Bookstores Aren’t Dying; They’re Changing + A Mini-Guide to Bookselling
“I thought bookstores were dying!” : A brief history
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the summer of 2016: I managed the downtown branch of Amazing Books and Records— one of Pittsburgh’s new and used bookstores. Customers of all kinds circulated through our doors— tourists on vacation strolling through downtown Pittsburgh, friends wasting some time before a baseball game, smartly-dressed business people on their lunch breaks, as well as eager bookstore lovers who fought the fierce, Pittsburgh traffic to peruse our shelves. Yet all of them shared one thing: amazement at our store’s very existence in an era when, apparently, bookstores are a dying breed.
“I thought bookstores had all died out,” they would marvel in awed whispers, turning to me expectantly, waiting for an explanation.
But, truth be told, I didn’t have an explanation. All I could do was smile and say, “We’re still here.”
Since then, I’ve not been able to let go of that misconception. So I decided it was time to not only find the explanation my customers had once been looking for but to also do my part in righting the ship. I am here today to tell you not only that local bookstores aren’t dying, but that they are thriving businesses, stronger than ever.
Let’s start at the beginning— well, the beginning of “the end.” Where did this misconception come from? Why did people believe that bookstores were going extinct?
According to Vox’s “Instagram is helping save the indie bookstore,” by Nisha Chittal,
“For years, that’s been the prevailing narrative: The internet is killing IRL bookstores, particularly your beloved mom-and-pop local independent bookstore. Since Amazon launched in 1995, it has been lamented as earth-shattering for the brick-and-mortar bookstore business. And when Amazon subsequently launched the Kindle e-reader device in 2007, it sold out immediately. People fretted that it was ushering in the death of the print book in favor of the e-book.”
For a time, brick-and-mortar bookstores appeared to have lost their competitive edge against the Internet, and all that came with it, i.e online sellers, like Amazon, e-reading devices, etc. But one store’s closure, particularly, set off alarm bells for bookstores everywhere. That one store was Borders.
“Are Bookstores Dying Out?” http://www.thewritersscrapbin.com/bookstores/
If you’re a book lover above the age of 20, you probably remember when Borders closed. Back in 2011, Borders— the mega-store much like Barnes & Noble— shut down. After Borders and Barnes & Noble had effectively absorbed local markets, kicking out smaller booksellers, Borders’ closure looked very much like curtains for physical bookstores across the board.
What happened? Well, a lot. But basically, Borders didn’t read the room well. Trends like digital media, online bookselling, social media, and e-reading devices were growing in popularity, but Borders didn’t catch onto them in time, unlike Barnes & Noble, which is why they’re still alive today.
To break it down more clearly:
Online sellers like Amazon made buying books more affordable by dropping prices significantly; Borders’ prices couldn’t compete.
As readers began shifting towards electronic reading devices and away from print copies, Borders did not successfully negotiate their place in readers’ lives.
These are just a few of the reasons Borders and then others like it went down. But beyond these logistical concerns, there was a cultural phenomenon happening at the same time— a purely human counterpart of Borders’ failure.
People enjoyed browsing Borders, but not necessarily buying there.
“…many customers liked to flip through some books, maybe even buying one every now and then. But Borders stores occupied 25,000 square feet on average, and it's hard to make a profit renting some of America's prime real estate at that level when people primarily enjoy looking at the only product you have to sell.”
Customers would come into Borders to relax and browse, and when they would stumble upon a book they actually wanted, they would write down the title and turn to Amazon later to purchase for a lower price, sometimes as low as $0.99. This problem, as David Magee so explained, ties into Borders’ size, which was both its advantage and its downfall. Borders was HUGE, but its selection did not reflect that size, frustrating customers with a lack of diversity and specificity, often times pushing them into the arms of Amazon just to find the book they were looking for. Frustration can be any business’s downfall. And Borders was no different.
Around the time when Borders was closing its doors, Reverse Symmetry put out a blog post voicing frustrations about Borders’ and Barnes & Noble’s poor selections. They wrote,
“It’s not the e-readers that are killing off bookstores. It’s not even the online sales. Webvan didn’t destroy Publix and Kroger. NewEgg.com hasn’t shut down Best Buy and Micro Center, or even the tiny Ginstar up the street. Sometimes when you need something, you want to get it right away, and the urge to read a book can be strong, even a craving. I might be on a plane tomorrow, or at jury duty. I might just have the weekend off work and want to sit in a hammock for hours. I definitely don’t have time for that book to be driven across the country to my front door when I should be able to find it up the street.”
Smaller, independent bookstores struggle with selection because they don’t have room for such immense collections. But customers are more patient with smaller stores in this regard. To call yourself a mega-store and not have what readers are looking for is a major flaw. Eventually, customers will stop trying your store all together and will just turn to Amazon, where they know they will find the book they’re looking for.
For all of these reasons, Borders went down like a mighty oak tree in the forest, taking other smaller trees down with it. The destruction appeared cataclysmic, as Americans watched or read the national news and saw headline after headline about Borders closing. This was The End for bookstores everywhere.
But not everyone was panicking.
“How did you react when Borders went down and people started to propagate the belief that all bookstores were doomed?”
I asked this question to both Flossie McNabb, owner of Union Ave Books in Knoxville, Tennessee and Tom Beans, owner of Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in Bend, Oregon.
“Eh, I knew differently,” Tom claimed. “Where I was living at the time (Bay Area), I was able to go to Green Apple Books and the venerable City Lights among many others and see that these places were still thriving.”
Flossie was even more strategic.
“We thought it was an opportunity to fill in the void,” she explained. “Then it made me realize that small is good. You don't have to be a huge bookstore.”
And this, right here, is the key to understanding bookstores and booksellers. They are survivors, through and through. Challenges have always run rampant with operating a local bookstore, so new challenges aren’t as scary as the rest of us might think. It takes guts just to get started in the business, and it takes guts to keep at it every single day. It’s not for the faint of heart.
When I asked Tom about his support system early on, his response sums up this courage very clearly,
“What is this "support system" you speak of?”
Despite all the panic, indie bookstores are doing well. And so is reading.
Nisha Chittal writes,
“Between 2009 and 2015, the number of independent bookstores grew by 35 percent, according to the American Booksellers Association. Print book sales are on the rise too: Sales of physical books have increased every year since 2013. In 2017, print book sales were up 10.8 percent from 2013, while sales of traditionally published e-books actually dropped 10 percent from 2016 to 2017.”
