We Are OPEN!!

By now you've probably noticed that we're really, really bad at updating our Avid blog. But we're pros at updating Facebook and Twitter, and we are doing pretty well at actually running a brick & mortar bookshop.

That's right:  after four years of planning and education and preparation and money-gathering, Avid Bookshop has opened at 493 Prince Ave. in in-town Athens. Please drop by!

This week we are open Sunday from 10:30-5:30 and again Tuesday &Wednesday from 10:30-5:30. We will be closed on Monday, Oct. 17 so that we can run lots and lots of errands to prepare for the grand opening weekend.

On Thursday we have our first-ever poetry reading--local poet Ida Stewart will be here to celebrate the release of her new book, Gloss.

On Friday, 10/21 we'll be open from 10:30 AM until late, because Friday the 21st is our Grand Opening Party Part I!  And on Saturday the 22nd we're having the Grand Opening Part II, which is a kids' party.  Come on down!

We're beyond thrilled to be here at last.  Can't wait to see you.

Bookshop lease now firmly in hand (via the Bookshop Blog)

I recently started contributing to a website called The Bookshop Blog.  My first post there is entitled "Lease Now Firmly In Hand" and talks about the odd timing of the last few weeks--I delivered my signed store lease the same day the Borders news was all over the national radio and TV programming.  Check it out here:  http://bookshopblog.com/2011/07/26/the-bookshop-lease-now-firmly-in-hand/

Storytimes!

Janet Geddis, Avid's owner, conducts monthly storytimes at Full Bloom Pregnancy & Young Parenting Center as well as at Arrow Space for Families.

Full Bloom Storytimes:
Every Wednesday at 4, Full Bloom hosts storytime.  Avid Bookshop helps out the second Wednesday of each month.  Come see us! This storytime is especially geared toward babies & their caregivers, but kids up to 7 will be entertained.

Full Bloom
220 N. Milledge Ave
Athens, GA 30601
http://fullbloomparent.com/

Arrow Storytimes:
The first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 AM, Janet visits Arrow Space for Families (adjacent to Big City Bread Cafe) to read stories with the little ones.  The reading is especially geared toward infants & toddlers, but all kids and their caregivers are welcome.

Arrow
393 N. Finley St., Studio D
Athens, GA 30601
http://www.ourarrow.blogspot.com

Borders closing ALL its doors after 40 years.

Well, it's really happening:  Borders Books & Music is shuttering its 399 remaining stores, including the one here in Athens in Beechwood Shopping Center on Alps Rd.

The Athens Banner-Herald posted this article today, and of course I decided to formally respond.  Here's what I wrote in the comments section.  Let me know what you think:

Some may be surprised to hear that even though I am a local, independent bookseller, I am saddened by our community's loss.  When Borders closes their 399 stores, approximately 10,700 booksellers will be jobless.  This is heartbreaking for them and for the industry at large.  Many of my friends and acquaintances here list our Alps Rd. Borders as one of their favorite places to hang out, and I feel sympathetic to them--it's hard to lose that "third place."

When Borders' woes were first made very public months ago, I wrote a piece for Beyond the Trestle about what it would mean if Borders were to go under--you can read it here if you're interested: http://beyondthetrestle.com/content/well-be-better-borders

To answer to a few of the commenters above:  Athens will now be home to just two independent bookstores.  Jackson Street Books downtown sells used books, DVDs, and more.  They have a great collection of competitively priced used materials and antiquarian books.  Avid Bookshop, my store, is currently online and events-based only, but we are moving into a retail storefront on Prince Avenue in the coming months.  We sell both new and used books as well as cards, gifts, and locally-made gift items.

There's a lot of talk out there about the demise of books and reading, but the amount of hours people spend reading has actually remained relatively constant over the last many decades.  When the big box stores began to open all over the country in the early- to mid-1990s, many independent shops lost their customer base and went out of business.  But, time and time again in recent years, we are seeing that the big box stores are having a hard time getting a handle on the rapidly-changing industry.  Some--not all!--independent stores that are willing to alter their business plans and approaches to bookselling are actually thriving, and MANY independent bookstores have been opening in the last couple of years--the number of new indie stores rivals that of the number of new stores per year in the pre-big box days. This is great news for small business, local economies, and, most of all, people who love to read.

