Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Introductory Price for Harvard Square Tour
Well I had a conversation with Mitch Gaslin of Food For Thought Books (my tour-departure store) and decided that I am going to offer a great introductory price after all. I'm going to be depending on my first-time riders to help me understand what it is that makes a great bookstore tour, and the least I can do to compensate them for my own inexperience is to charge them a price that feels pretty low. I think that $29 does feel like a great deal, and I can cover the expense of the bus if I get a few dozen riders, which seems definitely doable at that low a price! Now I have to settle down, write some publicity material, and start the promotional work. Only six weeks till my first tour.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
New York for Book Expo
I've just booked a 29 seat bus from Amherst to New York for Saturday, June 2, which is the weekend Book Expo America will be in the city. Since there will be lots of author events around town, this seems like a great day to be running a bookstore tour. More info to come.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Special Introductory Price Level
OK now that I've got a specific tour that I need to sell tickets for, I'm wrestling with the question of what my Special Introductory Price should be. That is: I'm prepared to charge pretty much any level to ensure that this first bus is full of riders, because these 57 people will be my key word-of-mouth promoters for future trips.
Should I make this trip FREE?
Should I charge something that feels nominal, like $19.99?
Or is this approach a mistake, and should I make the introductory price for this first trip something like $49, so as to ensure that when the price does go up for future trips people don't get mad at me or something?
Should I make this trip FREE?
Should I charge something that feels nominal, like $19.99?
Or is this approach a mistake, and should I make the introductory price for this first trip something like $49, so as to ensure that when the price does go up for future trips people don't get mad at me or something?
Monday, March 19, 2007
First Trip: Mayfair In Harvard Square
Hooray! I've broken the ice, and booked a 57-seat luxury motorcoach, for Sunday, May 6th. The first BiblioExpedition!
We'll depart from Amherst, Massachusetts at about 8am and travel to Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) for the annual Mayfair Festival. This runs from Noon to 6pm and it's a BIG party (100,000 people...) The folks at Harvard Bookstore have a variety of literary events in the works -- I'll add more info as it becomes available. Suffice to say several readings at several bookstores, with a dinner at the end of the day. We'll plan to be back in Amherst at perhaps 11pm.
We'll depart from Amherst, Massachusetts at about 8am and travel to Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) for the annual Mayfair Festival. This runs from Noon to 6pm and it's a BIG party (100,000 people...) The folks at Harvard Bookstore have a variety of literary events in the works -- I'll add more info as it becomes available. Suffice to say several readings at several bookstores, with a dinner at the end of the day. We'll plan to be back in Amherst at perhaps 11pm.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Full of new ideas
Great trip yesterday to Chester County Book Company and then on to Politics & Prose in D.C. Joe Drabyak of CCBC has given a LOT of thought to this whole bookstore tourism racket (because Larry Portzline brought a busload of booklovers to that store two years ago). Joe pointed me to the fields of Food Tourism and Adventure Tourism, as models: he thinks a multi-day approach is a major opportunity. Also, he described a fascinating on-bus author-event approach he'd thought of that would feature non-fiction-book author/presenters whose titles related thematically and regionally to the interests of riders and the locales of tours. He warned me, "God is in the details!" adjuring that I produce high quality programs.
Down at Politics & Prose, Carla Cohen and Barbara Mead were both encouraging and cautionary. They've run quite a number of tours themselves -- to Fallingwater (the Frank Lloyd Wright house), to the Hudson Valley (Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Estates), and most recently to Mexico for ten days! I learned that I should not book bus-riders into a motel just because the price seems right...and some other hazards of dealing with 50 strong-minded customers. I was delighted that Carla has already been toying with the idea of bringing a tourgroup up my way to the Pioneer Valley, where she'd like to visit the book museums here in Amherst.