Regardless, the business of bookselling is a harsh reality to live in. Whether it’s because of low profits, high rents, a lack of experience in leadership, or a combination of these factors, bookstores struggle to stay afloat. One bookseller, Lexi Beach, co-owner of Astoria Bookshop in Queens, has caught large-scale attention for her public announcement on Twitter that,
“Oh, bookstore loving friends, here is the truth: At a certain point, buying books from the store you love is not going to be enough to keep it open.”
Her point being that, especially for small businesses in New York, rent costs are far too high and that, even if customers are loyal and buy their books in-store, it won’t be enough to keep the stores alive. Her call to action is to organize and to find a way to change how real estate operates within communities. I won’t include her entire thread in this piece; it’s too long, but I do recommend you read through the whole thing on your own. It’s full of really useful ideas and information (plus I love grassroots organizers.) But here is what Lexi said about how to actually save your favorite neighborhood bookstores,
“Talk to your hyper local elected officials. Community board, city council. Tell them how these locally owned, independently run businesses make your life in their district so much better.”
This notion points to a new trend arising in local economies— customers are being asked to do more than buy local products; they have to actively build the community they want to live in. But more on this later. For now, it’s safe to say that there are LOTS of conversations being had around the world about how local bookstores can and should be run within the larger battle between exploitative capitalism and community-centered life. But the good news is that bookstores are still here. Despite all the hardships and setbacks, they are here.
The message is: For all the booksellers out there, you can do it! For all the book-lovers out there, it can’t be done without you.
To put this all into perspective, I spoke with the owners and staff at two bookstores— Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in my current home of Bend, Oregon and Union Ave Books in my childhood home of Knoxville, Tennessee. I wanted to hear success stories and learn the ins and outs of how to start and run a bookstore. I’ve created a super informal “How-to Guide,” compiled at the end of this piece for all of you out there who have wanted to open your own slice of book-heaven, but did not know where to begin. And, above all else, I spent this time researching, talking, and writing to highlight exactly how bookstores flourish: by supporting and having support in their community.
Meet Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe: Bend, OR
As you weave through the foot traffic of Bend’s idyllic downtown, bordered by one and two-story, brick storefronts, you reach Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe tucked just off the main thoroughfare. From the outside, Dudley’s already feels like part of the DNA of this place. It’s old-fashioned sign, hanging over the front door, moves gently in the breeze, which makes cool the otherwise hot streets. The delightful dutch door entrance makes you feel immediately at home— but not your real home, rather a home of your dreams or fantasies. The top door is often open to allow the sounds of the store to leak onto the sidewalk, as the bright sunshine floods in. You breathe in the smell of paper, espresso, and pine needles. A smile forms on your face, as you step inside.
Within the wooden walls of this two-story shop, you see a cafe just in front of you, surrounded by tables, where readers sip at coffee, their eyes glued to the page in front of them, or groups gather to chat on one of the sofas. The walls are lined with shelves— mostly new books until you mount the stairs, each one colorfully painted with famous titles. Upstairs, past the zine collection, you find a larger reading room where a book club discusses their recent read or students study. Along the shelves upstairs, you glide past used titles as the sun filters in through the windows overlooking the street below. The space feels homey— area rugs dot the floor, framed pictures line the walls, reading lamps stand watch over plush armchairs. The floor creaks underfoot. This sound is your constant companion, reminding you of where you stand, breathing in the scent of ink on paper as you hold delicately in your arms a few books— your investment in this fragile, but worthy place.
The first time I saw Tom Beans, owner of Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, we didn’t shake hands or chat, but I felt immediately that this magical place was his. An effortless-looking calm pervaded his demeanor, then, like a captain in his vessel. It was Independent Bookstore Day (April 27, 2019) and a group of the local booksellers banded together to create a sort of Bend Bookstore Passport. A friend of mine, Kayla— who is an absolute delight, and I spent that Saturday driving to each of the bookstores on the passport, walking away with far too many books for our own good.
Kayla and me on Independent Bookstore Day 2019.
One of our early stops that day was to Dudley’s. And, when we arrived, it was like stepping into the best kind of party. Groups of readers filled the store with excited chatter. As I made my way through the crowd, I picked up familiar titles and authors being discussed; the sound electrified me. It was like a homecoming. I belonged there.
The staff was serving free mimosas, filling the bright morning air with the smell of citrus. To one side of the store, there sat a collection of bundles— books tied together with string— pre-packaged selections for book lovers. This was a charity project put together for this holiday specifically, which is why the books were all ARCs (Advanced Reader’s Copy). Naturally, I bought one of the bundles, thrilled to have found one with Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. And sitting beside this treasure trove was Tom. As curious eyes wandered towards the bundles, Tom would smile and chat with customers about the books, about the holiday we were all there to celebrate, and, of course, about reading.
I’m typically overwhelmed by crowds. Despite the fact that I was in love with this crowd, all the same, I still found myself too distracted to make a point of introducing myself to Tom, or to any of his staff that day. However, last week, Tom and I finally met. My book club was meeting upstairs at Dudley’s for our first discussion. By this time, Tom and I had already spoken through email and he had answered all of my interview questions digitally. And yet all the same I was nervous. But I love meeting booksellers in their element. There, you can learn so much about who they are and how they run their store. Plus, I love any excuse to go to a bookstore.
I found Tom—wearing a Schuylkill t-shirt in honor of the river that crosses through Philly, where Tom is from— sitting beside the cafe on his laptop. I ordered a coffee, nervous I would be intruding on Tom’s work if I chimed in then. But after a minute or so, we bashfully managed to catch each other’s eye and say, uncertainly,
“Tom?”
“Lauralei?”
As two introverts, it took a second for us to warm up to each other. We talked shop and I snapped a picture for this piece on my phone that is slowly breaking (I apologize if any of my photos are a bit blurry.) During our conversation, I mentioned that a bookstore I’d come into contact with recently had a scary basement that had lots of potential for future renovations. And, with glee, Tom’s eyes sort of lit up. He gestured for me to follow. And, lo-and-behold, Dudley’s also has a 100% haunted basement. After ducking under some stairs, avoiding towers of cardboard boxes, navigating cob webs, and peering through the eerie, basement lighting, I somehow survived to tell the tale.
