently raise about $6K over the two and half days. Lots of volunteers give time or food and the community spirit that is fostered is amazing.

and we're off

Today is the 'open to the public' portion of the book sale. One of the benefits of helping to set up the sale is that you have the opportunity to shop while you are sorting and arranging the books. Several volunteers take advantage of this perk, but I refrained this year. My to be read pile is still quite tall and I just couldn't justify bringing more books home. However, I found the summer reading list for 10th grade honors English and will attempt to locate those titles for the oldest kid today.

Nothing better than helping readers find books, talking about authors, titles and stories. Today will be a glorious day.

And while we are having all of that FUN, we are raising money for our library so they can continue to expand their collection, provide great programming for our community and keep my town reading.