Episode 491 || Shelf Subscription Synopsis
This week on From the Front Porch, you’ll hear from Annie and Erin and our Shelf Subscribers about Shelf Subscriptions! Shelf Subscriptions are The Bookshelf’s book-a-month club for adults and kids. Listen to find out what makes Shelf Subscriptions special.
Try our new Shelf Subscription Quiz!
All Shelf Subscriptions are 10% off, from August 1st through August 27th! Shelf Subscriptions purchased in August will receive a free gift in their September box, to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the Shelf Subscription program at The Bookshelf.
To purchase your Shelf Subscription, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville or visit our website:
Susie/Nancy Shelf Subscription
Surprise Me Shelf Subscription
Children's Shelf Subscriptions
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading All This & More by Peng Shepherd. Erin is reading The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Jennifer Bannerton, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Susan Hulings, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, and Amanda Whigham.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“Bridesmaids need the same kind of stories soldiers do, stories that justify why they do what they do. Why they are willing to sacrifice who they are and a good night’s sleep for the noble cause of defending democracy and Lila and Gary’s love.”
- Alison Espach, The Wedding People
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm joined by online sales manager Erin Fielding to talk about our Shelf Subscription program. Before we get started, a thank you to everyone who’s been leaving reviews for From the Front Porch. iTunes reviews and ratings are how new listeners can best find out about From the Front Porch and — as a result — find out about our indie bookstore, too. Here’s a recent review:
Best book review podcast I have been listening to from the front porch for a couple of years. Anne, Erin, and Olivia are so fun to listen to I feel like they are friends of mine. I don’t live near Thomasville but if I ever get close I’ll be sure to visit the bookshelf. They always review a good variety of books so they have something for everyone. It’s how I select my books and I’m always pleased.
Thank you so much! If you haven’t left a review, all you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Your reviews help us spread the word about not only our podcast, but about our small brick-and-mortar business, too. Now, back to the show!
Erin [00:01:54] Hi. I'm so glad to be here.
Annie Jones [00:01:56] Welcome back. We're talking about our store's book of the month program that we call Shelf Subscriptions. I did want to mention to listeners, if this is your first time hearing about this program, we have a couple of other episodes you might be interested in. Episode 442 and episode 472 both talk about our Shelf Subscription program in detail, but we like to remind folks every now and then about what our actual store is doing. I think the podcast is book reviews and it's book talk and book chatter. But also From the Front Porch is very much a marketing tool of The Book Shelf.
Erin [00:02:34] Absolutely. Sure.
Annie Jones [00:02:34] And so trying to remind people that, hey, we do stuff and you can you can buy stuff from us.
Erin [00:02:43] You can come see us. You can buy books with us. Absolutely.
Annie Jones [00:02:45] That's right. You can buy a ticket to something. Anyway, so Erin is our online sales manager, and we are going to chat a little bit about Shelf Subscriptions to let you know what Shelf Subscriptions are, how they might differ from another book of the month service, and whether it's a service that could be right for you as a consumer. So, Erin, let's talk a little bit about Shelf Subscription and the history of Shelf Subscription. As I was typing my notes, I thought, but really, how long has Erin been running Shelf Subscription? I couldn't remember. Like, at what point did that become part of your domain at The Bookshelf?
Erin [00:03:21] So I started in February of 2021, and I do think that pretty quickly that became part of my role. Because when I first started, I came in to help with packaging and processing online orders, and obviously so we were getting Shelf Subscription orders I was processing them. And at the time I was doing a part of it. And then Lucy, our beloved Lucy, who was at that time working remotely, she was helping with that as well, so it was like a team effort. And then I started to take on more and more of it. And I would say probably by summer to fall of 2021, I was kind of overseeing all of the administrative part of it. Laura, our bookseller and former packaging and Shelf Subscription coordinator, was doing all of the packaging but I was doing the back end of it.
Annie Jones [00:04:14] Yeah, I think I was trying to remember too, and we've talked about this before on the show, I started a book-of-the-month program. I wish I could remember what year that was, and maybe we have figured this out before. Maybe we've gotten there previously, but basically a service where you could fill out a questionnaire and then I would hand pick a book for you. And often it was a paperback. And that was really fun. And I think at its peak we had like 32 subscribers, and that was almost unheard of. And when it got to that point, it was no longer manageable. It was not sustainable. And maybe we'll talk about this throughout the episode, but people often will ask, what about a paperback subscription? And part of the problem with the first service, with the initial service we started, was I would pick books and there would not be a way to know if I had picked a book that somebody had already read.
Erin [00:05:17] Sure. [Inaudible] to track.
Annie Jones [00:05:18] Yeah, I had no idea. And so people would send books back and we would re-pick for them and send them back out. But it just became so difficult because most paperbacks are releasing a year after their hardback. People may have read it or not. Now there are more paperback original books. But it would be-- again, you and I can chat, but it would be so much to add another service. But my point is, we did try paperbacks for a minute, and we ran that service probably for a year and then I when it was not really sustainable or manageable, I thought, there has to be something that we can do that would be like a book of the month service. Just as a person I'm always looking for a middle road. So I wanted something that would be in between book of the Month or Parnassus or a First Editions Club, where it's like every month is one new book.