My picture with my broken camera— attempts were made towards clarity.
Through this delightful adventure, I got a feel for who Tom is as a person.
Every bookseller is unique, but, in my opinion, Tom Beans is special. Like all book-lovers, he’s nerdy in that he genuinely enjoys hefty, 700+ page books in his free time, but, unlike most book-people, who I refer to as “indoor kitties,” Tom is an outdoor kitty; he loves fly fishing. Furthermore, Tom is funny. He speaks casually— not in the high-brow tone some people may expect from a bookstore owner. But I noticed he loves correcting people— again, not in a mean-spirited, I-am-smarter-than-you way— rather in the way a teacher likes to correct their students. It’s about sharing knowledge with others, which is the point of selling books, right? In fact, Tom spoke to this in an NW Book Lovers piece earlier this year titled, “Dudley’s Bookshop Café in Bend, OR, First U.S. Bookstore to Give “1% for the Planet”,
“As booksellers, our mission is not only to provide entertainment but to educate.”
As for the “First U.S Bookstore to Give 1% for the Planet,” this isn’t the first or last example of Tom doing something new, going in a different direction, pursuing what he knows is important. He tells it like it is and enacts change, even if it’s hard. But he knows what he’s doing; he trusts himself. When I asked Tom about some of the initial roadblocks he encountered when he first took over Dudley’s, he replied,
“I knew the first few years would be hard, financially. No one gets into this business to make a lot of money. I just had to make that leap of faith that I knew what I was doing. If I did, and apparently that was so, the money would come.”
To some, Tom’s tone could be misconstrued as cocky. And he is confident in himself; wouldn’t you be after successfully running a local bookstore in the age of “bookstores are dying”? But Tom isn’t cocky at all. When I asked if I could snap a picture of him for this piece, he replied in a bashful tone,
“While I'm eternally horrified of having my picture taken, that would be fine.”
Ultimately, Tom’s personality is perfect for Dudley’s and for Bend. As a newcomer to town, only knowing Dudley’s as it is under Tom’s leadership, I was surprised to learn that the bookshop has a long history without Tom in it.
According to Amy Wang’s piece “22 independent Oregon bookstores worth a road trip” in The Oregonian/Oregon Live,
“Dudley's has been around in some incarnation going back to the ‘70s and it was known as The Book Barn until 2008.”
Rebecca Singer and Tom Beans. https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/2751240-151/books-and-beans
Tom Beans re-vamped Dudley’s back in 2015, acting, at first, as a business partner with the previous owner, Rebecca Singer, and then later as the sole owner. Tom not only brought years of experience to the table, but plenty of new ideas for changes to the store, for instance, adding new books to the shelves alongside the used, tossing out the large shelves, and replacing the older, harsh lighting with a more welcoming glow.
“At first, many of the long-time regulars were real hesitant to embrace those changes,” Tom shared with me. “Over time though, as they saw the store really grow and flourish, they've really appreciated what we've done and they let us know how grateful they are all the time.”
These changes, one must understand, are not “just because” kinds of changes; they are rooted in science. When I asked Tom what he recommends all booksellers do to make their businesses stronger, he reported that atmosphere has a huge impact on sales and traffic.
“I think it's vitally important to create an atmosphere that people want to return to again and again,” Tom said. “There's so much that goes into this: lighting, choice of music, artwork on the walls, quirky little design elements, store layout, etc. Understanding the "Science" of retail is really important too. 'Why We Buy' by Paco Underhill can be a huge help in this area.”
Atmosphere had a lot to do with my initial falling in love with Dudley’s. My first visit coincided with an uncertain time in my life. Nervous and terrified, my husband and I visited Bend for the first time in May 2018 not as tourists but as interviewees. Our home in the hilly, humid, maze of Pittsburgh, PA felt very far away as we wandered the high desert of Bend. My husband had been laid off in Pittsburgh just a few months prior and we were desperate for work anywhere we could find it. But moving across the country, thousands of miles from all of our friends and family? That was a step into the unknown. As newlyweds and myself a recent college graduate, this life change aligned with an already uncertain moment in our lives.
As the book-nerd between us, I endured the anxiety-inducing hours while my husband interviewed by walking through downtown alone and, inevitably, I found myself outside of Dudley’s. I fell in love at the door— that adorable Dutch door that felt so much like Appalachia, where I was born and raised. So small a detail, but it clicked with me. It whispered, “You aren’t so far from home, after all.”
And speaking of home…
Meet Union Ave Books: Knoxville, TN
It’s Saturday morning and the Knoxville Farmer’s Market has Market Square bustling. Local farmers set up their stalls, covering every available inch of downtown Knoxville with bright wildflowers, sweet, yellow corn, ripe, red tomatoes, fresh veggies, golden honey, and wicker baskets woven from hand. Orange-clad shoppers mill about, inevitably waving at friends, chatting with strangers. Banjos play on the main stage and bluegrass music wafts through the air. Although your feet clap against hot, city pavement, you know you are standing in green Appalachia.
The summer sun and near-constant 100% humidity push you indoors, seeking some sort of shelter from the heat. The crowd disperses ever so slightly as you leave the Square, Knoxville’s tall office buildings and quaint, boutique storefronts parting just so to create a path out of the chaos. In the cool shade of an overhanging, you spot a green sign above you: Union Ave Books. Broad stretches of window reveal the treasure inside— a bustling bookstore.
Scout and Union Ave Books owner, Flossie. https://unionavebooks.indielite.org/scout-shop-dog
As you push open the glass door, you are immediately engulfed in shelves of new books, but not in a claustrophobic sense. The high-ceilings above you make it feel almost like a holy place. Bright, white lights reach down from above, akin to a skylight. The only way you know you are standing indoors is the air conditioning, yet the busy sidewalks are silenced by the store’s own liveliness. The shining hardwood floors guide you past the cashier stand and underneath a yawning arch— a recent extension of the store. On the walls all around you are posters and decor capturing East Tennessee, the Smoky Mountains, and the local college football team, the Volunteers. (Go Vols.) Readers of all ages wander the stacks. Children rush to and fro filling the store with a youthfulness foreign to many such spaces. You spot a family with adventure in their eyes who ask the cashier upfront for “a hint.” You lean in. A hint for what? A scavenger hunt put on by downtown Knoxville.
