Long time lurker, first time poster. Although I've spent my daily fishwrap career mainly in business, I've dabbled in sports coverage and known and watched enough of sportswriters to know it's serious and hard work.
My plan for my first post was to mark the fifth anniversary of the demise of the print version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, but procrastination got in the way of that one. But when I saw this topic I thought this would be a good place to dive in, as I believe I might have something to add on the subject.
Last October, my wife and I bought a bookstore, one which had been predominately used books and to which we've added selected new books. She manages it on a day-to-day basis; as I have my own freelancing and publishing ventures, I help out on marketing and lining up authors for appearances.
Some random thoughts on the subject:
1. Nothing like doubling down on self-employment and relying on the sale of ink-on-dead-tree products.
2. It is a tough business. Your competition is not just Amazon, or what's left of the big-box book retailers. It's virtually every other retailer. Go into Costco -- there are several tables worth of new books discounted to a price barely above what wholesalers charge us. Go into grocery stores -- more books. Same with discounters (Target, Fred Meyer in this region). Same with the drug-store chains. Half Price now offers new books. Even Staples has a bin of books.
Couple that with the recession and the e-reader trend and it's no shock that in this region alone you could assemble a list of at least a dozen bookstores that have gone out of business in the last half decade or so.
3. That said -- bookstores are surviving. In this area there are still several large independents -- Elliott Bay, Third Place, University -- and a slew of smaller stores, us included.
Being a national retailer does carry some huge advantages, but those are just advantages, not guarantees. When we were researching the purchase of this store, my wife and I watched two documentaries on indie bookstores vs. big national retailers. In both cases the big national villain was ... Borders. Amazon, as I recalled, rated hardly a mention.
4. From what we've learned in our admittedly limited experience, there's no way I would attempt to start a book store from scratch. One reason we decided to do this was that we were buying an existing business (with 12 years under the owner we bought it from and a history before that) with an established and loyal clientele. That owner managed to keep the store alive through several economic downturns and huge industry restructuring, no small accomplishment. We've added to that base through our own efforts, but we made darn sure that we introduced ourselves to that customer base, kept them apprised of the changes and continued certain programs like store credit for bringing in books.
5. Location does matter. The store we bought was in a less than ideal location, in a nondescript strip mall on a busy street, not visible to half the cars going because of the way it was positioned in that mall. We made the decision to buy and move the store (another damnfool undertaking, because we grossly underestimated what it would take to move the store -- it turns out that books are heavy and bulky). We landed an excellent corner location in the business district of Burien, a smallish town to the west of Sea-Tac airport. The downtown is full of local, independent stores and restaurants, ideal for us. The local references will be lost on many, but I liken the feel of the area to what Ballard was like 25 years ago; it's not yet been ravaged by a development wave. The store has lots of foot traffic past it, of which the former location had none. Yet parking is still plentiful, free and close. We also have huge windows on two of the four sides, which we've taken pains not to cover up so as to avoid the claustrophobic feel of some used-book stores.
Oh yeah, location matters another way. The regional wholesaler/distributor is right on the route between our home and the store. We can often have a customer's order in the store the next business day.
6. We're pleased to report that the reading of physical books is not dead. It's especially not dead among younger readers; their parents are still bringing them in, starting as babies and toddlers, to buy books, and as they get older they're enthusiastically picking out books on their own. Even more encouraging is that book readership seems to be holding up in the teen cohort. Praise be to J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Suzanne Collins and the like for getting and keeping kids interested in reading. The YA category continues to be very popular.
As for adults and e-readers, if you believe the trade publications and industry reports, sales are leveling off, and it's already looking like a mature technology. Those inclined to adopt have done so -- or at least we can hope.
7. So how does a book store survive in the hometown region of Amazon (and not surprisingly, Amazon is a frequently cursed name in the indie book retailing business; personally, I have a grudging respect for what they do and how they do it. They've never once screwed up an order of mine. I can only hope our customer service proves to be as accurate).
Two factors come to mind, and they're somewhat related. One is an emphasis on local. By its nature Amazon can't highlight local authors. We can promote and sell their books, and match them up with local readers. In the short time we've had this store we've had more than two dozen authors in the store for signings and meet-and-greets. The very first, in fact was for a sports book, written by longtime local sports-radio host Mike Gastineau on the birth and success of Sounders FC (an interesting read from a business perspective, I'd add).
The other is relentless marketing. Authors, the smart ones at least, know this. Mike had an excellent turnout because he worked very hard to let people know of his appearance at a store that had been open at its new location less than a month (and which few people had heard of). Same story with a locally based but nationally bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz, who also writes as Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle (all in various subsectors of the romance categories). She packed them in, because from the time we'd set the date and time she'd let people know through her website and other channels of her appearance. You have to do that. Unless you're a top-of-the-list author who can actually sell tickets for appearances, publishers aren't going to do much for you. If you're self-published, your also self-marketed.
We've tried to learn from that. We have a website, a Facebook page and a monthly email newsletter, we've done press releases and newspaper and website listings for author appearances, we participated in a local coupon book and in the downtown merchants association, we donated books for back-to-school packages for new teachers in two districts, we opened on the Fourth of July since the parade went right by our door, we'll do something for Halloween, we have a monthly book discussion group and participate in the monthly downtown arts walk, and we spend a lot of every day figuring out new ways to get our name out there and new customers into our store.
8. Price, interestingly, is not the crucial competitive point, which is good because there's no way we could keep up if that were the deciding factor, not when national retailers are using books as loss leaders. We do offer some discounts ($10 for every $100 spent, store credit for used books brought in that can be applied to used books, educator discounts) and those certainly help in recruiting and retaining customers. But that can't be the only value proposition.
When we told friends of our plans, one noted that running a book store probably isn't as romantic as it sounds. It's not. Loving books and reading books is not a rational rationale for getting into the business. But it's not an impossible venture. For our sakes, it better not be.
Hope that helps.
Bill Virgin