All this is to say that I am sad about the closing of Borders and the loss of jobs, but I don't think bookstores are dead.  If you value reading, it behooves you to go to a store you know and love, where you trust the booksellers' recommendations and feel comfortable.  For some people, that place will be Barnes & Noble.  For others, that was Borders.  And for many others (like me), I feel most at home in many of the locally-owned bookstores.  Not all are fabulous, but the ones worth your time are.   

Thanks for reading this long-winded comment!

Sincerely,

Janet Geddis

Avid Bookshop LLC

Athens, GA

The question you might have on your mind: why is there no storefront yet?

(File this under FAQs you've yet to utter.)

If you keep your ear to the ground in Athens and/or in the bookselling world, you know that I've been working towards opening Avid Bookshop for years now.  Perhaps I'm a touch paranoid, but I think it's not too crazy to assume that some of you are thinking, "WHY IN THE WORLD ISN'T THIS BOOKSTORE OPEN YET?"

Here, in a nutshell, are a few reasons why we have yet to move into a retail space:

1. Adieu, business partner. After working together for months, my business partner (and close friend) reevaluated things and decided that starting the bookstore business was not the best move for her just yet.  I spent a couple months figuring out a, if I wanted to open the store on my own, b, if I COULD open it on my own, and c, how her absence would change the bookstore plans (it changed a lot).

2. The economic crisis/slump/catastrophe/nightmare/problem-period.  This affected my own income (which I'm using to float myself during the first few years of business), my spending habits, and more.  On a less personal level, the crisis caused banks to completely rework their lending requirements, resulting in my being totally prepared for loans that no longer existed.  More on that at the end of this post.

3. Personal stuff.  I could go into more detail here, but suffice it to say that we were dealing with a lot at home in 2010.  Things are going well now and everyone is healthy, but for awhile there I had to totally hold off on finding a storefront because of a need to put my family first.

4. The introduction of new, friendly competition.  When a new bookstore moved to Athens in October, I was forced to look at my business plan in a different way, wanting to make sure that my plans & services complemented the city's other bookstores--I want each of our shops to be different enough that you want to spend time in all three indie stores.  Non-chain bookstores are as unique as their owners, after all. As someone who rearranges the furniture at least once a month, shifting my plans was a fun experiment, and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

5. The limited suitable retail space in my target neighborhood.  After a veritable drought, there may finally be some options along the Prince Avenue corridor, and I'm looking forward to opening up shop in a space that's accessible to all you Avid readers in Boulevard/Normaltown and the surrounding neighborhoods.  I don't want to jinx anything by saying much more.  As many retail store owners have told me time and time again, location is of the utmost importance, and waiting for the perfect (or near-perfect) spot is far better than opening in a place that won't suit my business.

6. I haven't exactly been twiddling my thumbs. Because I am addicted to biting off more than I can chew, and because I'm a sucker for anything related to Athens, books, community building, neighborhoods, and more, I've been keeping myself very busy with other projects as I wait for the perfect time to open the Avid Bookshop storefront. I've been running a successful bookstore business online (http://www.avidbookshop.com), organizing events (including my favorite one from October 2010!), hosting book clubs, and more.  I'm also on the board for We Are Athens (Buy Local), the Athens Regional Library, the Boulevard Neighborhood Association, and my condominium association. I have a few non-bookstore jobs, too:  I'm a regular contributor (writing about books and reading) to local publications Beyond the Trestle, the Athens Banner-Herald, and Athens Magazine.  I also have two other part-time jobs editing & writing, so those keep me occupied in the hours I'm not working on bookstore duties.

Hope that answers your burning questions!

In the meantime, I'm so grateful to those of you who've been shopping with me online (or at special sales, events, and markets).  I'm always here to give you book recommendations (it's my job, after all).

Please know I'm working hard to make sure that I bring to Athens a neighborhood, community-focused bookstore that suits YOUR needs.  Your patience and support mean so much to me as I continue on this journey.

-Janet Geddis
1/11/11

****
And, as promised above, here are some boring details about the economics of this, just in case you want to read my ramblings:

Turns out 2008 was one of the worst and best years to decide to launch a brand-new business.