You smile. There is even a shop dog present, named Scout.
This place is full of joy.
I’ll be honest with you: I don’t remember my first visit to Union Ave Books. Not because the store is unmemorable, but rather because it opened right before I started high school and, given the sleep deprivation of those years, I don’t remember much at all. But I do remember a trip to Union Ave Books feeling like a treat. In my mind, although they sold used books as well, it was the place you went for a new book. Sure, Barnes & Noble existed in Knoxville, but I rarely turned to them. Not sure why.
Though I don’t remember my first trip to Union Ave Books, I do remember one of my trips there. I was maybe fourteen years old. Perhaps fifteen. In those years, like most teenagers, my future stretched out before me through a thick fog; I had no clue what I really wanted to do yet, nor who I wanted to become. But holding a hardbound copy of my favorite book at the time, Crime and Punishment, felt momentous, like an invisible hand pointed down the road towards what was to come. If you are from the south, or any rural area, you know that a bookstore can have a huge impact on how you see your future, your potential, your options. The titles lining the walls of Union Ave Books whispered of secrets from beyond the Smoky Mountains, and beyond the life I had been told I had to lead.
I have to believe that, somehow, Union Ave Books helped form the writer and reader I am today— miles and miles from East Tennessee.
Davis Shoulders, Union Ave Books Event Organizer. https://unionavebooks.indielite.org/meet-our-staff
Earlier this month, I returned to Knoxville for a brief stay. While I was there, as the sticky, July climate hit hard, I had the lucky chance to sit down with Davis Shoulders, the Events Organizer at Union Ave Books. After living in DC and working at Politics and Prose, Davis started at Union Ave Books, where he has been for the last year.
“What I’m trying to protect,” Davis shared with me, his eyes, behind his round glasses, searching for the right words to convey the heart of this gigantic idea he grapples with every day, “is that sacredness of allowing an author to come in, who really has something important to share, and hold an event that foments into a really beautiful, life-changing moment for some people. Maybe it’s the first time they’ve met an author in-person, or it’s someone they have been meaning to meet, or they’ve impacted their life in some way.”
When you talk with Davis, you immediately gather a sense of weightiness— the importance of bookstores, booksellers, and literary community. Laced in his every word is a brilliant sense of magnitude. Every detail of the bookstore, every choice booksellers make, every exchange between the staff and customers carries longitudinal meaning that taps into the large-scale framework of what bookstores are culturally, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
When I asked Davis about the core identity behind Union Ave Books— who they are— he told me,
“I feel like I have a hard time speaking on behalf of the owners because I want it to be their vision. And I think in some ways their vision is, I mean, having access to a new book. It sounds funny, but it has a very pure function in the south. Being able to say, I can walk into a bookstore, and I can see a book that was talked about on Twitter or the news— somewhere else— but I see it here and I can get it here, I think that’s what they have done a great job of doing… everything I’m working on is like icing on the cake. The excitement of being in a place like this is that it provides a newness to customers, to people, to readers. And it gives them a chance to validate that there are other ideas that they can interact with and this is a place where they can access them. And so that needs to be kept alive.”
His sentences weave and wind like this often, as a river does.
“We should probably head next door,” Davis prompted after about 30 minutes, his mind tied to the store in a sort of psychic way. “I know Flossie has to leave soon, and I want you to get a chance to talk with her.”
Davis and I migrated from the coffee shop next door to Union Ave Books, but immediately upon entering, I knew I wouldn’t get to speak with Flossie in person that day. The store was flooded with customers. Davis immediately flew into action, slipping behind the cashier’s desk to chat with customers, make sure they found what they were looking for, and keep the checkout line moving. I strolled, trying to stay out of everyone else’s way, while also restraining myself from buying all the books I spotted from my wish-list. After about five or seven minutes, the store had calmed down some and Davis’s smile told me all was well again and we could keep talking.
“Oh, there’s Flossie,” Davis told me. “Flossie,” he called, but the busy owner did not seem to hear, and she left the store.
Davis gave me an apologetic smile, but the thing you learn quickly when you work in a bookstore is that booksellers— the owners particularly— are probably some of the busiest people on the planet. I never take offense to a busy bookseller. But don’t get the wrong idea; Flossie isn’t the cut-throat, too-busy-for-you kind of business person. Quite the opposite. As stated in one of the comments under KnoxvilleUrbanGuy’s piece “A Portrait of a Friend: Flossie McNabb, Union Avenue Books and the Heart for our City,” with Inside Knoxville,
https://blanknews.com/2018/10/union-ave-books-expands-into-adjacent-storefront/
“Flossie is a treasure.”
The piece describes Flossie as a,
“quiet, good soul, more comfortable praising others than being praised. Content to take a backseat when she deserves to be at the head of the table.”
Despite her schedule, Flossie was happy to answer my questions digitally, so I sent them via email and got to hear things from her perspective as well. When I asked Flossie what she would tell her younger self, with all she knows now, she said,
“We've always had fun, but have even more fun! Enjoy successes when they happen.”
That alone paints a pretty clear picture of Union Ave Books and Flossie herself.
Flossie McNabb is the kind of bookseller who has seen it all. Before Union Ave Books, Flossie worked at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Knoxville until it closed in 2000. Davis-Kidd had, at one point, four locations around Tennessee, the last one closing in 2010. Then, in 2005, Flossie started Carpe Librum Booksellers in Bearden, which also closed in 2010. When I was a dancer at Dancer’s Studio, Carpe Librum was located just down the road. During the summer months when I was at dance every day from 8am-10pm, my lunch break being an important time to get out of the studio, I’d walk to Carpe Librum and peruse the shelves. It was one of my favorite bookstores in Knoxville, and I was sad to see it go by the time I was in high school at West High, which was also just down the road. But, in 2011, Flossie opened Union Ave Books downtown in the Daylight Building where, according to the Inside Knoxville piece, Flossie,
“was drawn to the feel and history of the old building. It reminded [her] of the creaky floors and large windows of the furniture store [that her parents owned growing up] and of being in a place where people window shopped as they strolled by. [She] missed the Bearden area and people but thought if we are to survive as a bookstore we need to be downtown.”
And downtown has been good to Union Ave Books.
“We have the incredible luck of being downtown at a time when downtown is re-surging and changing,” Davis commented.
