Bookstores get creative to lure readers

While book sales may be down due to the economy, booksellers are using creative incentives to get people into their stores.

Elizabeth Murphy, communications relations director at Barnes & Noble at Hamilton Place, said company executives planned ahead for the economic downturn.

“Barnes & Noble is a smart company, and they saw this coming,” Ms. Murphy said. “They made some good financial moves, and we’re doing things like not putting out as many books as we typically would do. Instead of having 10 books on a shelf, we have seven.”

According to Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Borders Group and Books-A-Million sold fewer books in 2008 than the year before.

“The company is in good financial condition, for which we are all thankful,” Ms. Murphy said. “We’re bringing in authors to meet our customers and sign books, and we’re having more events for children.”

Rock Point Books in Chattanooga is also bringing in authors and offering more events for children, most notably the Children’s Reading Hour Fun Fridays, a weekly hourlong program that debuted in March for preschoolers.

Meg Day, a sales clerk at Rock Point Books, said the children’s program has been successful.

“We were trying to find a way to offer this program without having to bring in extra employees and without having to offer costly activities,” she said. “So we approached people in the community to help us out, and the response has been wonderful. The Chattanooga Nature Center, for example, will bring an animal and read books about the animal. North Shore Yoga will come in and teach kids yoga and read a book about it.”

From 20 to 70 people have shown up for the sessions, she said

Rock Point Books, a locally owned store, also hosts authors.

“We love having author signings,” Ms. Day said. “We’re trying to think of creative ways to get people in the store.”

Barnes & Noble’s summer reading program is an incentive to get people into the store and to encourage youngsters to read books during summer vacation, Ms. Murphy said.

Children in grades 1-6 are required to read eight books. At the end of the summer, if they’ve read the books, they are awarded a free book.

“We’re having more events for children,” she said. “We recently hosted a turn-off-the-TV event, and in July we’ll have a ‘Fancy Nancy’ tea or pajama party.”

On June 13, the bookstore will host local authors for a Father’s Day book-signing event.

“Buying Dad a book for Father’s Day has become very popular, so we’re bringing in area authors, including Dwana Pusser, the daughter of Buford Pusser, to meet with customers and sign their books. Dwana has written a book, ‘Walking On,’ based on her life growing up with her famous father.”