The Good News about these last few years, economically speaking:
For many of us, the economic crisis led us to reevaluate our spending habits, our homes, and our communities.  The buy local movement is growing rapidly (locally, the We Are Athens initiative, an organization I am on the founding board of, is ramping up for a big year!), and people are spending their precious disposable income more carefully.  As megacorporations and big-box stores continually under-serve shoppers, well-run, independent businesses are taking the reins.

The Bad News about these last few years, economically speaking:
Starting a business from scratch in the best of economic times is hard enough; small business loans are hard to get, but banks have historically been willing to take a chance on young entrepreneurs.  This changed over the last couple of years, however.  As you're well aware, many banks have failed.  Those that remain have more stringent lending policies, especially as many of the loans they've granted are going unpaid by struggling or unprepared business owners or homeowners. As much as they want to help out local entrepreneurs, local banks cannot usually take the risk.  Which means those "surefire" loans I'd planned to get a few years ago all but dried up. No need to cry, though--I'm an inventive entrepreneur with a strong support system and a willingness to quickly accommodate to changes in the book industry and our town.

personalized book club services

The new year is here, and with it myriad resolutions about taking better care of ourselves, taking time out for friends, and—for many—vows to read more books.  January is a popular month for starting book clubs, and I (Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop founder) am here to help.

Lots of people want to start brand new book clubs; others want to revive their groups and find more interesting reads that will encourage better attendance.  I work with local book clubs to help moderators find a good selection for their particular clubs.  

For no fee, I will talk with you (in person, via telephone, or via email) to discuss your book club’s tastes, goals, interests, and meeting schedule.  At minimum, I can provide you with a list of books catered to your group so that you can choose book club reads for 2011.  On the other end of the spectrum, I can meet with club founders in person, find other members to join, generate discussion questions, help you find meeting space, and more. 

If you’d like to learn more about Avid Bookshop, including personalized book club guidance, please contact me at avid.athens@gmail.com.  

Avid is a locally-owned bookstore business with a strong community focus.  You can find virtually any book in print at http://www.avidbookshop.com. 

SHOP ONLINE! Used books, new books, CDs, and movies!

Hey all:

Looking for information on Avid Bookshop? Visit our website:  http://www.avidbookshop.com

We sell new and used books; links available at our home page.

Remember that when you buy from our new book webstore through Dec. 31, you get FREE SHIPPING on orders of $30 or more when you use the code FREEAVIDSHIP at checkout.  (Plus all hardcovers are 10% off.)

You may have noticed we don't post here very often--that's 'cause we write weekly about books, reading, and community at Athens publication Beyond the Trestle (search for entries by Janet Geddis). We also update our Facebook & Twitter pages pretty frequently.

Email Avid owner Janet Geddis if you have any questions or comments.

Thank you!

I'm still blogging, I promise!

Hello there, avid Avid supporters. At least 30 times in the last couple of months, I've thought, "Eek! I have to update the Avid Blogger.com account so people know I've not fallen off the face of the earth."

And then I promptly forget to update the blog.

Things are still progressing rather swimmingly, if I do say so myself. I have been updating the Facebook fan page and the store's Twitter account frequently, and I've been work-work-working on getting more startup capital, doing bookstore internships, having meetings with folks from Athens-area nonprofits, chatting with local bankers, and more.

I've also been blogging about literature and reading on an Athens website called Beyond the Trestle. So far people have left encouraging and thought-provoking comments.  Check out my weekly entries here:  http://beyondthetrestle.com/blogs/janet-geddis

Of course I'll update you with any and all major developments. For now, rest assured that things are still moving along and we're on track toward opening in a few months' time.  As always, you can email me with any questions or comments. 

Take care, and happy reading!

Avid earned another shot to win $50K!

Hi, you wonderful people.

Thanks to you guys, Avid has another chance to win a $50,000 grant. We made it among the top 100 runners-up for April in Pepsi's Refresh Everything! competition, which means we've earned a place in the May competition! Now if we want to win, we'll have to push push push to get in the top ten and stay there. Please be as obnoxious with this as is comfortable for you. :) Send the Pepsi link to friends and family. Know someone famous who likes to read? Ask them to tweet about it, share it on their website, or create a Facebook post encouraging fans to vote. My tip is to sign in first, THEN vote. When the "vote" button disappears, you know your vote has been counted. (At the end of April I found out that lots of people *thought* they were voting, but it turned out that for most of the month their votes weren't being counted due to the site's confusing nature.)
www.refresheverything.com/AvidforAthens

Take care, and thank you!

