Early August Updates: Textures, Titles

The second in our architect Fred Tang's construction blog series on Brownstoner went up today! It's got some conceptual renderings of the plans for the space, which are pretty cool to look at.

Advice from experience, though: keep in mind that computer renderings are good for spatial orientation, NOT for getting the "feel" of what the bookstore will be like. They don't, for example, show much of the bookcases, or the display tables, or the textures of wood and paint, or the signage. I think we got a little hung up on this at first while planning, as we were imagining the store having the weightless, textureless feel of virtual reality -- but now that we're seeing the wood and sheetrock and drywall coming in to the store, it's easier to imagine the store as a physical, living place.

And if you're wondering about the status of construction itself, as Fred puts it: "Demolition is now complete and we're pausing for a moment while we wait for the NYC Dept. of Buildings to approve our construction application and grant us a permit." We've gotten quite a ways, and now we just have to sit tight for a bit and wait for the (good, kind, compassionate, tasteful) folks at the DOB to give us their final approval. We're still on track for our hoped-for opening in September, though -- we'll let you know when we can narrow down that window a little bit more.


In the meantime, I've been having almost daily meetings with publisher sales reps to buy the frontlist for the fall. (A bit of bookstore jargon: "backlist" signifies the books you keep on the shelves in the sections, that have been published already and stay in print. "Frontlist" includes all of the new books published this season -- the ones that get most of the media attention, and that you'll display in stacks or face-out until their moment has passed, or they become backlist.) We're doing our best to get in all the good stuff -- what we love and what we think our customers will love. It's a challenge, since we're new to the neighborhood and we don't have a sales history to show us buying patterns, so we're trying a broad range of things so that we have a chance to see what works.

And man oh man, is it a good fall for frontlist! So many amazing new books coming out, the other challenge is not breaking the bank with all the books we'd like to buy. In fact, there are so many big-name authors with books coming out this fall, we'd like to give you a chance to pre-order them. We'll be sending out an email soon with a few of our top picks for the fall, and giving you a chance to reserve one at Greenlight. Sign up for our mailing list, at right, to get the list. Hooray for exciting new books, and your own exciting new bookstore!