[00:06:12] Or something we were doing or at the time I think Avid Bookshop was doing where you fill out a questionnaire, we hyper specifically pick out a book just for you. I was like, there has to be an in-between, and that is where Shelf Subscriptions came from. And sometimes I don't even remember that I think Ashley and I came in on Sunday afternoons and we packaged them. And I think we've talked about this, but we used to have nicknames because you recognize the names of every. And so I think, I don't know, maybe we were talking before the show, before we started recording, but Cammy [sp] has been a subscriber for ever. And now we know her name is Jammie [sp], but Jammie spells her name with two M's, and so Ashley and I would always be like, oh, Cammy and Jammie, like. Or we would come up with nicknames or Keren [sp]. God bless Keren Phillips, who is, I think, still a long time subscriber. She lives in Tallahassee, but we would call her Keren Phillip Ellie. Like we had nicknames for everybody to make it interesting.
Erin [00:07:16] It was very personal.
Annie Jones [00:07:18] It was so personal. And it was every month, like, Ashley and I would come in and we would package them, and it was fun. And there was something really fun about that time. But again the program grew sustainable, but also definitely needed a larger team. And it's interesting to hear your perspective, because I had even forgotten that you and Lucy were sharing that while Lucy worked remotely. Lucy had moved and we were in that kind of transition period. I always struggle to know if you started in 2020 or 2021, because of those pandemic years.
Erin [00:07:48] It is such a bore.
Annie Jones [00:07:50] And you definitely were hired still peak pandemic. I mean, it still felt like things were dire.
Erin [00:07:56] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:07:57] And so, and anyway but now to have a team of people who packages right is such an amazing way that the program has grown and transformed. I talked about what the program existed and looked like, how the program existed and what it looked like pre the arrival of Erin. How has it changed or how do you feel like it's changed under your leadership, under first Laura and then Elizabeth and now Keil. How has the process changed for you?
Erin [00:08:32] I think that probably a shelf subscriber now and a shelf subscriber then maybe they couldn't tell the difference. But to me, it feels like we've done a lot behind the scenes. Even in terms of our packaging and things like that, we used to send them out-- I laugh to the sound. We used to send them out. Each bag was in a cloth bag, and then we would put the cloth bag inside like a plastic mailer and send them out. First of all, because of the pandemic, we could not get those cloth bags anywhere. So we were just like, okay, pivot, let's see what we're going to do now. And we heard from a lot of people that they didn't really love the cloth bags because they were getting one every month, and they were just like, we don't know what to do.
Annie Jones [00:09:16] Yeah, somebody used them and I thought this was genius. Somebody uses them to pack their shoes in their suitcase.
Erin [00:09:23] Yes, they were such nice bags. I mean, they have a variety of uses.
Annie Jones [00:09:27] Yes, but we only we only did that to protect the book.
Erin [00:09:31] Of course, yeah.
Annie Jones [00:09:32] We only did that to protect the book.
Erin [00:09:33] When you ship out three to 400 books a month-- we still have these conversations. How can we do it in a way that is very efficient for the person who's doing it, because we have to fit it in between a Wednesday and a Monday. We've got to get three to 400 books packaged, shipped in bags and ready to go out by the next Tuesday. So we're always thinking about that. So when we did that, we realized we couldn't get bags anymore. We decided to get these great boxes, which is what we have now. So I love the new packaging that we have. It makes it easy for the person packaging the Shelf Subscriptions- Laura, then Elizabeth and Keila now. So now that is a little bit of a change, our packaging.
Annie Jones [00:10:18] I'm going to interrupt and say that that was a huge change because-- and I want to tell people why growing your team is so important and stop trying to do everything yourself. Because obviously customers had suggested boxes. And I think Erin knows how much I really value things looking good. If it was going to be a box, it needed to be a branded box. I don't even think I had done the research; I assumed boxes were more expensive, branded boxes would be way too expensive, and so we had never done boxes. And then the pandemic forced us to pivot. And I believe, Erin, you did the research.
Erin [00:10:58] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:10:59] You brought to me cost comparisons because we were trying to figure out, should we just stick with padded mailers? How would that work? By the way, sticking a book in a padded mailer- challenging. It was very challenging. Especially you go over a certain page count and that becomes almost impossible. And so Erin was who did all of that behind the scenes work. And I just don't know if people understand. I don't know if the consumer-- and why would the average consumer know how much work goes into a change that to a customer might be like, well, of course they started using boxes. That's so much better. You're right. It is so much better, but I was deeply concerned about cost. And Erin wound up doing all of this work to show, no, it was actually pretty cost efficient to switch to boxes. Everything's expensive y'all. I don't know if you're aware.
Erin [00:11:50] This is a common discussion we have at our Bookshelf and in bookstores. Everything is more expensive always.
Annie Jones [00:11:55] Yeah, everything is super expensive. But so I had almost forgotten we made that change so seamlessly. I almost forgot the muslin bag era, which is silly because obviously that era lasted a really long time.
Erin [00:12:08] Yes it is.
Annie Jones [00:12:09] Somebody probably has a lot of muslin bags on the top of their closet.
Erin [00:12:14] I'd love to know though who has the most muslin bags at their house.
Annie Jones [00:12:19] Which we individually stamped, by the way.
Erin [00:12:22] Yes,.
Annie Jones [00:12:22] Because again, I'm very big on branding and I didn't just want to send a plain muslin bag, it had to have The Bookshelf stamp on it. So Ashley or Olivia or Kate, somebody would hand stamp those bags. So anyway, that is a huge change and would not have been possible without adding a team member who could take the time to do essentially a cost analysis that I had not been willing to make time for. So anyway, thanks, Erin.