-Janet G.

(Donate in any amount here: http://indiegogo.com/AvidBookshop)

Nuci's Space Community Read: focus on depression & suicide

Last night I attended the book club meeting for the Nuci's Space Community Read. (Not familiar with Nuci's Space? You should be--it's an amazing, amazing place.)  Held upstairs at the Globe (where we met for our We Are Athens book club last month!), the meeting was well-attended and lively. 

Why did I resist book clubs for the first 28 years of my life?  Along with some friends I began a book club a couple of years ago, and it's brought me such joy and fulfillment to discuss books with smart people.  Since beginning that personal book club, I've taken part in several others (and even organized one).  I feel hooked! By now you probably realize I'm quite the reader, and for years I thought that I wouldn't want to hash apart a book with others (especially strangers, and especially after having done so in school for four years).  But having begun taking part in book clubs recently, I can't imagine what my old self was thinking!

I'm exposed to so many different points of view, so many interpretations that hadn't occurred to me.  Each reader comes from a background totally separate from everyone else, and that means each reading is unique.  When readers get together to share these perspectives, you can watch the faces of the group as they begin to understand the book and one another in unexpected ways.

The next Avid-hosted book club will meet Thursday, April 29th at 6 PM downtown (specific location TBD). We're reading The Better World Handbook.  Hope you can join even if you don't get a chance to read the book.

In Which We Humbly Ask You to Help Avid in less than 5 minutes!

4 Quick Things to Help Avid 

Through free clicks, small donations, and formal investments, you'll help us get this project moving forward!

I humbly ask you to take a few minutes to explore the following ways to support Avid:
1. Vote for us in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project grant contest
...& then SPREAD THE WORD!

Time: 2 minutes/day throughout April; Cost: $0

Pepsi is giving grants to individuals, businesses, and nonprofits once a month--we're up for a $50,000 grant that would (obviously) help us immensely! Throughout April, you can vote once a day. If our Facebook fans voted once a day all month, we'd exceed 16,000 votes! There's strength in numbers, and every little bit counts.

Don't feel like signing up through the Pepsi site? No problem. You can log in through your Facebook page by using this application: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh/

2. Say something nice about Avid Bookshop on Intuit's "Love a Local Business Page"
...& then SPREAD THE WORD!

Time: 3 minutes; Cost: $0

Intuit is choosing 5 small businesses per month to receive grants; the grand-prize winner will win a $30,000 grant! The more folks who nominate Avid by saying a couple of nice things, the more chances we have to win a grant.  For details, visit the Intuit site at http://lovealocalbusiness.intuit.com/fan?b_id=17114. (You can log in via Facebook by exploring the links in the bottom, right-hand corner of the Intuit page.)

3. Make a donation to us on IndieGoGo.com
...& then SPREAD THE WORD!

Time: 2 minutes; Cost: $1 - ? (any amount appreciated!)

IndieGoGo is a site where creators and entrepreneurs make project profiles explaining their vision, set a fundraising goal, and then raise money to help reach that goal.  There is no minimum donation!   Visit http://www.indiegogo.com/AvidBookshop and check out our amazing VIP perks.  Thanks to numerous friends and Athens businesses who've contributed great prizes for our donors at every level!

4. Let me know if you're interested in making a formal investment rather than (or in addition to) a donation.

Time to email: 2 minutes; Cost: TBD

I'm working with a local bank to create a community lending program whereby individuals can lend money to Avid Bookshop with the bank's help. (Entrepreneurs from Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn did this and I'm hoping to emulate them.) If you're interested in learning more, send me an email.

As always, THANK YOU. It's not the most comfortable thing to ask for assistance and money, but, as my writer friend Laurel Snyder says, "Everyone here wants to see new indies succeed. We understand you gotta work it."  Here's hoping you understand.