I drove back this morning, between two and nine am and I am feeling pretty woozy. But I think I did have the breakthrough I was looking for, conceptually. I have realized that the marketing approach will rely on the ongoing events schedules of the participating bookstores -- so, I will issue "hot event alerts" to my newsletter subscribers, touting upcoming events at regional bookstores, and offering transit+fun to these events' cities... AND -- the branding of the programs, at their core -- the essence -- is Among Friends. People will go on these tours in order to have a good time with other people. And, I'm thinking about the slogan: "BiblioExpeditions: Carried Away!" -- to suggest the party aspect. I can use the 18 seat specially fixtured luxury buses, for instance, and run food and drink service during the travel. Here's a page describing and picturing such a bus.
We can have poetry reading, good conversation -- conviviality -- the atmosphere of a Literary Salon.
You know, it's a very funny thing: to be developing a business concept in public like this. I would say that it violates the basic principles of business, to talk about this stuff in a manner that almost INVITES pre-emption. If I hadn't had this experience in the past, I couldn't do it now. I love the whole Open Source ethic. If anyone reading this blog gets excited about anything you read here: by all means, get into this business yourself. These kinds of specially fixtured luxury- and party-buses are in use all over the country. Why shouldn't we literary types and booklovers integrate them into our marketing campaigns?
Enough for now. I hope to have some specific products/programs ready for sale in about two weeks.
Down at Politics & Prose, Carla Cohen and Barbara Mead were both encouraging and cautionary. They've run quite a number of tours themselves -- to Fallingwater (the Frank Lloyd Wright house), to the Hudson Valley (Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Estates), and most recently to Mexico for ten days! I learned that I should not book bus-riders into a motel just because the price seems right...and some other hazards of dealing with 50 strong-minded customers. I was delighted that Carla has already been toying with the idea of bringing a tourgroup up my way to the Pioneer Valley, where she'd like to visit the book museums here in Amherst.
I drove back this morning, between two and nine am and I am feeling pretty woozy. But I think I did have the breakthrough I was looking for, conceptually. I have realized that the marketing approach will rely on the ongoing events schedules of the participating bookstores -- so, I will issue "hot event alerts" to my newsletter subscribers, touting upcoming events at regional bookstores, and offering transit+fun to these events' cities... AND -- the branding of the programs, at their core -- the essence -- is Among Friends. People will go on these tours in order to have a good time with other people. And, I'm thinking about the slogan: "BiblioExpeditions: Carried Away!" -- to suggest the party aspect. I can use the 18 seat specially fixtured luxury buses, for instance, and run food and drink service during the travel. Here's a page describing and picturing such a bus.
We can have poetry reading, good conversation -- conviviality -- the atmosphere of a Literary Salon.
You know, it's a very funny thing: to be developing a business concept in public like this. I would say that it violates the basic principles of business, to talk about this stuff in a manner that almost INVITES pre-emption. If I hadn't had this experience in the past, I couldn't do it now. I love the whole Open Source ethic. If anyone reading this blog gets excited about anything you read here: by all means, get into this business yourself. These kinds of specially fixtured luxury- and party-buses are in use all over the country. Why shouldn't we literary types and booklovers integrate them into our marketing campaigns?
Enough for now. I hope to have some specific products/programs ready for sale in about two weeks.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Harvard Bookstore, Chester County, Politics & Prose
Continuing on my fact-finding and alliance-building tour, I spent the morning at Harvard Bookstore talking with marketing director Amanda Darling and owner Frank Kramer. The exciting new ideas keep on coming. My favorite was Amanda's notion of bringing professors on the buses to do the literary talking, instead of relying (solely, at least) on authors. She pointed out that a bus from Cambridge to Amherst could stop in South Hadley, pick up a professor from Mt. Holyoke College, and this prof could give a 20 minute lecture about Emily Dickinson and the bus continued up into Amherst to land at Emily Dickinson House! I love the idea of using college professors to provide the enhanced literary travel experiences of all kinds.
Tomorrow I leave Amherst at 3am to travel to Chester County Book Company, west of Philadelphia, where I'll meet with Joe Drabyak, current prez of NAIBA and a veteran of Larry Portzline's bookstore tour program (Larry brought a group to Chester County B.C. a few years ago). Then I'll continue south to see Carla Cohen at Politics & Prose, overnight in D.C., and return to Amherst Thursday morning.