“Really consider your location, because it is so important,” Flossie advised other booksellers in one of her responses to my interview questions. “Ours is at a place that people come by and is very pedestrian-friendly.”
And, over the years downtown, Union Ave Books has created a strong literary community.
“[There has been a] tremendous response from our community,” Flossie told me. “It's increasing every year. They attend more events and buy more books. We see the same people a lot. We have really loyal customers.”
There’s good reason behind why Union Ave Books has loyal customers. Being from the South, specifically Appalachia, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that a place like Union Ave Books exists in that community. And this brings us to the heart of the thing.
Ultimately, from my research, from my own time working in a local bookstore, and from my conversations with Flossie, Davis, and Tom, I believe the answer to a bookstore’s success lies in the community. And community is a two-way street. The relationship that forms between successful bookstores and their community is mutualistic— both sides have to benefit for it to work.
Bookstores & Community
“I think it’s like that fable, where the hen is making the bread or whatever?” Davis told me over coffee. “And everyone’s like, Oh, no I don’t want to work on that, you’re fine on your own. But then when it gets to it, everyone wants to taste. That’s what customers don’t understand— just how important they are to a bookstore.”
In case you don’t know the fable Davis is alluding to off-hand: It’s the classic scenario where one person decides to do something, they ask their friends if they want to help, but all their friends say no. And once all the hard work is paying off, suddenly those friends come back and decide that they want to partake in the success, even though they didn’t put in the work when they should have.
It’s a story we all know from our own personal lives. But it isn’t something many people really consider in typical retail. Under capitalism, you pay for a product, and you receive it. Competition creates a fair market and business owners adapt. That’s it, right? Well, bookstores are a little bit more complex. Because, with bookstores, it’s not just a product purchased. It’s an investment. As bookstore owners and staff are putting huge amounts of time and research and love into their store, if customers aren’t there to pay back that work with dollars, then growth doesn’t happen. And no one gets, as Davis so put it, a taste.
And this is even more true today than ever, because small businesses across the board are experiencing a paradigm shift. In America, large corporations and real estate are melding and meshing in a worst-timeline sort of way, creating an ecosystem where small businesses are meant to perish— like animals caught in a tar pit. It’s a sink or swim moment for everyone. Corporations are absorbing customers, while the real estate industry hikes up rent, forcing small businesses into tight corners where survival is a daily battle. Gentrification is pushing out Black-owned, Latinx-owned, and Indigenous-owned businesses from their own communities. And none of this is good for the communities themselves.
The only way small businesses can survive right now is if customers make them a priority. If customers put in the dollars and the time and the love to keep their local businesses afloat, then they will reap the benefits, the biggest one being control— having a real voice so that inhabitants can build the community that they want to live in. And this is where customers are asked to invest, even when it isn’t easy.
Here forms a mutualistic cycle. For a bookstore to truly succeed, no matter its size, it must be grounded in its community— so grounded, in fact, that customers buy books there not because they are the most affordable, or the most convenient, or the best quality, but because they care about their community. To buy a book at your local bookstore is a direct investment into your community, because, like having access to clean water, like opening a new park in your neighborhood, like funding programs in public schools, like building facilities that are accessible to all, buying at a local bookstore improves the community you live in.
It’s harder than it seems, but Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe and Union Ave Books prove it is possible. How? They listen to their communities and adapt.
How do bookstores typically adapt? They add services and activities to their store. They find new ways to communicate with customers. They connect with other businesses in the area to stimulate the local economy. They curate experiences that can’t be found anywhere else. They experiment. They try and fail and then try again.
Let’s take a look at one specific adaptation that most bookstores either accept or reject: events.
Events:
Today, every bookstore has a different relationship to events, based largely on the community the store is in. Events— author events, poetry readings, book clubs, children’s reading circles, etc.— are a means of bringing in customers and forming spaces of literary community, which ultimately promotes readership and book culture. But events are time-consuming. To pull them off, a store requires knowledgeable staff, oftentimes full-time staff, which is not always an option. There is also the question of space; some bookstores are too small to host viable events and so would have to outsource the location. Other resources are needed as well, like food and drinks, tables, chairs, sound equipment, marketing materials, etc. All told, the choice about whether or not to host events in a store comes down to logistics. Not all stores can make it happen. And even if they can, sometimes it still isn’t worth the hassle.
Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Chatham, Carlow, Point Park, and Duquesne in relation to one another. Google Maps.
For example, when I worked at Amazing Books and Records, the owner was moving away from in-store events, because Pittsburgh customers did not seem interested. This makes sense because Pittsburgh is a city with several large universities and colleges clumped into the same neighborhood. With only about a five-mile radius between them, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, Chatham, Carlow, Point Park University, and Duquesne are all fighting to pull in people for their events. If the college settings are hosting events almost every day, then Pittsburghers don’t have the energy to then attend bookstore events too. Therefore, the bookstores in Pittsburgh don’t have to provide for a need that is already filled. They serve their communities in other, valuable ways.
But in Knoxville, it’s different.
“Author events are our bread and butter,” Flossie informed me. “We would not exist without them.”
This is, of course, why Davis is there. He claims that even though Knoxville is a college town, Union Ave Books still hosts author events because,
“…lots of people feel gate-kept from going [to university events] because they are on campus. Any sort of downtown event that is literary or put on by a nonprofit organization, advocacy group, or city-government, there are other barriers too— maybe it feels more citizen-based. Whereas a bookstore is just like, you know, it can accumulate so many different ideas, because there are so many different ideas on our shelves.”
Union Ave Books puts on a lot of author events, specifically. According to Davis, there is a new relationship developing between publishers and bookstores, where both openly recognize that they need one another to survive. Here’s how it works at a very basic level. Publishers connect with local bookstores to schedule author events for authors on book tour. As the Events Organizer for Union Ave Books, Davis gets pitches all the time.
“I get pitches from all sorts of levels,” he claims. “From self-published to someone emailing me from a Manhattan office.”
What can be tricky; however, is balancing the kinds of authors a store hosts— local versus national authors. When I asked Davis if Union Ave Books had managed to strike that balance, Davis said, not yet. And this is partially because of the moment Knoxville is in right now.
“Publishers always go to locations or cities where there is a guaranteed turnout, guaranteed sells,” Davis explained. “Knoxville is still just a stop-by city. Same thing for music and everything else. It’s not on the tour circuit.”