Have a lovely month of April--I hope that 30 days from now we'll be able to announce some very good news.

patience pays (we hope)

Hello all!  March has been a very busy month for me so far, bookstore- and life-wise.  My lovely mother and sister came to town for a nice visit, I hosted the first-ever Avid-affiliated book club, I cancelled two lunches with two author friends due to busy-ness or sickness (blargh--sorry Laurel & Jessica!), and I reestablished myself as a self-proclaimed iMovie guru.  It's true.

The month kicked off with an hour of utter frustration.  In the two years I've been planning this business, I've encountered many a setback, and I know there'll be many more.  So far I've proven to be resilient, so I'm not too daunted.  But man--if you had seen me at 12:22 AM on March 1, 2010, you would have encountered an angry, teary-eyed, unable-to-sleep entrepreneur.  Due to website issues, the Pepsi Refresh Project application grant I'd been working on for days simply disappeared the moment I logged into submit it for a grant.  Boo.

But guess what?  Pepsi has graciously fixed the situation, and I'm pretty happy with the solution:  they apologized for the system having lost my application and said that if I'd be willing to start the process all over again, they'd submit my project on April 1 at midnight.  (May I also say I was super-impressed with the customer service I received during my multiple troubleshooting calls? I don't drink much soda these days and of course am a born-and-bred Coca-Cola girl, but Pepsi's making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside of late.  Heresy, I know!)

Yippee.  I hesitate to celebrate too much over this small victory, but I'm pretty confident I'll start harrassing you for vote-clicks starting on April Fools Day.  SERIOUSLY.

I've also created a fundraising page on IndieGoGo.com!  I'll make the big push for that starting April 1st, too, but thought I'd plug it here first (which gives YOU the chance to be our official first donor!).  Due to sheer inventiveness and kindness from Avid supporters, we have a bevy of awesome "VIP perks" at every donation level.  Signed books, handcrafted stationery, free coffee for a year, original artwork, bookmarks, autographed CDs, and more, more, more are yours for the taking once you donate.  I've looked at other IndieGoGo project pages and, while some VIP perks are certainly exciting, NOTHING beats the lineup Avid has for you. (There is no minimum donation, though, so even pitching in a buck would be great!  Perks start at the  $10 donation level.)   Check out the page here: http://www.indiegogo.com/avidbookshop

Back to work now. Thanks as always for reading, and stay tuned for specific information on how to employ free mouse clicks, small donations, and even big investments to help Avid open its doors.

a diverse group at our first book club meeting!

As you may suspect, Avid will eventually play host to a variety of book clubs (and will aim to have a space set aside for any area book clubs to meet, even if an Avid bookseller is not involved in the discussion).  For now we're starting modestly, with just one book club I've talked a lot about on this blog.

The inaugural meeting of our Buy Local Book Club/We Are Athens Book Club/Insert-More-Clever-Name-Here-About-Localism-&-Sustainability-&-Community-Book-Club Here went really well.  We met at the Globe, a longtime downtown Athens pub and restaurant and had a couple of hours of good discussion, meeting new friends, and even a little bit of networking.

Catrina Cook (J House Media) and I were there to informally and unofficially represent We Are Athens.  The rest of the 13-person group was made up of people with a variety of backgrounds.  We had a couple of folks who are new to Athens as well as 20+ year veterans; we had one out of towner who wanted to learn about the club and a handful of small business owners who want to see some changes in the Athens community landscape.  We had one neighborhood-conscious fellow who's spearheading the new Barber Street Park Project--surely something the Project for Public Spaces would be excited about.  The variety of attendees was refreshing and people gave me perspective on things I hadn't thought about before.

In the interest of brevity, I'll mention a few things here that we mentioned LOVING about Athens.
1. music
2. approachability/friendliness of citizens and local government
3. open-mindedness
4. dynamic, ever-changing nature of the city
5. all the green space
6. gardens (personal, community, and even large-scale ones)
7. our thriving downtown
8. the sense of hope & optimism among many citizens
9. people's willingness to change
10. architecture
11. vibrant arts scene
12. creative enclave that is Athens
13. tourism is always improving

And here are a handful of things we'd like to see for Athens.  Ones with asterisks (*) are already in the works, as far as I know!
1. edible schoolyards*
2. music programming in schools (Athfest InSchool, for example)*
3. more family-oriented activities*
4. free public transportation
5. more frequent bus service/more extensive transit area
6. pedestrian-only areas of downtown
7. trolley/streetcar on Boulevard
8. require students to live on campus for at least a year
9. a UGA campus that is open to the downtown rather than closed off and separated
10. more bike-friendly routes & amenities*
11. We Are Athens (Buy Local Athens)*
12. a "playborhood"

Your turn:  what would YOU add to this list?