At that point, I think I'll be ready to design the first batch of programs. While I still hope to have tickets for sale by the end of March, I now doubt that I'll really be running any tours in April. I think the first will be in May.
Tomorrow I leave Amherst at 3am to travel to Chester County Book Company, west of Philadelphia, where I'll meet with Joe Drabyak, current prez of NAIBA and a veteran of Larry Portzline's bookstore tour program (Larry brought a group to Chester County B.C. a few years ago). Then I'll continue south to see Carla Cohen at Politics & Prose, overnight in D.C., and return to Amherst Thursday morning.
At that point, I think I'll be ready to design the first batch of programs. While I still hope to have tickets for sale by the end of March, I now doubt that I'll really be running any tours in April. I think the first will be in May.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Food For Thought/Bookmarks
Last Wednesday I met with the worker/owners of Food For Thought, in Amherst, who seemed quite high on the proposal that their store be the pick-up/drop-off focal point of outgoing and incoming bookstore-tours to the Pioneer Valler.
Since Suzy Staubach, who runs the trade bookstore at University of Connecticut, told me a month ago that she'd be happy to act as a departure point, this means that right now I have a network composed of 1) Strand Books in New York; 2) Northshire Bookstore in Southwest Vermont; 3) Food For Thought in Amherst; 4) UConn Co-op in Storrs; 5) Politics & Prose in D.C.
Next week I hope to talk with the folks at Harvard Bookstore, in Cambridge. And -- Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book Company, outside of Philadelphia (he's current Prez of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Assoc) says he's very interested, too, and we'll be meeting in the next week or two.
This then clears the way for me to design some tours for April, and ideally start selling tickets later in March.
Later this year, the Amherst/Northampton area will be the center of an elaborate book-related cluster of programs. Since this promotion -- called Bookmarks -- is specifically designed to boost cultural tourism to the area, it's a natural for a BiblioExpeditions functional tie-in. I'm posting the recent press release. Perhaps it can serve as inspiration for the development of analagous programs around the country!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Museums10 to Present BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book
Barry Moser’s Artwork Official Logo of Fall/Winter Festival
March 2, 2007
Contact: Tony Maroulis
Project Coordinator
Museums10
413-687-2757
amaroulis@fivecolleges.edu
AMHERST, Mass. – Museums10*, a partnership of ten museums in the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, which is facilitated by Five Colleges, Inc., has announced plans for their second cross-cultural initiative: BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book. Artwork created by Barry Moser, nationally renowned artist and illustrator of over 250 books, will serve as the official logo of the upcoming series of exhibitions, readings, and programming that officially kicks off in September 2007 and runs through January 2008.
The mission of the three-year-old partnership is to promote the region using the museums as a magnet for cultural tourism, in turn spurring a measurable economic impact for cultural partners and businesses throughout the Valley. Based on the success of last year’s GoDutch! there is evidence that the Museums10 collaborative model works. GoDutch! exhibitions and programming corresponded with a 15% increase in aggregate attendance at the museums, bucking a downward trend in national museum attendance overall.
With a robust slate of events, and by using the Valley’s literary pedigree as inspiration, Museums10 is confident that the BookMarks initiative will bring a great deal of regional and national interest to Western Massachusetts. That confidence is shared by local Chambers of Commerce and The Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, who have pledged their support to Museums10 for this project.
The BookMarks logo by Barry Moser, an engraving created by the artist exclusively for this year’s initiative, will be the centerpiece of a comprehensive marketing plan that includes radio, print, television, and web advertising. Museums10 hopes to increase their visibility beyond the borders of Western Massachusetts and into the New York City and Boston areas to reach the market for cultural tourists. The local advertising by Museums10 will be geared to informing its local audience of the world-class museum collections in their backyards.
The collaboration is not limited to Museums10, and is intended to create ties among cultural organizations and businesses throughout the Valley. Programmatic partners such as the Amherst Cinema Arts Center and Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association – whose contributions to the collaboration will include programming related to the BookMarks theme – as well as economic partners such as restaurants, booksellers, hotels and inns will benefit from Museums10’s promotion of the project outside the region.
