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!

It's not too late to get your Unchained Tour books!

If you're like me, you're pretty bummed that the Unchained Tour of Georgia is over (for now, at least!).  Why not curl up with one of the storytellers' books and relive the magic, humor, and poignancy of that Moth-style storytelling tour?

There's been a lot of good press about this phenomenal tour, but author (and Moth podcast host) Dan Kennedy probably summed it up most beautifully here.

We ordered a lot of books to sell at the October 20th Athens event, but there are limited copies of some titles left. Before we return these books to the publisher, we want to give you a chance to buy them from Avid Bookshop, Athens's independent, neighborhood bookstore.

1. Baby of the Family by Tina McElroy Ansa: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648683.html
2. You Know Better by Tina McElroy Ansa: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648687.html
3. Loser Goes First by Dan Kennedy: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648686.html
4. The Caveman's Valentine by George Dawes Green: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648685.html
5. Ravens by George Dawes Green: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648688.html
6. The Border Will Be Soon by Chad Faries: http://www.biblio.com/books/367648684.html

If you're reading this after our quantities have sold out, worry not!  You can search for all these titles (and more) at our new books website:  http://avidbookshop.theretailerplace.com

Thanks!

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!

summer's sweltering heat is here...

...and it's not even summer yet! 

Ah, Georgia.  I love you and your too-cozy, energy-zapping humidity, languid evenings on the porch, and early mornings walking as the sun burns the last of the cool air away.

Things have been busy as usual around here.  That 2-week turnaround time it takes to get one's sales and use tax certificate isn't exactly...um...accurate.  It's been 9 weeks for me, so I'm alternating between pestering the state of Georgia and trying to exercise patience.

I'm honored to be a regular contributor to the popular Athens website Beyond the Trestle.  Today the site published my inaugural post; look for me on Wednesdays to talk about literature and reading. This week's entry is called "A Literary Love Affair."  Please use the comments section to let me know what you think!

What I've been up to (or, Over the Moon Bookstore & Artisan Gallery opens soon in Crozet, VA)

Last week I flew to D.C., where my friend Anne DeVault picked me up and drove me back to her hometown of Charlottesville.  I'd met Anne and her sister Laura at Paz & Associates workshop retreat this past September ("How to Open a Bookstore:  The Business Essentials"), and we'd really hit it off.  Many emails and bookselling events later, here I was on their doorstep hoping to help them in any way they'd let me.  Sure, I sound very kind and good here--but consider what they were giving me.  The hands-on experience of preparing to open a bookstore is very different from reading about the same experience.  This week was invaluable, and I'm very grateful that these friends took me into their homes and bookstore.

The proprietors of Over the Moon Bookstore & Artisan Gallery (opening next month in Crozet, Virginia) are these wonderfully smart, funny, clever women who are really going to do well.  They've been kind enough to let me look at their business plan, their bookstore layout plans, and more--I've been impressed with how well they already know their target market and how many connections they're making to the book and art worlds of their region.  On my end, I was pretty pleased to become more familiar with a bookstore point of sale (POS) system, the long spreadsheets of recommended opening store inventory, how many choices must be made before bookshelves and fixtures can be built, and more.  Living the professional lives of these enterprising sisters for just a week was really enlightening (and lots and lots of fun). 

On the Saturday I arrived, May 15th, Laura & Anne invited some folks over to their freshly-painted-but-bookshelfless space in Crozet, a beautiful and hilly town about twenty miles from Charlottesville.  Over and over I heard people expressing their excitement about the store, their happiness that someone had the guts to do this, and their belief that this place is going to be a hit.

Congratulations to my friends! Can't wait to visit the store once its doors are open. 

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)