We've selected our next book, and I hope to see you at the next meeting (date & time TBA) so we can discuss The Better World Handbook:  Small Changes That Make a Big Difference.

website update

Remember all that talk about my wanting to start a website months before the store opened?  A site where you could buy lots and lots of in-print titles through me and have them shipped to you directly from the wholesaler? Well, I'm having second thoughts about when I'll establish the website.

I'm going to create this type of site no matter what, but now I'm rethinking the timeline--think it'll probably be best to launch the site 1-3 months before opening instead of 6+ months before opening.

I had a phone meeting with ABA IndieCommerce web guru Matt Supko this afternoon, and he gave me a lot of good, 100% solicited advice.  I'll still use funds generated from the photo show to go toward the website--I'll just launch the website a little later than planned.  (My reasons for this are myriad--if you want to know more details or want to argue with me about it, I welcome your thoughts.)

Will anyone out there raise a fuss or be mad at me for delaying the site launch?  Bring it!  Please let me know what you're thinking.


One of my alternative plans is to let you contact me with a list of books you want; I'd get them from a publisher or wholesaler & then send them to you--heck, I'll even hand-deliver if you're in Athens.  The shipping time would be longer than if you were to buy them through another website (ahhemm...non-sales-tax-paying Amazon), but you'd be buying locally and getting some good books!

some ideas for spring - please share your feedback!

I have a few ideas (and some official plans) for spring 2010.  Now that it's snowed twice (!) in Athens in 2010, I'm definitely ready for warmer temperatures to hit!

1. Thursday, March 18th at 6PM at The Globe:  Buy Local Book Club
I've written extensively about this already, but if you've missed details, check out our Facebook invitation and this blog post on We Are Athens (the Buy Local Athens initiative).

2. Saturday, April 17th all over the US (and in ATHENS, if you join me!):  "E-Free Day"

I'll be at a wedding most of the day, so I am unable to organize any in-person, formal event on this day.  But we have a Facebook event where you can pledge to be e-free on 4/17, no matter where you live.   I hope the weather is beautiful so that it makes it easier for us technology addicts to take a complete break from everything electronic.  That's right:  no TV, no computer, no cell phones, no e-readers!  Read more here.

3. A Saturday or Sunday, sometime in April or early May:  SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT!
This event, another in the series of community-focused fundraisers for Avid, will be held at a locally-owned venue large enough to accommodate however many people sign up! To make the tournament more fun, we'll (perhaps) be looking for food and/or drink donations and a place that will host us out of the goodness of their hearts (fingers crossed).  We also need folks to lend us their Scrabble game sets (complete with a board and all the tiles!) for the day.  As I'm a word nerd, you probably won't be surprised to learn that there are 3 Scrabble sets in my house as we speak.  Please contact me if you have venue ideas, a Scrabble game to lend, some swag to throw into the prize packages, or any other thoughts on the matter.

Most likely the tournament sign-up fee would be between $5 & $15.  Top 3 or 5 winners would receive some good prizes!

4.  Another book sale, date & place TBD.  Several of you made it out to our holiday book sale in December 2009.  I sold a lot that day, but as more and more folks have dropped off boxes of wonderful books, my shelves are filling up again and I've got to sell these before my house collapses under their weight!  :)  If you have any ideas regarding a book sale date, venue, etc., please email me.

Thanks, and let me hear from you!

-Janet G.

We Are Athens (Buy Local Athens) update (& more links than you'll know what to do with!)