“The collective energy around BookMarks programming and exhibitions highlights the creative activity and economy of Western Massachusetts,” says Marianne Doezema, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. “The stunning logo by Barry Moser is a perfect example of the area’s rich pool of talent. The world class collections, history museums, performing arts venues, and art galleries along with the great numbers of notable artists, writers, bookmakers, and people in the literary fields throughout Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties are just part of the rich tapestry that makes the Pioneer Valley a great place to live, work, or visit.”
Plans for BookMarks will highlight the rich literary history and culture of the region, as well as the work of contemporary local artists. A full listing of Museums10/BookMarks exhibitions can be found at www.museums10.org. Below is a sampling of what’s ahead:
Two by Two: Lines, Rhymes, and Riddles at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum featuring the poetry and artwork of the Leithauser brothers – local prize-winning poet and Mount Holyoke professor Brad and his brother and artist Mark.
Poetic Science: Bookworks by Daniel E. Kelm at the Smith College Museum of Art. This is the first solo exhibition in New England of the Easthampton-based artist and bookbinder featuring thirty works by the artist.
Spiderwick from Page to Screen at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The transformation of the words and pictures of Amherst residents Holly Black and Tony diTerlizzi’s Spiderwick Chronicles to the silver screen will be the focus of the Carle’s BookMarks offering.
In addition to the exhibition schedule, Museums10 is also sponsoring three themed programming weekends: The Art of the Book will be the focus of lectures, events, and programming from September 20-23; October 12-14 will feature Books Out Loud with readings at museums and independent bookstores throughout the Valley; and from November 15-18, The Book: Past and Future will look at where the book is headed in the digital age and beyond.
“The process of planning BookMarks has been an eye-opening experience. We have invited a number of key constituencies to the table – among them book sellers, librarians, and business leaders - to help us plan events around our exhibitions. The ideas have proved plentiful and exciting. We think there will be something in BookMarks for everyone,” said Doezema. “There is still plenty of time and opportunity for businesses and programmatic partners to get involved.”
There is no cost for businesses and cultural institutions to participate in this unique cross-promotional project. For more details, please contact Tony Maroulis, Museums10 project coordinator at amaroulis@fivecolleges.edu.
Museums10 is a partnership of ten outstanding museums - Amherst College Museum of Natural History, Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Historic Deerfield, Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, National Yiddish Book Center, Smith College Museum of Art, and University Gallery at UMass Amherst – in one gorgeous place: the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. For more information about Museums10, please visit www.museums10.org.
Since Suzy Staubach, who runs the trade bookstore at University of Connecticut, told me a month ago that she'd be happy to act as a departure point, this means that right now I have a network composed of 1) Strand Books in New York; 2) Northshire Bookstore in Southwest Vermont; 3) Food For Thought in Amherst; 4) UConn Co-op in Storrs; 5) Politics & Prose in D.C.
Next week I hope to talk with the folks at Harvard Bookstore, in Cambridge. And -- Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book Company, outside of Philadelphia (he's current Prez of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Assoc) says he's very interested, too, and we'll be meeting in the next week or two.
This then clears the way for me to design some tours for April, and ideally start selling tickets later in March.
Later this year, the Amherst/Northampton area will be the center of an elaborate book-related cluster of programs. Since this promotion -- called Bookmarks -- is specifically designed to boost cultural tourism to the area, it's a natural for a BiblioExpeditions functional tie-in. I'm posting the recent press release. Perhaps it can serve as inspiration for the development of analagous programs around the country!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Museums10 to Present BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book
Barry Moser’s Artwork Official Logo of Fall/Winter Festival
March 2, 2007
Contact: Tony Maroulis
Project Coordinator
Museums10
413-687-2757
amaroulis@fivecolleges.edu
AMHERST, Mass. – Museums10*, a partnership of ten museums in the upper Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, which is facilitated by Five Colleges, Inc., has announced plans for their second cross-cultural initiative: BookMarks: A Celebration of the Art of the Book. Artwork created by Barry Moser, nationally renowned artist and illustrator of over 250 books, will serve as the official logo of the upcoming series of exhibitions, readings, and programming that officially kicks off in September 2007 and runs through January 2008.
