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| Stacey Moore, Book Grove | |
The Australian Booksellers Association's newsletter showcased a new service from Stacey Moore, owner of indie bookstore Bookgrove in Ocean Grove, Victoria. Moore has launched "BreakAway Books" Locum Booksellers to assist bookstore owners and managers with "finding trained, reliable and honest people to manage and/or work in their bookstore. If you need someone to come in and manage for a period of time or to even work some shifts, then I can assist with this. At this stage, it is just me who is available and I am keen to travel and work anywhere within Australia."
Since opening Bookgrove in 2009, Moore noted, one of the biggest challenges she faced was "the ability to go on extended breaks for recreational and/or medical or careers reasons, and leave the business in capable hands. I have often wondered about what we can do as a community of booksellers on this issue that affects many 1-3 person-operated bookstores, or even larger bookstores when trained staff are in demand."
As a result of personal experiences and conversations with other booksellers over the years, Moore conceived the idea of providing such a service to fellow bookstore owners: "I am now in a position at Bookgrove with ongoing trusted staff and in my own life, with my children now living elsewhere, that I am freer to explore new horizons and to create Breakaway Books Locum Booksellers to service this challenge and my desire to combine travel and work."
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Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail has announced the return of its weekend standalone arts and books section, beginning next month. Quill & Quire reported that in a recent letter to advertisers, the Globe said the section, which comes back September 10 after "its pandemic hiatus," will feature increased numbers of book reviews and monthly roundups in addition to seasonal literary guides and listings.
"This will be welcome news for publishers, writers and booksellers as review coverage in newspapers has shrunk over the years, even though book reviews and profiles are seen as important drivers of sales," Quill & Quire wrote.
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In Turkey, a "mere love for books would not make one a bookseller in Heybeliada, an island of around 5,000 people off the coast of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara, where foot traffic increases only during the summer months," Anadolu Agency reported.
"It demands an act of courage," said Nazim Hikmat Erkan, the owner of Heybeli Sahaf (Heybeli Antiquarian's Shop) who moved to Istanbul's second largest island five years ago and then decided to open a shop there as fellow islanders insisted they needed a bookshop. Erkan said that he also aims to "bridge people with their history."
Before moving to the island, Erkan had been running an old bookshop in Istanbul's historic Taksim district. A year after opening Heybeli Sahaf in mid-2016, he closed his shop in Taksim to focus on the island store. --Robert Gray