I've mentioned the Buy Local Athens initiative a couple of times on this blog (here and here, for example) but haven't given too much away yet, as we're hoping to stage a fun launch event where we'll spill all the beans.  So many people (Athens residents, business owners, and more) are interested in being a part of the movement--it's quite inspiring, and we on the board are happy to be working for such a great cause.  For now I'll encourage you to visit our Facebook page and become a fan there.  Once our website is ready to launch, believe you me:  you'll hear about it on this blog, on Facebook, in the local newspapers, and more!

Let me outline a few details about the project so far, just to let you get your bearings.

1. After toying with several ideas, we the board voted on the name We Are Athens.  (Special thanks to Alicia Nickles of Flagpole Magazine, Satisfactory Printing, and others for that idea.)

2. We established a Facebook page not long ago and have already surpassed ONE THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED FANS. As I suggested above, the response has been phenomenal.

3. We're gathering funds so we can formally affiliate with the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and become an independent business alliance. 

4. Once we affiliate with AMIBA, we'll register our organization as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.  Once we're registered as a nonprofit with the state of Georgia and once we have formally announced the project, businesses, nonprofits, and individuals will be able to become members of We Are Athens.

5. And once we're off the ground, we'll be able to provide lots of services to the community.  Later we'll make a formal announcement of the ways in which We Are Athens aims to help Athens, but you can expect to see a directory of locally-owned businesses, resources for buying locally, lists of benefits for buying locally, and some members-only perks (to name just a few things!).

Now let me introduce to you the Buy Local Athens/We Are Athens Board.

Officers:

Catrina Cook (J House Media), Chair
Angi Harben (Classic Center), Co-Chair
Janet Geddis (Avid Bookshop), Secretary
Fausto Sarmiento (Banco de la Oportunidad/First American Bank & Trust), Treasurer
Chris Blackmon (ATLAS Real Estate Advisors) and Sam Drennen (First American Bank & Trust), Planning Committee
Alicia Nickles (Flagpole), Marketing Chair
Candice Courcey (Urban Sanctuary Day Spa), Membership Chair


Whether or not you're in Athens, I encourage you to look around and discover (or rediscover) the true gems of your town:  locally-owned, independent businesses that enhance your community.

If you're new to the "buy local" movement, look around at these resources that explain the ways your community can be enhanced through a focus on local businesses:

Good place to start:  Why Buy Local?
"New Study Shows Power of "Buy Local" campaigns
IndieBound.org
Chris Wyrick's article in the ABH about why buying local makes sense
Buying Local is a Growing Trend (Bookselling This Week article)

Our Buy Local Book Club is getting some good attention.  Please consider stopping by!  The book we chose is really great, but if you can't get your hands on a copy before the meeting, that's okay--we'll be able to have a good conversation all the same. I hope you'll join us.

Have a lovely (snowy) day!

the grant that almost was...

For quite awhile now, I've been gearing up to submit a grant application to Pepsi's Refresh Everything program.  To make a long story short, Pepsi is giving away lots of monthly grants in various amounts (smallest grant is $5,000; biggest one is $250,000).  I was pretty proud of the application I put together, complete with my second-ever iMovie.

12:01 AM EST today, March 1st, the voting opened.  And I could not log in correctly.  I kept getting a welcome screen for a 50-year-old named Stacey.  (I'm not Stacey, and I'm not 50.  I'm Janet, and I'm 30.) When they finally did recognize me as Janet Geddis of Avid Bookshop, they had no application on file for me.  Frustrating to say the least!

As of 12:22 AM, 1000 ideas had been submitted and the submission process was closed.  Alas. Sorry, Avid wallet.

It's not much of a consolation to know that hundreds of others had similar difficulties.  I applaud Pepsi's willingness to donate grant money to causes that will effect positive change in the world, but I do wish they'd anticipated the turnout a bit more and been able to handle the traffic.

Because you are an Avid blog reader, you get to watch the video that was part of my seemingly lost application!  Lucky, lucky you. 

I can't embed the video because it's wide-screen, so click here to view it.

Photo show & informal Avid fundraiser this Monday, Feb. 1st

Throughout February, some of my photographs will be on display at the Flicker Theatre & Bar. This photo show opening night get-together will also serve as a casual fundraiser for Avid Bookshop, as all proceeds from photo sales will go directly to our online bookstore funds.

