If you are a bookstore owner who has been in business for some time, you may have received the phone call: A customer service representative (CSR) is on the line and inquiring as to whether you, the owner, play music in your store. Assuming the answer is "Yes," the CSR explains that you need to pay his/her company money on an annual basis.

From the outside, Riverwalk Books in Chelan, Washington, appears to sell books in its 1,500-square-foot space. And, of course, it does. But a number of other activities take place in the nine-year-old store as well, thanks to the creativity of owner and founder Libby Manthey. She took seriously the lessons she learned at ABA's prospective booksellers school over a decade ago, and more recently at the education sessions given at PNBA meetings. "I know that I have to keep my eye on the bottom line -- always on the bottom line.

By Rhonda Abrams

Happy New Year! You have many goals for 2005: Make more money, have more loyal customers, get more satisfaction from your work. One simple thing can greatly increase your chance of success -- developing an annual plan.

Each year we create an annual plan in my business. We do our planning in late summer -- when things are fairly quiet -- but it's appropriate to do an annual plan at the beginning of the year.

In early November, Books & Books of Coral Gables and Miami Beach, Florida, opened a 1,000-square-foot store inside the Delray Beach headquarters and showroom of Levenger, Inc., a catalog and Internet seller of high-quality tools for reading and writing.

Over the past decade, as the bookstore market has become increasingly competitive, many independent bookstores began to delve into sidelines in an effort to broaden their stores' appeal and to enhance their bottom line. For many booksellers, that meant bringing in CDs and, more recently, DVDs.

Last week, BTW spoke to a number of booksellers about their reasons for carrying CDs, DVDs, or both, as well as how they handle security.

Over the past decade, as the bookstore market has become increasingly competitive, many independent bookstores began to delve into sidelines in an effort to broaden their stores' appeal and to enhance their bottom line. For many booksellers, that meant bringing in CDs and, more recently, DVDs. BTW recently spoke to a number of booksellers whose stores carry CDs, DVDs, or both, and many noted that they decided to carry these products because the categories seemed to be a natural extension of the store's inventory.

Nicki Leone, manager of Bristol Books in Wilmington, North Carolina, was recently invited by author M.J. Rose (The Halo Effect, Mira) to be a "guest blogger" on Rose's Weblog. Leone's assignment: To "write about anything related to getting books read." Thanks to Nicki Leone and M.J. Rose for allowing BTW to share with our readers this lighthearted look at the extent to which a bookseller will go to sell a book.

Jessica Stockton of Three Lives & Company in New York City was recently named the winner of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's contest that asked booksellers to write an essay that began with "I am a bookseller because …"

Traffic on ABA's four online booksellers' forums on BookWeb.org has always had its ups and downs, but as we slip into the final weeks of summer, it has dropped off significantly, and this is distressing to some ABA member booksellers who view the forums as a vital tool for the exchange of ideas.

This article is part of a series on the Guerrilla Marketing Web site and is reprinted here with the permission of Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the bestselling series Guerrilla Marketing and co-founder of Guerrilla Marketing International, Inc.

By Debra Kahn Schofield