New Hampshire Bookstore Seeks Highly Qualified New Owner

White Birch Books, a 12-year-old fixture in the resort community of North Conway, New Hampshire, has been put up for sale by the store's founder, Donna Urey. Urey told BTW that this decision has not been made impulsively nor as a result of any misfortune, personal or financial. "The store is happy and healthy and so am I," Urey said. "My husband and I have reached the point where we want to spend more time with our grandchild, and with the one on the way. I have five siblings, spread out over the country, we're a close family, but I don't get to see them enough. Over the last year, I've tried to spend less time here, but even with our terrific staff, the store is mine, and there are many things that are my responsibility."

Urey said that the store is doing very well: It has a large customer base and an active events program. Next month, for example, at the 4th Annual Valley Book Group Gala in North Conway, the store is hosting Dan Brown, author of the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code. The event is sold out. Brown, considered almost a "local" author, also appeared at White Birch in April 2003. Other popular authors -- David Sibley, Michael Meeropol, Michael Perry, and Jan Brett -- have visited the store in the past year.

The 3,200 square-foot bookstore, in its own building in a village location for the last five years, is "a wonderful opportunity for someone who wants to step into something very well established and have a great lifestyle. Anyone can take a virtual tour of the store from our Web site -- www.whitebirchbooks.com," Urey said.

As the owner of White Birch for 12 years and the owner of the former Bookworks in Pittsburgh for nine years before that, Urey has many friends in the bookselling world. She has close ties to the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) and has served as president and as an advisory board member. Active in ABA-related activities, Urey has served on ABA's Nominating Committee, the Booksellers Advisory Council, and BookSense.com User's Council. She was an early and ardent supporter of the Book Sense marketing program, as evidenced by her article, Why I'm a Book Sense Believer, originally published in the New England Booksellers Association fall 2000 trade show program and reprinted in BTW. (To read the article, click here.)

Although White Birch Books will likely have new owners in the next year or so, Urey and her spouse -- also the store's landlord, still plan to remain in North Conway for "the rest of our lives," she said. It is particularly important to her that the store remain in good hands. "I'm going to live here, too," she laughed, "and I want a good bookstore to go to."

For information about the sale of White Birch Books, contact Urey at (603) 383-8135. --Nomi Schwartz