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.

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.

GA Historical Society could use your used books!

(Thanks to Christa from primo Atlanta blog pecannelog for the heads-up. I've cut and pasted the Georgia Historical Society's email below.)


Georgia Historical Society Book Sale in Jeopardy! 

The Georgia Historical Society needs your used books for its Annual Book Sale to be held April 23-24, 2010. Based on the current level of donations, this year's sale will be cancelled due to the low volume of books. Clean out your closets and clear away your clutter to support this annual fund-raising event!

This popular annual event raises greatly-needed funds for GHS's library and archives. Faced with more budget cuts from the State, the revenue from the Book Sale is needed more than ever. Proceeds from the sale are used to purchase new library materials and to care for the oldest collection of Georgia history in existence.

Donations, of all sizes, can include rare and non-rare: fiction, poetry, children's, and all non-fiction subjects including history, biography, current events, how-to, religion, business, self-help, cooking, gardening, etc.

Magazines/journals, obsolete audio/video, and games donations will not be accepted.

Donations to the Book Sale are tax deductible. For more information or to volunteer, contact GHS at 912-651-2128 or email us at library@georgiahistory.com.

 The Georgia Historical Society, headquartered in Savannah with offices in Atlanta and Affiliate Chapters in 80 counties, is the oldest cultural institution in the state and one of the oldest historical organizations in the nation. It is the first and only statewide historical society in Georgia. For nearly 175 years, GHS has collected, preserved, and shared Georgia and American history through a variety of educational outreach programs, publications, and research services. For more information visit:   www.georgiahistory.com.

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.