Village Squire, 1978-09, Page 13month in the winter time. You're just running all the time."
During that busy season she employs a lot of part time help in
the store, a luxury she can't afford most of the time in a small
shop. Usually the store is manned solely by herself or sometimes
by her daughter.
Other peak times of the year in the business are June for year
end book prizes for stucjents and Sunday School classes. July and
August sales are boosted by the tourists that are more and more
finding the Stonetown.
She tries to maintain a certain image for her shop, one of
selling quality books. There is another shop in town which
carries the mass -distribution paperbacks so she doesn't feel she
has to deal with that kind of book. She doesn't, for instance carry
Harlequin Romances, though she realizes that probably she
should as far as revenue is concerned. If she ever expanded, she
says, she probably would.
"I've kept the image of a 'good' book," Mrs. Johnston says.
Still, she does carry paperbacks though, ones she considers
better quality and ones that prove popular. The James Herriot
veterinary stories, for instance, go out nearly as fast as they
arrive.
One of the areas she specializes in is the Children's book
section. Books are something children should be introduced to at
an early age, she feels. Babies still in the arms at six months of
age should be shown books. Later, it is "the most marvellous
way to put children to bed" to read them a story, she says.
She works hard at keeping only "good" books in stock for
children, she says. She says there are excellent books at 95 cents
and some magnificent ones at $11.95, but she concentrates on
the 95 cent to $2.95 paperback. She says she never orders a
children's book unless she's read it herself or at least looked at .
it to see what the illustrations are like and how it's presented.
She says she's_proud of her children's section.
That kind of care in selection of books sold goes through the
entire store. She reads a lot herself she says, though like most
people who run book stores she now finds little time available for
her favourite past time. Still when she's on vacation she'll take
along a stack of books and she's a very fast reader, she says. Her
research is also helped out by the reading habits of her daughter
and her husband who both read a good deal.
Some of the sections of the book shop are much superior to
others, she says. "Personal preference has to enter into it," she
says of ordering books. Personal preference also helps in book
selling because she admits that if the bookseller really likes an
author she is more likely to push that author's work. However,
she says, now that she's running the book shop she often doesn't
get as much time to read each book and so will not highly
recommend a book unless she's read it and not just the reviews
of the books. Instead she will say that perhaps someone she
knows who reads historical romances liked that book or such
advice as that. -
Still, she says, her favourites do tend to get remarkably high
sales. Laurence Durrell's Alexandrian Quartet, for instance is
not usually a big seller but in this shop it has sold 20-30 copies
because she herself finds it very good, very readable and very
well written.
Locally -oriented books have also proven very popular.
Elizabeth Wilmot's Meet Me At The Station,for instance, which
features two St. Marys railway stations has sold perhaps 150
copies, she says, even though the price is higher than many
people would normally spend on a book, and though she has a
drawing area of perhaps 15,000 people.
Keeping up with the latest events in publishing is one of the
big challenges for a bookseller. "You're constantly bombarded
with catalogues and literature," she says. "I subscribe to
Saturday Review of Literature and Scribners and New Yorker
and Manchester Guardian New York Times and read the reviews
in all the local newspapers. The London Free Press. the Globe
and Mail and The Toronto Star and you become fairly adept at
sort of sifting what will and won't sell. I know that books on
American politics won't sell. I know that anything with an ethnic
background such as Jewish will not sell. There iust isn't a market
(-mPRSHALL'S
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fflARS HALL'S
The Grand Central Hotel built in
1843, was for decades a welcom-
ing place to spend the night.
Today it is a group of three
connecting shops. What was once
the lane for horses & buggies to
reach the stable at the back is now
a charming CARD & CANDLE
SHOP. The original bar is now the
LADIES WEAR with its handcraft
section. Browse on into the GIFT
SHOP, once the dining room.
where full use has been made of
the charm of this old building.
Many of the o'riginal antiques are
used to display imports from
around the world.
Si. fflARYS
"WHERE THE UNUSUAL IS USUAL"
GIFT SHOP LADIES WEAR CARD SHOP
150 QUEEN ST.
"DO COME VISIT US SOON"
284-3070
PG. 12. VILLAGE SQUiftE/SEPTEMBER 1978.