Erin [00:12:49] You're welcome. My pleasure. It really has been a joy to try to, even behind the scenes, make it more efficient for myself, for the person whoever was packaging the shelves subscriptions. And that brings me a lot of joy. I'm nerdy in that way, but it brings me a lot of joy to make things work in a way that is-- we always say this, our motto is if for instance, I wasn't here or Keila wasn't here, could someone come in and understand the process easily without having a thousand explanations? And we've tried to make it that way so that if someone is ill, or if someone is sick, or if we're busy and overwhelmed, we can ask a shop dad, a shop mom, a volunteer, a friend to come in and help. And I think we have made it that way. I think we've made it pretty seamless, which I'm very proud of. And so, that has changed behind the scenes. But I hope that long time Shelf Subscribers have only ever noticed that things have gotten better, more personalized. Like you said, we always care about what does it look like? How can we get the book there in a way that doesn't damage the book? We really we really think about this a lot. And I think that's something that, goes into the time and energy we put into Shelf Subscriptions.
Annie Jones [00:14:03] For customers and listeners who might not be familiar, the Shelf Subscription model that we use is that we have multiple staffers and some family members who pick a book each month, and it's like their favorite book of the month and you get to decide, are you an Annie, are you an Olivia, are you a Suzy/Nancy, are you a Chris, who are you? And that design was again supposed to be like the middle road between one option a month and then book of the month options every month. It was supposed to be like an in-between model, and it was supposed to mimic staff shelves. Like, one of my favorite parts of going to an indie bookstore is the staff favorite shelf. And finding which staffer would most line up with your tastes. And so that's kind of the idea behind the Shelf Subscription model. So I'm curious, as somebody who came on board that model already existed-- but I do remember in your job interview you said that one of your goals would be to make systems simpler. You were like, I'm really good at systems. And reader, she is good at systems-- listener, she is good at that. And so you came in and have been able to kind of transform the system, make it simple, make it something that somebody could easily step in and do if somebody went on vacation or somebody got sick or something like that. But what would you say is your favorite part of the Shelf Subscription model?
Erin [00:15:33] Yes. You and I kind of talked about this before I came on, but there are so many book of the month clubs now. There are so many. There's so many we talked about. That's why I think and the landscape has changed. Bookstagram and the introduction of celebrity book clubs and just everything. The landscape of bookselling has dramatically changed even in the three years I've been a part of the industry. And so, for me, what I always say about our Shelf Subscriptions is that we are human beings that if you listen to the podcast, if you follow us on social media, if you're one of our in-store customers or you're a long distance customer who knows us, and I feel like you know us, you know what we like to read and what we're picking for Shelf Subscriptions are literal books that we would hand sell you if you want a store.
[00:16:34] And so if you came in and said, what's your favorite new release coming out next month? If we had it in hand right then and we would say, this is what I think you should read. And we include those little basically shelf talkers with every book. And it's not just like, here's a book. It's like, here's a book I read, here's a thoughtful paragraph or two about why I liked it and why I think you'll like it. So in the landscape, that feels-- I'll use a sounds like a bad word, but it can be littered with book of the month clubs. And no offense to anyone else, but I feel like what keeps people coming back to us, and what I hope brings people to us, is that they know that these are books we love. And if you read like us, if you trust us as booksellers, you're going to like the books that we send out for Shelf Subscriptions.
Annie Jones [00:17:20] Yeah, I hope we've done a good job of trying to make sure people know The Bookshelf is a human run business, not AI. I don't know if I've said this on the podcast yet, I was at a dinner months ago and so we got a table with strangers. And a woman who was sitting with was so kind. She was asking me about my job, and I was telling her, and she was like, "Oh, my gosh, I think you were just find chat GPT so helpful." And I was like, thank you so much. And no shade to anybody out there using AI or chat GPT, but chat GPT does not write your shelf sub card. Chris Butterworth reads that book, finds a meaningful quote, sits down and writes a book report. Dad writes a book report about his Shelf Subscription selection. These are not things that ChatGPT is writing. These are not books that we've picked on a whim. And God bless Erin because she handles all of these customer service emails and requests. But I know Erin occasionally hears from somebody who doesn't like that we've picked a book that was a celebrity book club selection. And I hear that complaint. I would love to not pick a celebrity book as well. But what people might not know is we're picking books pretty far in advance and we, the book seller, in fact very rarely are we aware or apprised of a celebrity book pick. So when Jenna Bush Hager picks the same book as me, that is brand new information to me as well.
Erin [00:19:04] Absolutely. We found about it when the public finds out about it.
Annie Jones [00:19:08] Yeah. We will get emails from the publisher that are, like, this book will have B publicity or A publicity, but we don't always know what that means. Like, you have to read between the lines. And at that point, our Shelf Subscription selections have long been chosen.
Erin [00:19:23] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:19:24] We pick those months in advance. So but we are rest assured, even if Jenna Bush Hager likes my book, I really like that book too. I really did pick that book. And, Jenna, if you're listening, I think we would make great partners in crime.
Erin [00:19:40] I do, too. Let's make it happen.
Annie Jones [00:19:42] I think I think she and I read very similarly. But I do want readers and customers and listeners to know, just because the book might be picked by book of the month club or by Jenna Bush Hager, that's fine. We would love to pick all original titles all the time.
Erin [00:19:59] Sure.
Annie Jones [00:20:00] But when we say it's our favorite book of the month, that's what we mean.
Erin [00:20:04] Right.
Annie Jones [00:20:05] It's our favorite book of the month. And if it so happens to also be Jenna's, oh, well.
