Like good books, good bookseller blogs are irresistible and, with hard work and a little luck, find their audience. Bad or mediocre blogs tend to stack up like digital bones. You can even carbon date them. If the last post was in 2007, for example, the blog is probably . . . extinct.

We're not here to mourn fallen bloggers, but to explore a few that have succeeded. For many reasons, personal and otherwise, I have long been intrigued by how booksellers manage to write their way successfully along that border between the personal and the bookstore blog.

In last week's column, I mentioned that Megan Sullivan's Bookdwarf blog was an early influence on my efforts. Megan is also head buyer at the Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass. She began working there in 1999, and when she launched Bookdwarf in 2004, "it had nothing to do with work. I just created it one day and started talking about books. It was fun. Other bloggers started reading it and I started reading their blogs. I didn't let anyone know at work about it, but they found out anyway eventually. I've been told that customers have come in asking about Bookdwarf, which I find funny."

Megan adds that although she didn't write specifically about the bookstore except in reference to events or galleys, "I also started writing about the plight of independents a little bit. Perhaps that's why they never complain about me blogging at work. They know that I'd never break confidentiality or use the blog to complain about the store. It can occasionally be difficult to know what I can and can't say as more and more people read my blog. I also like that the blog is mine. Other booksellers I know blog for their store, but I would find that limiting. Bookdwarf is my voice, no one else's."

For Daniel Goldin, the borderline has shifted in recent months. A longtime buyer and general manager for Harry W. Schwartz bookshops, he opened the Boswell Book Company at Schwartz's former Downer Avenue location in Milwaukee, Wis., this year. He is also making the transition to considering blogs as an owner rather than as a staff member.

Daniel notes that when he started the Boswell and Books blog last fall, "I went to Schwartz's owner Carol Grossmeyer, and asked permission to set up a blog, with the idea that it would transition to a possible new bookstore. I also set up our bookseller blog, the Boswellians, in the same way. I bought the domain names for both as well. One of my booksellers, Sarah Marine, has been doing the day-to-day postings, which are done on work time. Sarah is leaving, and another bookseller, Greg Bruce, will be taking over posting. In addition, our buyer/manager Jason Kennedy tried his hand at a personal blog, but wasn't posting enough to make it viable, and has now been posting on the Boswellians as well.

"Though I don't always agree with everything said in every posting, I haven't had any concern so far with what's been said in the blogs. My big beef early on was suggesting to booksellers to hold their in-depth pieces on galleys they read until the book came out. It was my feeling that this was not going to help anyone sell books except Amazon. It was generally accepted by the staff."

Jessica Stockton Bagnulo is currently leading a blog juggler's life. As the events coordinator for McNally Jackson Books, New York, N.Y., she blogged there as well as on the Written Nerd. Now that she has begun the transition to her own Greenlight Bookstore, she's blogging about that (ad)venture, too.

"When you're doing work you love, the line between the personal and the professional is often extremely flexible," Jessica observes. "Your coworkers and customers and clients and vendors and competitors are also your friends. Your professional development is also what you'd be doing in your free time. And when you talk about your product, it's a conversation packed with emotion. That requires a certain amount of diplomacy, as well as a willingness to let the personal become the professional. Everyone decides where to draw the line of conviviality vs. privacy, but there's always some overlap. In that sense, I think being a bookseller is actually great practice for being a blogger, where that personal/professional balance is always a factor. You want to be honest and have fun, but only to a point--there are reasons for keeping things nice, for maintaining relationships."

The conversation continues next week.--Published in Shelf Awareness, Issue #956