Just Opened: BTW Speaks With New Independent Booksellers

Recently, David Unowsky wrote an open letter to booksellers about the closing of his nationally renowned bookstore, Ruminator Books; in it he said: "For those who think it's inevitable that independents will disappear and that the retail world will all be big chains, I say humbug and hogwash." Indeed.

While consumer demand for general trade books held steady during 2003, the independent/small chain bookstore channel's market position reached a five-year share high of 16 percent (vs. 15 percent in 2002). Moreover, this past summer, over 80 booksellers enrolled for Paz & Associates Bookseller School at BookExpo America. Many attendees have already opened their bookstores or will in the coming weeks. Bookselling This Week spoke with some of these new booksellers to find out how they're doing.

Before moving to Centerville, Ohio, from Michigan, Laurie Benner sussed out where she'd find her local independent bookstore. She had owned her own bookstore -- Books, Coffee and Friends -- in Michigan and didn't want to lose her connection with independent booksellers. After she sold her store and moved to Ohio, she was a regular at Reader's Choice for the next three years. Then, the owner, Ken Yeager, asked if she was interested in buying. Benner was -- she bought the 20-year-old bookstore and moved it about a block and half away to a larger, 1,600-square-foot space.

Benner told BTW that she "enjoyed the time off from bookselling, but really missed talking books." Like the bookstore she sold, Reader’s Choice is also a Book Sense store. "I missed Book Sense tremendously," she said. She had been a pilot user of BookSense.com in her old store, and she's using that resource again. Benner said using the BookSense.com template was particularly helpful while trying to juggle the chores of opening. "I'm familiar with how to use [BookSense.com], so I just spent a couple of hours setting it up. The site’s minimal right now. I’ll add more later, but it's up and running."

Reader’s Choice was doing "very well," Benner reported. She held her grand opening on the weekend of July 31 and said customers filled the store.

Apparently, the second time around is agreeing with her. "It's kind of like riding a bike," she said. "I have some experience so I was able to start out more organized. But I'm doing a lot of the same things: We'll have reading groups and a story hour.... We’re doing great."

New to bookselling, Farris Yawn of Canton, Georgia, always wanted to open his own business and "couldn't find anything he wanted to do more" than open a bookstore. So, he left his position as a manager of an auto body shop and launched Yawn's Books & More, a 2,000-square-foot general bookstore in a suburb of Atlanta.

Was owning and running a bookstore different from managing a body shop? "Not really," said Yawn. "Running the body shop was good retail experience."

The store opened July 12 and business has been "pretty fair," he said. "We just opened and there's not been a bookstore in this area before. We're letting everyone know we're here. It's slowly picking up."

Yawn reported that customers repeatedly reacted with a "Thank God there's a bookstore here now." He added that along with a lot of positive customer feedback, he’s heard many suggestions for authors he hadn't considered.

BTW spoke with another bookselling newbie, Jo Anne Kelley of Essex Books and Cafe in Essex, Connecticut. Kelley, busy planning the opening of her 500-square-foot general bookstore in mid-August, said that she was feeling a bit "overwhelmed" with the endless preparatory tasks. Describing her progress on Essex Books and Cafe so far, she said, "It’s evolving quite beautifully."

She is a children's therapist and intends to devote about 40 percent of the inventory to children’s and young adult titles, with attention paid to difficult issues -- including self-esteem, bullying, and coping with divorce. She’ll also stock Newbery and Caldecott medal winners.

From Kelley's description, Essex Books and Café will runneth over with a variety of specialties. In addition to the children's lit section, the adult books will offer fiction, gardening, cooking, and a nautical section with charts and maps. Kelley's husband is a nautical architect and Essex Books sits near the Connecticut River, so there’s great local interest in boats and yachts.

Though there’s limited space, there's a tiny kitchen off the main floor, which Kelley plans to use to make coffee and other drinks for the cafe. Desserts will be available from a local pastry shop, Seaflower Pastries. Next to the store is a little courtyard with picnic tables.

A little harried, Kelley still sounded eager to get the next two weeks over with and open up shop. "I have a passion for books," she said. --Karen Schechner

Look for other profiles on new independent bookstores in upcoming issues of Bookselling This Week.