Hitch a ride on a "Bookstore Tourism" road trip
5 ways to have fun and support independent bookstores
by lportzlineJanuary 27, 2005
When I take busloads of booklovers to visit the terrific independent bookstores in other nearby cities for the day, the first question I always ask during my morning presentation is, "How many of you are real, honest-to-goodness book addicts?"
Each time, nearly every hand on the bus shoots up.
Next I ask, "How many of you have piles and piles of books on the floor at home because you ran out of shelf space a long time ago?"
The same hands go right back up, of course, and by now everyone is looking around the bus and laughing with the realization that they're finally among their own kind!
It's always a great bonding experience for a few dozen people who, until that moment, seriously believed that they may just be the only ones in the world with this "affliction." It's also an excellent way to kick off the "Bookstore Tourism Road Trips" I've been leading for the past couple of years.
Bookstore Tourism is an innovative, grassroots travel niche that promotes independent bookstores and supports reading and literacy efforts. In a nutshell, it encourages booklovers around the country to organize day-trips and other literary outings to cities and towns with interesting, fun and unique bookshops that people in their own communities may not get to visit regularly.
Between July 2003 and June 2004, I led six sold-out bookstore trips to New York City and Washington, DC for two colleges in central Pennsylvania. Based on that experience, I wrote a how-to called "Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies."
The guide tells readers how to plan "bookstore adventures" with friends, schools, libraries and other organizations, whether the group numbers 5 or 50. It provides numerous tips and easy, step-by-step suggestions on how to research bookstores, arrange transportation, publicize trips, and create brochures and other promotional material. It also explains how communities with great indie bookshops and other literary connections can use Bookstore Tourism as an economic development tool to attract tour groups from other cities and towns.
So -- how can BookCrossing members tap into the Bookstore Tourism trend?
Here are five fairly easy ways:
1. Organize bookstore road trips with the BookCrossing members in your community: Planning an excursion to the bookstores in another city or town may take a little effort, but it's well worth it. Depending on the size of your group, you can load everyone into a couple of minivans, or, you can hire a tour bus for the day. Another thing to consider is whether you want to make it a members-only event, or open it up to the community and attract more people to the BookCrossing experience!
2. Partner with your local bookstores: Get together with the independent booksellers in town and discuss how to incorporate Bookstore Tourism into your BookCrossing efforts. Think about creating an informal coalition to attract bookstore tourists to your city. Consider ways to market your community to travelers as a "Bookstore Town" with an active, engaged, well-read population.
3. Organize bookstore road trips and release events with members in other cities: Why not plan a "Bookstore Exchange Trip" a couple of times a year with members from other communities? Or, take it a step further and start a "BookCrossing Sister City" program where you travel to the other town's bookstores and do releases. To make it even more fun, hold a contest to see which town can release the most books at the other's Official BookCrossing Zones. The one with the most catches wins!
4. Combine your bookstore road trip with other literary attractions: Many of the best Bookstore Towns were once the homes of famous authors or used as settings for well-known books. Be sure to include these attractions in your travels, and plan to do a themed release about the specific author or book while you're there.
5. Do your BookCrossing thing everywhere you go: Whether you're with a group or alone, on a bookstore road trip or just passing through, make Bookstore Tourism a regular part of your travel experience. Stop at an indie bookstore you've never visited before, take notes, and share the information with your BookCrossing buddies so they can plan a visit, too. While you're at it, take along a travel book, or a book about books, and release it on your way out of town. After all, with BookCrossing, the books become the tourists!
Larry Portzline, of Harrisburg, PA, is the author of "Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies." Visit www.bookstoretourism.com for more information.
Each time, nearly every hand on the bus shoots up.
Next I ask, "How many of you have piles and piles of books on the floor at home because you ran out of shelf space a long time ago?"
The same hands go right back up, of course, and by now everyone is looking around the bus and laughing with the realization that they're finally among their own kind!
It's always a great bonding experience for a few dozen people who, until that moment, seriously believed that they may just be the only ones in the world with this "affliction." It's also an excellent way to kick off the "Bookstore Tourism Road Trips" I've been leading for the past couple of years.
Bookstore Tourism is an innovative, grassroots travel niche that promotes independent bookstores and supports reading and literacy efforts. In a nutshell, it encourages booklovers around the country to organize day-trips and other literary outings to cities and towns with interesting, fun and unique bookshops that people in their own communities may not get to visit regularly.
Between July 2003 and June 2004, I led six sold-out bookstore trips to New York City and Washington, DC for two colleges in central Pennsylvania. Based on that experience, I wrote a how-to called "Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies."
The guide tells readers how to plan "bookstore adventures" with friends, schools, libraries and other organizations, whether the group numbers 5 or 50. It provides numerous tips and easy, step-by-step suggestions on how to research bookstores, arrange transportation, publicize trips, and create brochures and other promotional material. It also explains how communities with great indie bookshops and other literary connections can use Bookstore Tourism as an economic development tool to attract tour groups from other cities and towns.
So -- how can BookCrossing members tap into the Bookstore Tourism trend?
Here are five fairly easy ways:
1. Organize bookstore road trips with the BookCrossing members in your community: Planning an excursion to the bookstores in another city or town may take a little effort, but it's well worth it. Depending on the size of your group, you can load everyone into a couple of minivans, or, you can hire a tour bus for the day. Another thing to consider is whether you want to make it a members-only event, or open it up to the community and attract more people to the BookCrossing experience!
2. Partner with your local bookstores: Get together with the independent booksellers in town and discuss how to incorporate Bookstore Tourism into your BookCrossing efforts. Think about creating an informal coalition to attract bookstore tourists to your city. Consider ways to market your community to travelers as a "Bookstore Town" with an active, engaged, well-read population.
3. Organize bookstore road trips and release events with members in other cities: Why not plan a "Bookstore Exchange Trip" a couple of times a year with members from other communities? Or, take it a step further and start a "BookCrossing Sister City" program where you travel to the other town's bookstores and do releases. To make it even more fun, hold a contest to see which town can release the most books at the other's Official BookCrossing Zones. The one with the most catches wins!
4. Combine your bookstore road trip with other literary attractions: Many of the best Bookstore Towns were once the homes of famous authors or used as settings for well-known books. Be sure to include these attractions in your travels, and plan to do a themed release about the specific author or book while you're there.
5. Do your BookCrossing thing everywhere you go: Whether you're with a group or alone, on a bookstore road trip or just passing through, make Bookstore Tourism a regular part of your travel experience. Stop at an indie bookstore you've never visited before, take notes, and share the information with your BookCrossing buddies so they can plan a visit, too. While you're at it, take along a travel book, or a book about books, and release it on your way out of town. After all, with BookCrossing, the books become the tourists!
Larry Portzline, of Harrisburg, PA, is the author of "Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict's Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies." Visit www.bookstoretourism.com for more information.
