There are plenty of bookstore websites on the Internet and innumerable hyperlinks, but the link to the Bookloft's intriguing Thomas Pynchon Beer Bet is my current favorite. It needs an update (inquiring minds want real-time scoring as the deadline looms), but it also illustrates how a bookstore's online presence can be at once serious business and pure entertainment.
Even when we're just entertaining ourselves.
Any visit to a bookstore's website begins on the front porch--the home page. A good porch invites people to stop by and pull up a chair, but that's not enough to keep them around. You have to build a house, room opening upon room, behind that porch so visitors can enter and spend time . . . and money.
The Bookloft's website lets you know just how big its virtual house is with the first words you see on the home page: "Welcome! See that search bar just above? Through that portal you can find all the books in print in the USA!" And just in case you don't find your book in print, the BerkshireBooks.com link nearby takes care of out-of-print alternatives.
"We are paying more attention to linking," said the Bookloft's owner Eric Wilska. In addition to offering a series of portals between thebookloft.com and BerkshireBooks.com, the Bookloft creates hyperlinks that encourage visitors to move through and even beyond the website to complementary national or regional sites.
Nationally, consider the pigeon book.
Wilska has made a concentrated handselling commitment to Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman, a local author. "We're making a big push on the pigeon book," Wilska said, pointing to his own Staff Pick.
The bookstore offers signed copies and free shipping on the title. A series of links promote the book nationally while directing potential buyers back to the Bookloft's website.
A link at the bottom of Wilska's Staff Pick directs you to an interview with the author at the website for The Humane Society of the United States, where a box-link at the end of the interview returns the favor, stating: "Copies of the book signed by the author are available only through Blechman's hometown bookstore, The Bookloft. Because The Bookloft supports HSUS efforts to protect pigeons and all animals, the store is offering signed copies for customers ordering online."
That's not all. "If you go to Andrew's site, he refers people back to the Bookloft," said Wilska. Clicking on a Buy the Book link brings you to a page where Bechman offers his own recommendation to "buy signed copies of Pigeons at the author's hometown independent bookstore."
On the local and regional level, the Bookloft's Community Services link highlights programs for local teachers, insitutions and authors (the latter with a link out to Wilska's book-on-demand company, The Troy Book Makers). Also featured is another link out of the website to an innovative "shop local" program called BerkShares.
Locally, regionally or nationally, the goal for thebookloft.com remains the same--to increase customer interest, loyalty and sales while retaining an independent identity for the bookstore.
Wilska cites a redesigned bookmark that makes a clear statement of the Bookloft's online intentions. He believes this effort will pay major dividends over time. "It will happen," he said. "We had a couple of orders from Michigan recently. Getting an order like that is absolute gravy."
As he continues to search for improvements and opportunities online, Wilska also looks forward to a planned upgrade for the Booksense.com shopping cart. This will permit him to sell sidelines on the website, including his Sticky Fingers Farm maple syrup, which is currently sold in the bookstore and at two local B&Bs whose links are featured the bookstore's home page.
"The changes Booksense.com is making are going to allow non-book items on the site, which is great," said Wilska. "I'm so into that." He added that this could open up many other possibilities for thebookloft.com, including working with some Berkshire region artists and photographers.
Rooms opening upon rooms. The evolution of a dynamic bookstore website hinges on the eternal search for the missing link.
Oh, and the latest Thomas Pynchon Beer Bet score? Bookloft has sold 32 copies. In a last gasp promotion, manager Mark Ouilette is now offering customers "a coupon good for a beer at our local micro brewery, Barrington Brewery," with each book sold. "Customers get involved with the whole bet story," said Wilska. "Kinda funny. Not looking good for Mark, though."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)