Erin [00:20:10] Well, and part of our business, I feel like our culture here is that no matter where people shop with us online or in store, we want them to have the same experience and the same level of customer service, the same attention to detail and individual desires and preferences. And so I feel like for both local and our long distance customers, Shelf Subscriptions will always be a way that we can sort of reach out and touch people, reach out and connect with people through the books. Maybe we're sending them to 400 people, but it's like we hope that when you get that in the mail and you open it up, you feel like Annie or Olivia or shop mom or Nancy or shop dad or me picking the kids’ books, that we're kind of right there being like, "This is such a great book, you should read this," as though you were in the store with us.
Annie Jones [00:21:01] It's as if we tease Olivia all the time because she is like the queen of telling an entire book synopsis to you. She will tell you all about the books she just read.
Erin [00:21:12] And that's why.
Annie Jones [00:21:13] Yeah, I think when you get an Olivia book, that's the equivalent-- like her shelf sub card and her picking that book, it's what we're experiencing in store. And so that has always been the goal and I hope that is what people feel when they get a Shelf Subscription book. We've talked a little bit about how the program has changed over the last few years and since you have come on board and kind of taken over that program. But what has changed specifically this year? Like in 2024, how has the program changed or how have improvements been made, that sort of thing?
Erin [00:21:50] Yes. So, whenever we think about the Shelf Subscription program, when we meet about it, we talk about it, we're always talking about how can we again maintain that same level of personalized and individual attention while also providing more convenient ways that work for us and ways that will work for the customer? And one of the things we had been hearing from customers for a long time was kind of our older model, which we still offer, which is you can buy a one month or you can go ahead and prepay for three months, or you can go ahead and prepay for 12 months and people would purchase that. But then of course that expires after a certain amount of time. And so we reach out, we say it's expired, it's time for you to renew. And we had people say, gosh, I wish you guys just had like almost a Netflix model where I just sign up and you just keep charging me and you just keep sending me the book subscription service. And we were like, it just wasn't possible for us. I feel like we tried a thousand different ways.
Annie Jones [00:22:48] It wasn't possible with our previous point of sale.
Erin [00:22:52] It wasn't.
Annie Jones [00:22:52] Y'all remember us changing point of sale systems? Because we do.
Erin [00:22:55] I don't want to talk about that. But the way that that has to work is we have to have a billing service. I mean, this is really in the weeds, but we have to have a billing service that can both take customer credit card information and keep it safe and private.
Annie Jones [00:23:10] We could not do.
Erin [00:23:10] Which we could not do. I mean, sure, we could have written down your credit card information, but that's illegal. So we don't do that.
Annie Jones [00:23:17] Kept it in a file in Annie’s office.
Erin [00:23:19] Yeah, we don't keep index cards with your credit card information. So we just could not find a way. And we opened up our new website. Gosh, has that been like two years now?
Annie Jones [00:23:30] I think it's just been a year.
Erin [00:23:31] A year.
Annie Jones [00:23:32] Because we did the whole seller thing for one year.
Erin [00:23:35] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:23:35] And then I think 2023 was the Shopify site.
Erin [00:23:38] Okay. So it's been like a little over a year now. We found out that there was a billing system that worked well. And Olivia did a lot of research. I did a lot of research. We realized, oh, we can make this happen. And we did. So now, you guys, you can sign up for a recurring Shelf Subscription and you can continue to purchase them like on a prepaid model. Or if you're just like I really love this and I want to keep getting it and I don't want to be bothered by having to renew every time, you can do that, which is so fantastic. You can do a one year. So you can pay for it all upfront for a year, and it doesn't charge you again until the next year. Or you can do it monthly, which is what a lot of people have chosen to do. And it's flexible. So if you have a month where you're like, gosh, I just don't have the finances this month, then you're able to cut, pause, cancel, tell us I'll be back when things get better. So to me that's been a win. It's been a huge win for our customers. And I think a lot of people are excited about that.
Annie Jones [00:24:34] I love it because it's something customers have asked for a long time. And again, a consumer doesn't always know the in the weeds part that you just mentioned, which is legally we couldn't figure out a way to do it.
Erin [00:24:46] Sure.
Annie Jones [00:24:48] And despite the fact that there are book of the month clubs in abundance, we actually struggle sometimes with finding a bookstore who's doing something similar and figuring out how they do it. Olivia does a really good job of communicating with other stores and trying to kind of pick their brains, but this was something that really, until we adopted Shopify, we could not figure out a way to do it. And so I'm so grateful for Erin's research, for Olivia's research in making this happen. Because I will say, as a consumer, this is what I would prefer.
Erin [00:25:20] Absolutely, yes.
Annie Jones [00:25:21] Because isn't this TikTok? Isn't this girl money?
Erin [00:25:25] You don't see it. It just goes out of your account.
Annie Jones [00:25:25] You don't see it. Comes out every month or. I think if I could and part of the reason I wanted this episode to come out in August was because if people are thinking-- I know this is bizarre, but if you're thinking fall Q4, if you're a business person, you're thinking Q4, if you're a consumer, perhaps you're already thinking about Christmas. I would think, I'm just going to buy an annual subscription. I'll pay up again next December or next January. I think that's what I would do. Because then it would feel as if you're getting a free book every month. You're not, but that's what it would feel like. So this recurring model I think this is a huge win for our store.
