The Ups and Downs of the Internet--You Can Plug Us on a National Site, but You Can't Buy Harry Potter Ebooks From Us.

The Huffington Post has its second annual photo gallery for Independence Day celebrating independent bookstores.  They are allowing customers to load their slides online.  Stacie (while on vacation) noticed that Boswell was slide #7, and it's a picture of Shane and Andy that comes from our promotion for We, The Drowned.  So it was particularly exciting to have a website include us. Then I looked at the reader comments and we were not mentioned, so then I didn't know what to think. But then my friend Kristin from Seattle wrote to me and said, "No, it's a good thing." OK, I'm happy.

Here's the slide show.

Then our pal Mike came in and told me that he knew of a bookstore that was opening in another city that was using Boswell as one of their models. Hmmmm...they are going to find a crazy person to blog about every photo spotted on a national website and wonder whether it will help the store?  Go for it! 

I'm actually proud of both things.  Don't worry about us getting cocky.  We're being knocked back a rung on hearing that Harry Potter will be available as an authorized ebook only through the official Pottermore website. The publisher gets a cut, but the retailer, no.

Sigh.

So back to the printed word.  I wanted to say what a good time I had at Outpost last night with Kelly Dorfman, as well as with Margaret, Zach*, and the rest of our Coop friends. Here's a photo of the community room, which is connected to the rest of the store with a big garage door that opens when necessary.

*I apologize if I spelled your name wrong. It's been a long time since we worked together at Schwartz.