But still, Union Ave Books has plenty to live off of. This month they had six events with seven authors, one of whom was David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us. In fact, it’s not a problem of having too few authors that visit; it’s making sure that they don’t overwhelm their customers with too much. Because energy and attention are not unlimited resources— as demonstrated by the Pittsburgh example— event coordinators like Davis have to find the balance between just enough events and too many.
Furthermore, Davis has to make sure that the authors who do come to town are a good fit for the Knoxville crowd. Davis put it perfectly,
“You don’t want to just push for fame in terms of recognition or whatever. You’re not trying to beg for people’s attention. You want a natural fit and you want [events] to be organically attended, you know. I think [that’s] what I’ve learned. To balance it out, I have to learn the city first in order to match with it. And I think that’s what long-standing bookstores have done.”
Ultimately, the goal with events is to build upon the persona of the store itself. With events, Davis is aiming for something very special.
“I’m trying to make this feel like a comfortable space for you to learn in, to process ideas or opinions. But again that’s just what I see; it’s not what a bookstore has to be. But I do think it is what sustains a bookstore.”
But, again, every community is different.
If you’ve never heard of Bend, like myself before I moved here, Bend is a growing city that thinks it’s still a small town (population 94,520) located in the high desert of central Oregon, about three hours east of Portland. Bend is growing SUPER fast (about 12 people per day.) Why? Well, that has something to do with Bend’s main industry: tourism. Bend, nestled on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountain Range, is surrounded by stunning nature— tall, snowy peaks ideal for skiing, and awe-inspiring geological formations that make for great hiking, camping, rock-climbing, kayaking, and more.
So, in an outdoorsy town like Bend, how does a bookseller make out? What kinds of adaptations does a store in Bend have to make to suit the community? Do you host events? Or do you try other things?
According to Tom, events aren’t as crucial to Dudley’s identity as they are to Union Ave’s.
“Because Bend is such a tourist town and we are located right in the middle of downtown, we don't host a ton of events,” Tom told me. “Who wants to come to such an outdoor wonderland like Central Oregon and spend their time listening to an author talk? I get it.”
Dudley’s still hosts authors, but Tom has to be really selective with who those authors are. And so instead of events, Tom connects with the Bend community in other ways.
“What we're more successful with,” Tom told me, “is allowing different clubs and community groups to use our space for meetings. Everything from business groups to foreign language clubs meet here and we host someone like that around 5 days a week. They pay a small reservation fee and often buy drinks from the cafe. Some buy books as well so altogether it's a nice additional revenue stream and gets customers into the store the might otherwise not know about us.”
Turning a bookstore— a private business— into a community space is changing the identity of many local bookstores for the better. In prior years, some saw this as a negative thing, or, rather, as a waste, because such changes wouldn’t necessarily bring in additional profits. But it goes beyond money. For brick-and-mortar stores to survive in the age of the internet, they need to prove that the space they occupy isn’t just for themselves to enjoy— it’s for the community to use and experience as needs arise. And, for what it’s worth, anytime I walk into a bookstore— even if I’m not there to shop— I end up buying something.
Beyond events, bookstores have had to make other kinds of adaptations to keep customers invested. One of these adaptations involves social media.
Social Media;
I’m going to take a brief detour from Union Ave and Dudley’s. I want to focus for just a moment on another bookstore— one whose story captures the fantastical meeting of a real-life bookstore with social media trends. Books are Magic.
If you’re on Bookstagram— the Instagram book-ish community filled with writers, readers, publishers, editors, booksellers, agents, etc.— then you will recognize the name of this store immediately. If you don’t know what Bookstagram is, then search #bookstagram to find out. The community is full of genuinely lovely human beings who enjoy talking about books. I’m sure you will find something there to love.
Anyway, Books are Magic is one of the most photographed bookstores online. Why? I mean, just look at it.
At first glance, you might be thinking, “Okay, cute wall. But that’s a little superficial, right? Just something ‘for the ‘gram.’ It doesn’t make a good bookstore.”
Fair enough. But I’d invite you to look closer.
Nisha Chittal featured Books are Magic in her Vox piece as well, highlighting how this newly opened store has become one of Brooklyn’s favorite booksellers. She writes,
“In a way, Books Are Magic has become a lifestyle brand. [Colleen] Callery [Books are Magic Marketing Manager] said the store’s extremely Instagrammy name has been a boon for selling branded merch because it sounds almost like a mantra; it’s a disposition where people are like, yes, I can believe in that.”
I think this, right here, is the key to understanding how real-life bookstores can become stronger with the help of social media, especially Instagram. While a bookstore becoming Insta-famous and having to then carry a heavy online presence may sound intimidating, it can benefit the store in more ways than just profit. Pushing yourself to create an online brand can help your bookstore unearth its role in the community, become the best version of itself, and promote the values that are needed for bookstores to flourish.
“Books are Magic” is just as Colleen Callery put it: it’s a mantra. It’s something to believe in. And, most importantly, it’s something to build a community around.
Nisha Chittal continues,
“All this bookstagramming has led to a thriving space for book lovers on social media, and that’s been a good thing for independent bookstores too — because it plays to their key strength: creating community.”
My Instagram (RebelMouthedBooks)
Over the last ten years or so, retailers have battled with social media. I’ve met booksellers who hate social media and refuse to play any part in it. I get that urge to run and hide; I’m not a huge fan of social media myself. But I’ve also met booksellers who have embraced social media and who are appreciative of Bookstagrammers (like me) who promote local bookstores and reading itself. Ultimately; however, it is up to each individual bookseller to decide how they want to interact with their community.
For both Dudley’s and Union Ave Books, social media is seen as a good thing— a tool to build connections and solidify an identity.
According to Flossie at Union Ave Books,
“[Our] social media is stronger than ever.”
To look at Union Ave Books’ Instagram page is to understand the store’s personality. The posts reflect a combination of Knoxville-centered books, children’s activities, bestsellers, publishing updates, upcoming events, and cute, book-ish merchandise.
As I filtered through pictures on Instagram where Union Ave Books had been tagged, I noticed a pattern that, again, points to the store’s identity— in-store events. Many of the pictures I saw weren’t of a specific feature of the store (although people also love photographing the glass window displays and the marquee lights lining the overhang). Rather the pictures most often captured events, an author caught mid-story, oftentimes smiling in the stacks under warm lights, or posing with piles of their newest title on display.
