BOOKSELLERS

Wolfe & Kron Books is hiring Booksellers!

We’re looking for a few Booksellers to join Wolfe & Kron Books starting immediately. Our Bookseller positions are part-time at $20/hr.

If you’re interested in a long-term career as a bookseller, this is the job for you.

The primary focus for Booksellers is Customer Service, matching readers with books, ensuring those readers feel seen and welcome, and always keeping Wolfe & Kron Books looking spiffy. You’ll also be expected to be reading incoming ARCs [Advance Reader Copies] of new books during your time off, to quickly become familiar with the existing inventory of both Used and New Books, and able to provide recommendations of books we have on-hand to pair with or sub in for ‘hot’ titles we don’t stock.

We’re particularly looking for folks who are comfortable regularly creating content for Social Media in the bookish space, and with experience writing Book Reviews.

DAILY DUTIES WILL INCLUDE

• Alphabetizing books

• Sorting and shelving books by genre, sub-genre, and theme

• Maintaining displays of bookmarks, stickers, etc so they look appealing

• Ringing up purchases for customers

• Finding books for customers, both specific titles and recommendations

• Writing book reviews and shelf talkers

• Creating posts for Social Media

• Keeping the store clean and tidy inside and out front

• Opening and closing the store

• Answering the phone

• Receiving books brought in by customers for Store Credit

Booksellers will also have the option to run their own Book Club, and will receive complimentary copies of the book they select (with owner’s approval of the titles).

AN IDEAL BOOKSELLER

• Reads avidly across many genres and can make book recommendations to long-time readers as well as those just getting into ‘this book thing’

• Is passionate about books, particularly selling them

• Genuinely loves indie bookstores and can speak cogently about why they are important, why B&N being a hedge-fund owned mega-corp is a problem, and why libraries are not our competition and are in fact awesome

• Can learn new processes quickly, and follow instruction with exactness and precision

• Has excellent verbal communication skills, face-to-face and on the phone

• Brings a strong work ethic, able to self-task be it shelving books, breaking down boxes, dusting shelves, or sweeping the floor

  –if you think a bookseller’s job is to sit at the front desk and read, this is not the job for you–

• Makes every customer* feel that they are welcome, like they belong, and as if the store was stocked specifically with them in mind

• Possesses an innate sense of timing, knowing when to step in and offer assistance or suggestions, and when to give someone space

• Is punctual, able to have the store ready to open on time, and doesn’t keep other booksellers waiting when arriving to relive them mid-shift

QUALIFICATIONS

• Previous customer service / hospitality experience preferred

• Working knowledge of office software, including spreadsheets, and comfortable handling data entry

• Solid grasp of Social Media trends and platforms, and ability to create posts that engage readers

• Well-developed communication skills, including comfort answering the store phone, taking down messages, and calling customers

• Spanish fluency a major bonus, with comfort speaking, writing, and reading so we can better serve our local Latine / Hispanic communities

REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to lift and carry 50lb boxes of books, climb ladders, and stand for extended periods of time

• Reliable transportation to and from work in Asbury Park

• Punctuality and task management, including self-directed work, are a must

• Can commit to working nights and weekends throughout the summer

  –as a retail store, we do wind up open through many of the major holidays, but plan to close during Sea.Hear.Now. and will definitely be closed both Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Eve/Day–

Wolve & Kron Books is a small (tiny) indie bookstore stocking Collectible, Used + New Titles for readers YA and older, dedicated to centering LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPoC / AAPI authors, with a focus on Speculative Fiction. Our inventory beyond books is tightly curated to platform Queer Makers in the TriState area. We often eschew shelving the ‘big deal’ titles, preferring instead to highlight overlooked authors in a publisher’s back catalog, those who haven’t made it on the shelves of general interest bookstores, and books published by small indie presses. Our goal is to introduce readers to the books the Social Media Influencers have yet to find.

However, knowing the trending titles, both in mainstream and in niche genres, is key to successfully recommending an esoteric author.

Our customers expect hands on treatment and an awareness of / affordances to their needs, be those of physical access, or neurospiciness. Our readers look to us not only for book advice, but as a point of connection with the queer community, and a third space of belonging. This is a store where we say hello to every person who walks in the door, where we shape ourselves to make them feel comfortable*, and where we expect to see customers come back over and over. As booksellers, we present ourselves professionally, but this isn’t some department store perfume counter. Dress to be you, but specifically the you that’s ready to climb a 7ft ladder, or load 50lb boxes of books into the trunk of a car for an event.

We are not here to please summer tourists. If they don’t “get” our store, or are mad we don’t have the books they expect to find at a beach town bookstore, that’s fine.

We are here for our year-round readers, and for the visitors to Asbury Park here to be part of our community.

The books we stock are not the Beach Reads or Bestsellers found in big-box stores. They are the first books to be banned, or to be quietly removed from the shelves of stores less willing to stand up for a cause. We are here to remind readers that reading is an act of rebellion, and that the fiction we choose to read does dictate how we interpret the world.

Show some spine. Get shelved.

BENEFITS

• Physical / digital / audio ARCs

• 30-50% Employee discount (cost + sales tax)

• Professional development courses paid for by Wolfe & Kron Books

• Free parking! ... indoor bike rack coming soon

• Access to 2x shared Asbury Park Beach Badges

*...unless they're determined to make us, or any member of our community uncomfortable, or put us at risk... you know who we mean