Erin [00:26:10] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:26:11] And also I think it is a huge win for the consumer. I always liked the prepaid model, I'll tell you. I also really liked the prepaid model because for a while we were relying on Shelf Subscriptions for money. There was a season in which if somebody bought a six month Shelf Subscription or a 12 month Shelf Subscription, that could change a day.
Erin [00:26:37] You could buy things you needed to buy for the store.
Annie Jones [00:26:39] Yes, that had a huge financial impact. That is less of a concern now. And so to be able to switch the recurring model in a way that made sense for the store and hopefully made the life of the consumer easy, I do feel like that's a huge win. In a big way things have changed this year.
Erin [00:26:54] Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that some of our customers may have also noticed is that we used to offer a Treat Your Shelf Subscription, and we don't offer that anymore. And that was a really big change for us. It's been around since I was here, obviously. And so to even talk about discontinuing it was like that's kind of a big conversation. But again, to just show you some behind the scenes, the person picking that for a very long time was you. You were having to go through and think about seasonally appropriate price, finding things that were in the price range that we had promised to the consumer. And that was taking a lot of your time. It was it was joyful, but I'm sure at some point it just was tedious, right?
Annie Jones [00:27:42] It was always intended we keep going back to we want the long distance customer to have the in-store customer experience. And that's what Treat Your Shelf was designed for. It was supposed to be you like seeing our gift product on Instagram? Well, now we're providing you a way to get this gift product mailed to you. But again, trying to order the correct quantity of things, which changed every month, were there 50 subscribers, were there 20 subscribers, were there 12 subscribers, that was challenging.
Erin [00:28:09] And you wanted it to be meaningful and you want it to be seasonally appropriate.
Annie Jones [00:28:13] Had to be on theme, yeah. So it was super intentional. And then trying to stay in the price point, which that is really the workload and then really within the last couple years just the increase. Yeah, it was like unless we make Treat Your Shelf even more expensive, I can't mail out.
Erin [00:28:33] Which we didn't want to do.
Annie Jones [00:28:35] Right. We wanted to make it accessible for people. And when you're talking, I think the gift item was supposed to be about at retail $25. And so, we would send out things and I think occasionally we would hear back from a consumer who was like, this isn't worth $25. And it was like, I'm sorry to tell you ma'am, that it's worth $25.
Erin [00:28:59] But you're right. The things started to feel less and less valuable.
Annie Jones [00:29:02] They did. The consumer wasn't wrong.
Erin [00:29:05] We felt it too. We felt like, wow, $25 we're not able to find things that feel meaningful, beautiful, like we have in the store anymore. And so it was either let's raise the price or let's talk about discontinuing it. And we just decided based on we're always trying to reevaluate where do we want our priorities to be? And we decided that this was a program that we could discontinue. Although some people were sad about it, it's been a good move for us to discontinue that.
Annie Jones [00:29:35] And simplified things. I think we're also always looking for ways to streamline. And the Shelf Subscription program, Erin knows because Erin is constantly trying to wrap her arms around it. I just picture like a [crosstalk]. And there were moments in which Shelf Subscription just felt so unwieldy. Like you could pick a three month, you can pick a children's, you can pick an adult, you can also add the Treat Your Shelf option. Even poor Caroline would talk frequently because Caroline's the marketing brain and she will talk about I don't even know how to market these because there's so many choices.
Erin [00:30:09] Too many options.
Annie Jones [00:30:11] And the whole point or one of the intentions behind Shelf Subscription was that it eliminated decision fatigue. It's supposed to just be like every month I get a book from Olivia, the end. Believe me, if you all knew how many meetings we had about not doing Treat Your Shelf anymore. We meet about all of this stuff. Oh God, nothing The Bookshelf does is flippant. I'll tell you that much.
Erin [00:30:36] That's for sure. But one of the more exciting things I feel like we have introduced in this past year, year and a half, is that we have invited some of our favorite authors that we love. Authors usually so far that have been our honored guest at our reader retreats that we've asked them, hey, you are a beloved author, people love what you write, would you pick a book that you would like to read, personally, that you think is a great book that's coming out? And would you allow people to, like, sign up for a subscription with your pick? And so we had Carrie Winfrey was the first one that we did. And people just lost their minds. They loved Carrie. They were so excited about it. And she picked a fantastic book to send out. I think it was last October. And then we had-- I did it.
Annie Jones [00:31:31] I know. Erin was our celebrity one month.
Erin [00:31:35] Olivia suggested that and I was like, oh, wait, me? I'm sorry, me? But everyone was so kind. Everyone was very kind and had lots of nice things to say about the one that I picked.
Annie Jones [00:31:46] Well, and people should know-- like I think people have asked and I don't know if you get this question.
Erin [00:31:50] I get this question a lot.
Annie Jones [00:31:53] I get this question, why doesn't Erin have a Shelf Subscription option? Do you want to do you want to answer the people?
Erin [00:32:00] I just tell people it's time. As you know, it is a time commitment. As we talked about your dad, to find and read-- because you're not just reading one book. Sometimes you're having to read multiple books or start multiple books to find a really good one that you connect with. Because again, we don't want to be flippant. We don't want to just send out a book that is releasing at this time. We want it to be a book we can say, I love this book. And so it was hard for me to find a book. It wasn't hard to find a book. I found a great book, but I just can't do it. I can't wrap up with that magic every month.
Annie Jones [00:32:37] Yeah, monthly on top of your regular tasks is part of the reason right at this moment, Olivia and I are the only two-- Nancy shares one with my mom, and so she's only picking every other month. And then Olivia and I are both 40 hour a week staffers. Again, maybe this is too much in the weeds for people, but there's a reason for that. It's because it is time consuming. And as my dad has told me, he's informed me, "Hey, this is hard." I was like, "Yes, I'm aware that it is hard."