When I asked Flossie for her advice to other booksellers about social media and having an online presence, she told me,
“It's very important to have a presence, you don't have to overdo it for it to be useful. People just like to know they can find you there.”
I think what Flossie said hits home. Having a presence online doesn’t mean you have to post every single day or post about every little detail of your store. It simply means that you are offering customers another path to find you. It’s about being there.
I asked Tom the same question. His advice?
“Jump in feet first and keep it up. We use ours to push out interesting, bookish stories we find around the web. Our goal is to feed people interesting tidbits so when it comes time to promote something we're doing, we already have their attention. If your social media is just about you, people will quickly tune you out. This is pretty much the philosophy behind Gary Vaynerchuk's book 'Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook' and it works for us.”
Dudley’s Instagram presence also captures a lot of what makes the bookshop great. For instance, one of the store’s recent posts shows off a new piece of merchandise— a reusable coffee mug. Because Dudley’s has a cafe, and because Bend is a town that cares deeply about the environment and being eco-friendly, posting about a discount off coffee if you bring in your own reusable mug is a great idea to connect meaningfully with locals.
My Instagram (RebelMouthedBooks)
Dudley’s also has its own photo-worthy details that excite the Bookstagram type. One being the staircase.
The idea originated with the owner prior to Tom and they kept it simple. But after the first few years under his belt, Tom decided it was time to step it up (no pun intended.)
At first, the titles chosen came only from the classics, names most everyone would recognize. But, per usual, Tom wanted to add something more; he decided to promote the names of more recent titles alongside the classics. Some of these were Tom’s personal favorites. But what they all shared was quality.
The stairs, at first, were simple in design. But when Tom partnered up with Shelbie Vanek, a friend and local artist, the designs took on a whole new life.
“The level of detail she put into these was far beyond even what I hoped for and we see people photographing them all the time,” Tom told me. “It was a challenge to pick out titles that I loved that also had visually interesting spines but I think we managed to do that.”
What motivated this decor concept? Tom revealed,
“My hope is that they [customers] will be drawn to the artwork on the stairs and go find those authors on the shelves. There's not a boring book in the lot so maybe these will help someone discover a favorite new read.”
Many of us love a good book cover. The idea to capture that love and integrate it into the identity of the store is genius. It’s details like these that eventually add up to create atmosphere— one side of the business that Tom has a deep understanding of.
At the end of the day, bookstores are businesses. Booksellers make big and small choices every day and none of them do everything right. The best advice I can give to those of you out there who want to get into this work is to be yourself and serve your community first. Don’t be afraid of change. Adapt and take on growth as a new adventure. And listen— to your gut, to your staff, and to your customers. They should be your compass.
You’re going to do great.
Before concluding this piece, I’d like to first take a step back— back to “Bookstores are dying.”
All my life, I’ve lived in cities. Even though I’m from East Tennessee, Knoxville is by no means rural. It’s the third-largest city in Tennessee. Then, I moved to Pittsburgh— an even larger city. Now, I live in Bend, which is more rural than any place I’ve lived before. But it’s still a city.
My point being this: Bookstores may not be dying out, but for rural areas and small towns, it can sure feel like it.
While there are a few success stories for rural bookstores, there are plenty of areas that don’t have a single bookstore whatsoever. Readers can find books at the local Walmart or through Amazon, but not through an independent bookstore.
There are many reasons for why this is (perhaps that is another, separate piece later down the road.) The end result; however, is the same. Small, rural communities have one less place to gather that celebrates reading and togetherness. It’s not to say that these communities don’t find other ways to come together. Communities adapt. But it still represents a hole in the fabric of the town— a hole that can be filled.
To those of you out there who have dreamed of opening your own bookstore, and especially to those who live in rural communities and who may be the first to ever open a bookstore in your area, I have gathered some useful information from Tom, Flossie, and Davis about how to start, how to grow, and how to keep going when things get hard.
How to Open and Run Your Own Indie Bookstore: A Mini-Guide
Please note: This mini-guide is by no means comprehensive. I hope to write future sequels to this piece and do so by talking with other bookstore owners around the world. Perhaps one day I will be able to create a much more comprehensive guide. But, for now, this is what I can give you.
What’s the first step?
Decor at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe. https://tierneycreates.com/tag/dudleys-bookstore/
Flossie: “I went to bookselling school in Chicago through the American Booksellers Association in 2004. It was a lot of work and scared a lot of people away, but it didn't scare me away.”
Tom: “Whether or not you need a business plan will be determined by the level of financing you need. I got mine for what now seems like an incredible price so I didn't need financing or a business plan. Figuring out how you're going to stock your store is probably the next step. Having talked with a lot of folks in the industry who have opened new stores though, there is an exponential amount of more work necessary to open a brand new store as opposed to buying an existing store. Don't underestimate that and decide your path accordingly.”
What are the obstacles and how do you combat them?
Flossie: “Competitive online ordering platforms i.e. Amazon etc. We think people are gradually turning away from them for the independents to stay open.”
Tom: “The biggest challenges today are rising rent costs and increasing minimum wage. I've always paid my staff at a higher rate but I still feel the need to keep up with increases. The problem for bookstores is a bit unique compared to other retail outlets in that book prices are set by the publisher. I can't charge more for a new book to cover the cost of wage hikes. It forces you to look at other options as to how you can increase your profit margin to make up the difference. There are plenty of ways to do it but it requires you to really dig into your financial statements to find whatever inefficiencies you can correct.”
Recommendations: How to Make Your Business Stronger
Flossie: “Customer service, customer service. Spend as much time as you can on the floor interacting with people.”
Tom: “In the end, we're selling a lot of the same books as the big box stores and online outlets. Why should customers buy from you? Besides the books themselves, what do customers get from shopping in your store that they can't get anywhere else? I think it's vitally important to create an atmosphere that people want to return to again and again. There's so much that goes into this: lighting, choice of music, artwork on the walls, quirky little design elements, store layout, etc. Understanding the "Science" of retail is really important too. 'Why We Buy' by Paco Underhill can be a huge help in this area.”
How to Hire Good Staff
Flossie: “You can feel a connection with someone, usually it's someone who has come into the store regularly and built a relationship. Otherwise, it's based off of previous experience. But we really hire from people already a part of our community.”