The mission of the three-year-old partnership is to promote the region using the museums as a magnet for cultural tourism, in turn spurring a measurable economic impact for cultural partners and businesses throughout the Valley. Based on the success of last year’s GoDutch! there is evidence that the Museums10 collaborative model works. GoDutch! exhibitions and programming corresponded with a 15% increase in aggregate attendance at the museums, bucking a downward trend in national museum attendance overall.
With a robust slate of events, and by using the Valley’s literary pedigree as inspiration, Museums10 is confident that the BookMarks initiative will bring a great deal of regional and national interest to Western Massachusetts. That confidence is shared by local Chambers of Commerce and The Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, who have pledged their support to Museums10 for this project.
The BookMarks logo by Barry Moser, an engraving created by the artist exclusively for this year’s initiative, will be the centerpiece of a comprehensive marketing plan that includes radio, print, television, and web advertising. Museums10 hopes to increase their visibility beyond the borders of Western Massachusetts and into the New York City and Boston areas to reach the market for cultural tourists. The local advertising by Museums10 will be geared to informing its local audience of the world-class museum collections in their backyards.
The collaboration is not limited to Museums10, and is intended to create ties among cultural organizations and businesses throughout the Valley. Programmatic partners such as the Amherst Cinema Arts Center and Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association – whose contributions to the collaboration will include programming related to the BookMarks theme – as well as economic partners such as restaurants, booksellers, hotels and inns will benefit from Museums10’s promotion of the project outside the region.
“The collective energy around BookMarks programming and exhibitions highlights the creative activity and economy of Western Massachusetts,” says Marianne Doezema, director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. “The stunning logo by Barry Moser is a perfect example of the area’s rich pool of talent. The world class collections, history museums, performing arts venues, and art galleries along with the great numbers of notable artists, writers, bookmakers, and people in the literary fields throughout Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties are just part of the rich tapestry that makes the Pioneer Valley a great place to live, work, or visit.”
Plans for BookMarks will highlight the rich literary history and culture of the region, as well as the work of contemporary local artists. A full listing of Museums10/BookMarks exhibitions can be found at www.museums10.org. Below is a sampling of what’s ahead:
Two by Two: Lines, Rhymes, and Riddles at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum featuring the poetry and artwork of the Leithauser brothers – local prize-winning poet and Mount Holyoke professor Brad and his brother and artist Mark.
Poetic Science: Bookworks by Daniel E. Kelm at the Smith College Museum of Art. This is the first solo exhibition in New England of the Easthampton-based artist and bookbinder featuring thirty works by the artist.
Spiderwick from Page to Screen at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The transformation of the words and pictures of Amherst residents Holly Black and Tony diTerlizzi’s Spiderwick Chronicles to the silver screen will be the focus of the Carle’s BookMarks offering.
In addition to the exhibition schedule, Museums10 is also sponsoring three themed programming weekends: The Art of the Book will be the focus of lectures, events, and programming from September 20-23; October 12-14 will feature Books Out Loud with readings at museums and independent bookstores throughout the Valley; and from November 15-18, The Book: Past and Future will look at where the book is headed in the digital age and beyond.
“The process of planning BookMarks has been an eye-opening experience. We have invited a number of key constituencies to the table – among them book sellers, librarians, and business leaders - to help us plan events around our exhibitions. The ideas have proved plentiful and exciting. We think there will be something in BookMarks for everyone,” said Doezema. “There is still plenty of time and opportunity for businesses and programmatic partners to get involved.”
There is no cost for businesses and cultural institutions to participate in this unique cross-promotional project. For more details, please contact Tony Maroulis, Museums10 project coordinator at amaroulis@fivecolleges.edu.
Museums10 is a partnership of ten outstanding museums - Amherst College Museum of Natural History, Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Historic Deerfield, Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, National Yiddish Book Center, Smith College Museum of Art, and University Gallery at UMass Amherst – in one gorgeous place: the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. For more information about Museums10, please visit www.museums10.org.
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