Erin [00:33:14] Because we've talked about this before, but we're under constraints. It has to release at the right time. We have to be able to get an advanced copy of it and enough time to read it for the thing. So people have asked me and I've always just said it's a dream of mine. Of course, I would love to have my own Shelf Subscription, and maybe in the future I will. But for now it was just really special to be a part of-- I mean, my goodness, I don't even count myself in the same tier as Annabel and Harry. Because Annabel Monaghan who we also just love and is such a cheerleader for The Bookshelf, she picked a great book that we sent out in July.
Annie Jones [00:33:49] And that was so fun, too. That's the cool thing. So Erin is a bookseller. I think it was really fun for people to get to see what she would be like as a bookseller. We consider you our online bookseller. But it was neat for you to get to show people like this is the type of book I hand sell. And then I think it's equally fun to see, like, what would your favorite authors hand sell you? And I think now Annabelle's book has been sent out so we can talk about this. Annabel selected Lenny Marks-- what is the name of that book?
Erin [00:34:24] Lenny Marks Gets away with murder.
Annie Jones [00:34:26] And I think we had people who were like, wait, what? I think people are expecting a romcom because Annabel Monaghan writes these beautiful romance and romcom novels. And I think that's what's so neat is that now you know something about Annabel. Now you know she likes a murder book. That's so fun.
Erin [00:34:46] But these authors have just been so generous with their time and so kind to let us ask them for these things. And that's always something that we are trying out, which is like, again, how can we help our customers have the most fun and get these personalized recommendations from their favorite authors? I f you love Annabel, you love Kerry Winfrey. What would they read? What would they sell to you? And that's just been a fun addition. And we are we're going to continue that. So authors, take note. We may be contacting. No author is safe. We're just going to ask everyone.
Annie Jones [00:35:23] And that was one of Erin's ideas for ways to boost the program, boost Shelf Subscriptions throughout the year. And I think that's been a huge win for us this year. All of these things I think have been really good for the consumer. And then I also think they've been good for our store. I remember the day-- I think it was Kerry Winfrey when she said, yes, I could hear you and Caroline in the office area cheering. And I was like, I wish people knew. I wish Kerry Winfrey knew how excited y'all got when she said yes. And so, it's stuff like that where it's good for the consumer, but also it's good for us and it's good for the bookstore. So if people listen to this episode and they're like, okay, Erin, you've convinced me. I'm going to sign up for a Shelf Subscription. What can a new subscriber expect from our service and particularly expect this fall. So if somebody is new to this, what kind of books does Olivia pick? What kind of books to shop dad pick? And then what do you foresee happening this fall?
Erin [00:36:25] Okay, again, we are always thinking about fun things to do. And September is actually the anniversary every year of when we officially say Shelf Subscription started. So every year we try to do something very fun, some kind of promotion or fun inclusion in the boxes that we'll either ship in September or sell in September. So I would just say watch this space for what we might be offering in September to celebrate our anniversary. And it's always a dream of mine because we have a ton of audiobook listeners for are our customers. And so, it's on my back burner of a dream to find a way to offer, hopefully through Libro.fm who is a huge champion of indie bookstores and supports indie bookstores. We would love to partner with that. Libro.fm, If you're listening, just reach out to me.
Annie Jones [00:37:21] Yes, please.
Erin [00:37:22] We'd like to partner with them to offer audio and audiobook selection every month. So that is always in the back of my mind, it's something that we would love to offer. Again, you never know which author we're going to ask to be our special guest, so that that can always come around the bend. But Shelf Subscriptions, we're always trying to keep it fun and keep it new and keep it fresh so that if you're a longtime customer and you find something new and fresh every time, if you're a new customer to Shelf Subscriptions, you can also partake in that fun and that newness that we always try to have.
Annie Jones [00:37:59] So this episode, as you're listening, is coming out mid-August. Now is the time to purchase a subscription if you want it to start in September. We will be announcing fun things for our September and October Shelf Subscriptions that will reflect the anniversary of the subscription service. I was just mentally trying to do the math. Do you remember what last year was?
Erin [00:38:24] Last year was seven, maybe seven years last.
Annie Jones [00:38:27] So maybe this year is eight. So anyway, stay tuned because typically what we'll do is we'll do something for the September or October subscription. So if you're listening to this and you buy a subscription right after you stop this podcast, your subscription would start in September. And this is a monthly service. It ships out the first Tuesdays of every month. Although sometimes we question that. But for the rest of the year, we're shipping out the first Tuesday of every month. Before we do a little brief plug for kid’s subscriptions, first of all, how can people sign up for September? Like, if they do want to sign up after listening to this episode, what can they do? That's the first question.
Erin [00:39:19] Yeah. So you can go to our website, it's bookshelfthomasville.com. And in the upper menu you can click on Shelf Subscriptions, and on that page you'll find out more information. So usually there we have the adult, we have the kids there, we also have the recurring subscriptions you can sign up for there. And we do have a little explanation of if you think you're like, Annie, these are the books she's picked. These are maybe the last four books she's picked. If you don't know, maybe you read like Olivia, these are some of the things. And Caroline has something fun in the works where we're going to try to have, like, a fun quiz that you can take. That's so 90s, right? Which I love. All of us girls just want to have a quiz to tell us what we are.
