Watermark Books & Cafe

Watermark Books promoted the Stephen King event last night in Wichita, KS. I can some up the organizing result in one word: Horrible. We were told, only after the event was sold out, that the first 1700 people in line at the event would receive a wrist band that would allow them to sit in the main auditorium to grace the presence of the almighty Stephen King. They also said anyone past the 1700 mark would be moved into an overload room. Although we barely made the 1700, I can only imagine how irritated the unlucky ones were who were forced into an entirely different room. How rude, money grubbing at it's worst. Why not just keep it to 1700 or rent a larger venue, it's not rocket science! Upon arrival at 4:00 pm, 2 hrs before the event started, there was no one to direct traffic and extremely difficult to find any "allowable" parking spaces. I actually had to cheat on that. The line wrapped completely around the building and we all were forced to stand outside in the freezing cold for 2+ hrs. No portable bathrooms. After we finally entered the building and was seated, we got to listen to King for one hour and picked up our book on the way out, which if you were lucky (we weren't), was randomly signed by King. So, although the King presentation was so so, what led up to it was horrible and this is why Watermark Books is receiving 1 star from us. Never again.

Watermark has an amazing variety of events every month--music in the cafe, author visits and book signings, the Literary Feast dinner and book club, storytime for preschoolers--the list goes on and on. Owner, Sarah Bagby and her staff cater to their customers.

Our neighborhood book store and cafe carries a small-town atmosphere where locals love to gather, eat, snack, and browse among the books, magazines and children's section.