Tom: “It's a bit of a crapshoot for sure. If you're an avid reader but not a complete introvert, can make a great espresso drink, and have previously worked in an Indie bookstore, give me a call...”
Lauralei: I’m just jumping in here really quickly. Here is how I got hired at Amazing Books and Records: I worked for the Pittsburgh Magazine in college and one of my favorite pieces was actually the first iteration of this piece you’re reading now. “Best Indie Bookstores in Pittsburgh.” To write that piece, I interviewed the owner of Amazing Books, which is how we initially met. We kept in touch in the years after that. I’d check in every so often to ask if he was hiring. Eventually, when I was looking for full-time work, he was hiring. In my interview, he gave me the test that the Strand Bookstore gives to its employees. It’s essentially a knowledge test. I panicked in the midst of this test because a) I have test anxiety and b) I wasn’t doing super well. In the end, I got about 50% of the questions right. I was sure I’d be walking out that day job-less. But, to my surprise, the owner of the store hired me. When I asked why he told me that he typically hired around that 50% accuracy mark. He told me that his employees needed to know the basics, but they also needed to be sociable and out-going, so 50% right was apparently the marker for nerdy-but-not-too-nerdy.
Recommended Software
Flossie: “We love book log (our inventory system), we've had it 15 years and never had a problem. Other tools we find very helpful are edelweiss (buying/event grid software) and canva (for marketing/designs).”
Tom: “I don't know if I could call it a favorite but Quickbooks Online saves me a ton of time on the accounting side. Our POS system allows me to slice and dice our sales data in just about any way I can think of which is a huge help in spotting trends and planning accordingly.”
Tips on How to Stock Your Store
Flossie: “With frontlist, seasonal titles, heavy on displays and keeping our actively selling back stock on hand.”
Tom: “This is another ingredient of the secret sauce and it's the primary way you'll differentiate yourself from other bookstores. I made a decision before I took over that I didn't want to have a "general" bookstore with new titles in all subject areas. I took a look at the areas I knew really well as well as what our customers, both locals and tourists, would want and focused on those. As such, we're focused on literary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, outdoors and adventure, western history, eastern philosophy, and local guidebooks. We stock titles in most other areas but those are used only. The end result of these decisions means we can really focus on areas that sell well, carrying a deeper backlist in those subjects, without tying up a bunch of cash flow with new books in subjects that our customers really aren't interested in.”
Dudley’s Restroom Decor. My photo.
How to Decide on Stocking a New Book by a Famous Author
Flossie: “We have tracked our history of sales and popularity with certain authors, and we trust our publisher sales rep to recommend new releases. It would also depend on what genre, we don't stock a lot of certain topics like romance, horror, self-help, radical political or spiritual fiction. Besides, it comes down to collective personal taste and reading of our staff and customers.”
Tom: “The first consideration is how well we did with previous books from them. I also look at where the media coverage will come from- NPR, NY Times, TV news programs, magazines, etc. Are they outlets that my customers are paying attention to? It comes down to knowing your customers. There are plenty of titles from big authors that might sell like hotcakes in other parts of the country but do absolutely nothing for us here.”
Biggest Mistakes
Flossie: “Your business partners are so important. You really have to know them and have a shared sense of trust and understanding to be successful in the long run. Choose them wisely and carefully.”
Tom: “We experienced huge growth in our 2nd year with a really strong holiday season. I made the mistake of thinking that a lot of those hardback book sales would continue into the new year and I ordered accordingly. Come January I learned a hard lesson about the seasonality of sales. Since then I've gotten much better about adjusting my ordering and my inventory to match the seasons.”
Other Common Mistakes to Avoid
Flossie: “Overbuying at the beginning when you don't have a track record of sales. Always listen to what the customers are asking for and what they are not asking for, and then build your inventory from that. Don’t be afraid to try things and if they don't work, you move on quickly to another approach rather than getting bogged down in the mistake.”
Tom: “Margin is king. A few percentage points of discount may not seem like much but it absolutely adds up. It might take a few years to dial it in for your store but knowing when to order direct from individual publishers (more hassle but higher discount) versus distributors (easier but lower discounts) is part of the secret sauce.”
What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self?
Flossie: “Be able to look down the road at your vision for the store. What is your long term vision?”
Tom: “Trust your instincts- they're probably right. And if not, no one will die. You made the mistake so learn from it. Better to try something and screw it up instead of not trying at all.”
Encouragement: From Customers
Flossie: “Thank you all for being here. People say that all the time, it's not just one customer, so many customers thank us for being here. Someone from out of town will say, I come here every time I visit or This is my first stop always.”
Tom: “One of my favorite things to hear is I wish we had one of these in my town. Especially when those people live in towns with some of the nationally known Indie Bookstores, I can't really ask for higher praise.”
Words of Encouragement: From Flossie and Tom to You
Flossie: “Really consider your location, because it is so important. Ours is at a place that people come by and is very pedestrian-friendly. If people have to drive to your store, that's hard. Otherwise, it is a good life in a lot of ways.”
Tom: “If there's ANY way for you to spend a year or two working in someone else's bookstore before opening your own, do it. There are so many mistakes to be made and lessons to be learned. If you can figure some of those out on someone else's dime, you'll be in a much better position when you open your own shop. Be a clerk on the floor and talk to customers. Work in receiving and learn how the returns process works. If you're lucky enough, get involved with the buying. Try to learn at least a little bit of all the different aspects of running a bookstore. The other suggestion I would offer up is this: even if it means not paying yourself for a while, hire staff, even if it's only one or two people. If you try to do everything yourself you're doing your business a disservice. You'll spend all your time working *in* your business and never have time to work *on* it. If you want to grow over time, you need to do the latter and there's no way around that.”
If you are hoping to open up your own store and have questions, feel free to shoot me an email or connect with me through Instagram. I’ve never been a bookstore owner myself, but I have worked in the field. I may not have the answers to your questions, but I could help connect you with someone who does. If you already own a bookstore and would like to share your success story with me, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you to Flossie, Davis, and Tom for sharing so much of your lives with me for this piece. Thank you to journalists out there who have been reporting on bookstores and their health over the years. Thank you to Bookstagram for promoting book culture. And thank you to all the readers out there who support your local bookstores. Keep at it and never be afraid to ask your local bookseller, “What can I do for you?” We’re all in this together, after all.
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