Annie Jones [00:39:58] Like Seventeen magazine.
Erin [00:40:00] Yes. So we're hopefully going to have that up and running soon if we can make it work, which will be fun. It'll be a fun thing. If you like these books, or if you like this drink, or if you like to vacation at this place, maybe you read like Olivia. That's how people can sign up is on our website. And again, you can sign up for recurring subscriptions there on our website as well.
Annie Jones [00:40:24] What if somebody is new to the program? What would you say is the most popular subscription? And if somebody is gifting? So a lot of times, particularly as we enter gift season, I know it's August. It's hard to believe. But if you're buying a subscription for a gift to somebody, which subscription do you typically recommend for that?
Erin [00:40:42] Okay. So that's a good question. I would say our top seller is usually your subscription. Of course, you are the face of The Bookshelf, and a lot of people know how you read. So they resonate with your books. So we do sell a lot of yours. Now I'm selling all of them. People are very loyal to Olivia's picks. They know exactly how she reads. And if you love a good mystery, sci fi, thriller, those are the things she tends to choose. We do see a lot of gifting of shop dad's subscription and the Suzy/Nancy subscription. Those are both great picks. If you have a male reader in your life, or even just someone who enjoys nonfiction, interesting history, great gripping fiction, they will love your dad's pick. Shop dad's pick. And if they are looking for a more-- we used to say PG. Now, with the world the way it is, I feel like we're saying PG 13.
Annie Jones [00:41:38] Susie pushed back a lot. She was like, I can't find PG books.
Erin [00:41:40] Exactly. It's becoming tougher and tougher to find a literal PG book. So we say PG 13 or someone that is maybe a more sensitive reader, or just prefers a good story with some redemption arcs in it, some fun reads about family, you're going to find that with Susie and Nancy. I always tell people, though, if you want to gift it to someone, the greatest gift is a Surprise Me Subscription, which is what we offer. You basically say, I want a Surprise Me and these are the types of things that this person likes to read. They like nonfiction, they like PG feel good fiction, they like history. And you can tell us all of that. And then what I do every month, one by one individually, is I go and look at the triggers, I look at any preferences, and I choose from the staffers for that month. And I would say, okay, this person likes, x, y, z, so they're probably going to like Annie's book this month, or they're going to like shop dad's book this month. And I feel like that is a great way, especially if you don't know what the person likes to read title wise, or if you don't know how they're going to line up with one of our staffers, just choose a Surprise Me. And just let us know, hey, what do you think they like to read or what have they said they like to read, and we'll do the hard work of choosing what we think they'll like every month. So it's a little bit of a risk, but people usually very happy with their Surprise Me Subscriptions.
Annie Jones [00:43:00] Because and not to toot our own horn or something, but no book is a dud. They're all good. And so if you're buying a subscription for your 70 year old mom and you just say, "I'm buying a subscription for my 70 year old mom," Erin will know she should read Nancy's book this month, and next month she should read shop dad's and the next month she'll love Annie's dysfunctional family fiction. There's no wrong answer. I'm convinced of that. Every time my dad picks a book, I'm like, oh, I might like that book. Or when my mom will come on the podcast and she'll describe one of her past selections, she sometimes convinces me to buy one or to read one. Olivia, she and I have a large overlap when I'm in a mystery loving or suspense loving mood. And so I really cannot stress enough that there's no bad subscription. They're really all good books.
Erin [00:43:57] Yeah, and the thing about Surprise Me is that maybe if you read like me, which is someone who reads widely across genres, maybe you don't always want to get literary fiction, maybe you don't always want to get a mystery, but you want to dabble in all of them, Surprise Me is so good for that. You get a really wide variety of books that are ones you want to read.
Annie Jones [00:44:17] Okay, the last thing we'll say about Shelf Subscriptions is all of this talk has been for grownups, but we also have a vibrant Kids Shelf Subscription program and it does look a little bit different. It's not so much staffer based, it's more age based. So talk a little bit about the kid’s subscription.
Erin [00:44:38] Absolutely. It is my favorite, honestly. Like just being biased. It's my favorite part of our Shelf Subscription. It is so much fun. So we used to just offer middle grade, chapter book, and picture book Shelf Subscriptions. We still offer those, but I believe about a year and a half maybe two years ago, we started offering a board book subscription, which is actually one of our largest selling subscriptions- it's a board book subscription. So age wise, we usually say a middle grade is for anywhere from 10 to 14, maybe 10 to 12. Our chapter books are primarily aimed towards kids who are seven to 10, eight to 10. And then we have a picture book subscription. I think picture books are for any kids, but we usually they're aimed towards kids who are in your late preschool to elementary age kids. And then, of course, we have board books which are anywhere from newborns to-- gosh, my son is almost three and he still loves board books. So anywhere to preschool, even elementary age kids can still enjoy a board book. So that's what they're aimed at.
[00:45:47] And Olivia chooses the middle grade and the chapter books, and I choose the picture books and the board books. And it is so much fun for both of us. We both really get a kick out of choosing books that are-- Olivia chooses these beautiful, beautiful books for middle grade and chapter book readers. And usually what differs honestly is people ask what's the difference between a chapter book and a middle grade? For Olivia, I would say she would say it's content. She would say usually a book she's choosing for middle grade readers have deeper themes, maybe some themes about bullying, maybe drugs, whatever. They're still good for middle grade readers, and chapter book readers can read them, but we always say it's the content. So the chapter book tends to be more adventure based, more friendship based, things like that. And so, that's how we pick. But it is so much fun and everyone loves-- it's their great gifts. Listen, they are great gifts to give.