DONATIONS* will be gratefully accepted whether or not you choose to buy a photograph. I'm currently saving up some money so that I may open an online store that will allow customers worldwide to have access to over 1.1 million titles. It is my hope that money I make from this photo show will allow me to establish the full-service Avid website sooner than later. (We'll keep our already-established book inventory through Biblio.com as well.)




On Facebook?  RSVP here!

Thank you, and please spread the word if you feel so inclined!




*Avid Bookshop is not a certified 501(c)3 nonprofit, so donations made to the bookstore cannot be used as tax write-offs. All donations will be given and gratefully accepted in good faith to support this community-focused center.

We're on Facebook!

Most of you already know this, but I'll say it here for good measure:  Avid now has a Facebook fan page!  Please consider becoming a fan, and if your business has a Facebook page, please spread the word so that I may check it out!

5 of my favorite reads of 2009

I've read a little more than 60 books this year, and there wasn't a truly bad one in the bunch.  (My adoration for Mary Tyler Moore prevents me from talking too negatively about her most recent autobiographical adventure, a book I really wanted to love.)

Despite having liked the vast majority of books I read in 2009, there are a handful that definitely stand out.  Below, in no particular order, are some favorite 2009 reads.  (Note:  just because I read them in '09 doesn't necessarily mean they were published in '09.)  Click on any title for a full synopsis of the book, courtesy of Indiebound.org.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

I found this book profoundly moving and very well-written.  Jordan does an excellent job of showing us how circumstances shape us (and how sometimes we turn into versions of ourselves we'd never, ever suspect). I highly recommend this to anyone 16+.







The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

At this year's Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance trade show, I went to a panel called "Got Us Shaking in Our Boots" to hear a handful of authors speak about their haunting fictional creations.  As someone who reads very little mystery and horror, I thought it important to attend this session--I wanted to become more educated for my own benefit but also to better work with Avid customers who like this genre.  To my pleasant surprise, I was blown away by Carrie Ryan's work.  I recommend it for people 13+ who have enjoyed Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and (dare I say it?) Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.

Oh!: A Mystery of "Mono No Aware" by Todd Shimoda

While at the Chin Music Press booth at Book Expo America this year, my partner in crime and I had the opportunity to meet the intelligent and amiable Todd Shimoda.  Jim and he got along swimmingly, and before I knew it we both had autographed copies of Shimoda's book in our hands.  And what a beautiful book it is! The people of Chin Music Press pride themselves on high-quality, appealing design.  (Check out their site for more examples of their work.)  The content is as compelling as the book's look.  Shimoda's story is sparse in some places, rich with detail and emotion in others.  I could say I recommend it to those interested in Japanese culture and those moved by the beauty of sadness.  But if I were to say that, I'd sound more than a bit silly and maybe even pretty snobby--but I'd be telling the truth.  This is a book I might never have read had I encountered it in any other way--but I'm so glad I met the author and decided to give it a chance.  I just loved it.


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
I picked this up for a friend while shopping at Bound to Be Read Books and ended up reading it myself first.  (That's excusable, right?  I mean, I don't dog-ear pages or crack the spines open more than two inches!)  Months later, I had the pleasure of sitting in at Bound to Be Read's monthly book club meeting and had a fun time discussing this novel with other readers.  It's very funny in parts, but there exists also a nearly overwhelming sadness to the plotline.  There are hand-drawnsketches throughout the book, and these bring levity to some of the seriousness of the story.  I recommend it for mature kids and adults (14+).




The Great Neighborhood Book by Jay Walliasper

I picked this up while browsing the shelves at Urban Think! Bookstore in Orlando, Florida earlier this month.  As someone really interested in my own neighborhood's well-being (and as the secretary of Athens's new-ish Buy Local initiative), I thought that this book would make a useful purchase.  To my surprise, I gobbled it up within a day, scribbling feverishly in the margins and underlining ideas that would work well in Athens.  If you're wanting to learn ways to make your neighborhood feel more homey, to make your neighborhood safe, to make your neighborhood more of the place you dream of, this is the book for you.  I've already recommended it to several like-minded friends in town--won't you give it a shot as well?





Many of you already shared your favorite 2009 reads on our Facebook page, but I know there are more of you out there!  Feel free to use the comments section below to tell us what you loved best this year.