Welcome to From the Front porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf and independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And this week, I'm joined by Bookshelf Online Sales Manager Aaron Fielding to talk all about shelf subscriptions.

September is a big month for the Bookshelf and for Thomasville.

This month, we're helping the Thomas County Library relaunch our area one book program.

For 10 years, the Thomas County Public Library has hosted South Georgia's first and only one book program, where our entire community reads the same book together and celebrates that book with a variety of literary events.

This year, we're reading You're Not Listening, What You're Missing, and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy.

And our celebration of Murphy's book will culminate in a visit from the author at the Thomas County Board of Education Auditorium on Thursday, September 28th.

Tickets are only $10 and can be found in store at the Bookshelf or online at 1booktomiscounty.org.

You have plenty of time to get tickets and to read You're Not Listening right along with us.

Grab your copy at the Bookshelf, the library, or read along with us from far away by snagging a copy at your own local indie.

Visit 1booktomiscounty.org for more details about this year's event. We hope to see you there.

Now, back to the show. Did you know that the Bookshelf has a book of the month program?

Like many indie bookstores across the country, the Bookshelf has a monthly subscription service devoted to our favorite new books of each month.

So what makes our program different? We base our monthly selections on our staffers, reading personalities, and Aaron is here to tell you all about it.

Hi, Aaron.

Hi, I am so excited to be talking about shelf subscriptions today.

This was your idea. We have been brainstorming so many different ways to promote shelf subscriptions while also knowing that monthly bookmail is or can be expensive and knowing that it's not for every customer.

But it is one of our favorite things we do at the Bookshelf. It's a big part of what we do at the Bookshelf. It's kind of one of our cornerstone programs and you have run it now for how long?

I guess almost three years now, close to three years.

Amazing. Amazing. I have vivid memories. I'm not making this up. Of course, familiar with subscription programs, Book of the Month programs, especially Book of the Month, which isn't even affiliated with a bookstore, but is kind of the standard, I think, for monthly bookmail.

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