March 4: Plenty, in Cookeville, TN
Storytelling on Display
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The March Madness Bookseller Series event at Plenty Downtown Bookshop will be about how the bookstore integrates storytelling into their marketing, in-store displays, shelf-talkers, and more. As a hybrid non-profit, a nonprofit, and a community-sponsored shop, Plenty is not simply selling books: they are crafting an experience for their customers which has resulted in increased customer loyalty and engagement and, as a result, more consistent revenue. Store owner Lisa Uhrik shares why that topic is important to the store and why Plenty is eager to host an MMBS event:

Why did you pick this topic to talk about with your fellow booksellers?

Lisa Uhrik: I think we may have an unusual level of interest in storytelling through display. It's helpful to Plenty and we'd like to share that. In our connected media and content, our front windows, and our displays (which means in every shelf in the bookshop) we are trying to practice the art of good writing.

We think about a macro story that we want to tell each quarter and each month... and then we think about connected, individual power stories that spring from our own lives and from book inspirations. The art of a connected story is our aim that encompasses everything we do: from subscription programs and memberships, to B2B offerings, our many events, etc.

Our shelves are like sentences, our cases are like paragraphs and our special displays pull from something genuine and real -- an honest statement from one of our book staff designed to speak to one person. It's about the way the books are arranged with book adjacent things (we use that rather than the term "sidelines" because if it is in the shop, it is part of the story.) For some, it may be a different way of thinking about how we help our shelves talk and be true curated extensions of our hearts and minds.

We are trying to design a labyrinth -- an experience that requires exploration of the entire space, rather than a genre-specific trip or dip. And we are designing those experiences for a few chosen personas that we want to deeply understand:

1. the visiting, serendipitous book browser
2. the busy parent/grandparent
3. the bookclub enthusiast
4. the creative in life transition
5. the child reader

We hope to be like a visit to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood where new "neighbors" in the forms of real people and characters in books become new friends. We have nine key, connected community activities that help our "Tree of Plenty" extend with branches beyond the walls of the bookshop, which is like the tree trunk.

What made you want to host a March Madness event?

LU: We offered to host because Stacy and I loved going to an event last year at Parnassus, and we wanted to continue conversations like that. Part of our nonprofit charter is to be good for our world of independent bookshops: we think of a Plenty as a "laboratory" where we are learning how to best connect with each person.