Annie Jones [00:46:52] This is a baby shower gift.
Erin [00:46:53] If you are going to a baby shower and you don't know what to give, just buy a Shelf Subscription. We'll send you a little card. You can wrap it and present it. If you have a new grandchild and you're far away and you want them to feel like you're stocking their library from afar, buy a shelf. We hear from so many parents and grandparents that it is their grandchild, or their child's, or their niece, or their nephew's favorite gift ever that they just love it..
Annie Jones [00:47:16] Because it's also mail, so it's a fun [crosstalk].
Erin [00:47:20] It's a mail with your name on it.
Annie Jones [00:47:22] I could swear that somebody told me this. But basically first of all I have gifted bought Bookshelf Subscription and I love it. And because it's a baby board book, it is pretty cost effective. Meaning it is a pretty affordable present to give. And what I tell people is what you just said. We can send you a certificate or go to your local bookstore, buy a book, stick the certificate in it, and be like you're going to get a book every month. But one thing I love, and again, I could swear that a customer told me this, but I want to say somebody does a Shelf Subscription from a grandparent to a toddler and then they get on the phone and face time and read it to them.
Erin [00:48:07] Yes, I do remember that.
Annie Jones [00:48:08] And I think about my own parents who live six hours away from their precious grandbaby. And like if you are feeling that distance-- or I think about me and my God children or whatever-- this is a way where you can gift them something but then you can also add in the gift of time if you want. You can FaceTime them or you can film yourself reading the book. I think that'd be really cute. And I think we have customers who've done that. So yes, when we talk about gifts, I do think gifting a kids Shelf Subscription and especially for your kid-- I think a lot of grandparents come into the bookstore and parents too, and they're like, ugh, my kids love Dog Man. Which, first of all, there's nothing wrong with Dog Man. We love Dog Man. But if you are a little bit at a loss as to what to gift your kid who's an avid reader or your grandkid who's an avid reader, and you feel like you can't keep up, you don't need to keep up. That's literally our job.
Erin [00:49:03] Yeah, let's do that for you.
Annie Jones [00:49:04] Olivia has kept up for you. And so anyway, I think our kid’s subscription is particularly lovely. I'm with you there. Okay, last notes, you can go to bookshelfthomas.com, Shelf Subscriptions are in the top of the menu bar. You can find Shelf Subscriptions there. We'll also put links in the show notes. Erin, do you have anything else you want to say about Shelf Subscriptions or working with the Shelf Subscription program?
Erin [00:49:30] It's just a joy. I mean, all of us go into this business not because we just-- you didn't join a bookstore, own a bookstore because you just love paying the bills and doing the paperwork. We all go into it because reading brings us joy. And it's like no other joy to share that with someone else. And so, for me, being a part of a Shelf Subscription program where we service so many long distance customers, but also we have a vibrant in-store pickup service for our Shelf Subscriptions as well. So sharing that is so much fun. It's just fun for me to be a part of it. Sure, there's paperwork and stuff that goes into it, but when we send that out every month, it feels like our hearts are kind of going with it. And for me, it's just the high that I get every month that I'll never get tired of.
Annie Jones [00:50:22] I couldn't agree more. It is so rooted in our mission of excellent customer service, finding the right book and putting it into the right person's hands. And you're right, we would be remiss-- we've talked a lot about online customers today, but you can pick up a Shelf Subscription. And in fact, dear Thomasville, dear Tallahassee, we would encourage you to do that. Then once a month you just pop into The Bookshelf. I think even if you pick it up in person, you get a free truffle.
Erin [00:50:51] You do. Come and get your truffle.
Annie Jones [00:50:53] So come and get your truffle. And we really implemented that, especially after the pandemic, to remind people that we're open. Obviously, that's not something we have to remind too many people of now. But if you're a customer who is local or semi local, pickup is a great option because I'm thinking even of folks in Tallahassee, you can have your Jonah's dinner. And you can you can pick up your book before you head to Jonah's. So don't forget that, locals, this program is for you, too. And it's supposed to eliminate decision fatigue. You can come in to The Bookshelf, and we've chosen your next read.
Erin [00:51:30] We have people come in and they will open it right away, like, right next the store, just so they can talk to the staffer about it. They're like, oh, you picked this book. This is so great.
Annie Jones [00:51:37] And Debra, who runs Taste of Thomasville, our local food tour, she gifted one to her granddaughter, and so they come pick it up every month together. And it's like a little grandparent activity. And I think it's exactly rooted in why we do what we do. Erin, it would not be possible without you, without Keila, and without everybody who works so hard: mom, Nancy, dad, Olivia. All these people picking books. You are picking books. People don't realize it, but Erin is picking those board books and those picture books.
Erin [00:52:10] Because we have a Shelf Subscription and it's called picture book and board book.
Annie Jones [00:52:14] That's right. I hope listeners see how much hard work and also how much excitement and love and fun goes into this program. It reminds me of Caroline's tagline she's created for us, which is, "We're serious about fun." And we are serious about your Shelf Subscription. And we also want it to be fun for you and fun for us. And so, thank you. Thanks, Erin, for coming on the show today. And if you're interested in the Shelf Subscription, you can check out the link in our show notes.
[00:52:44] This week I'm reading All This & More by Peng Shepard. Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:52:51] This week I am listening to The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella.
[00:52:53] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Jennifer Bannerton, Gene Queens
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Susan Hulings
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