Support Your Indie Bookstore
by Elizabeth Solar
One of the great pleasures of my youth was spending Sunday afternoon with a friend to watch the latest film release at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a storied independent cinema in Brookline, Massachusetts. Following the movie, we walked across the street to the local bookstore, Brookline Booksmith, where we spent hours examining every shelf in every aisle before sitting on the floor at the back of the store reading our new discovery or re-reading an old favorite.
These days, many local theatres and booksellers have shuttered their businesses or limited their hours due to the Covid pandemic. Businesses already threatened by technology and big players like Amazon have been further clobbered by months of uncertainty of when, how, and even if they will be able to sustain their business.
This not has not only hurt booksellers, but the community. A local bookstore provides the heartbeat of a neighborhood, a place to meet, exchange ideas and discover new voices..
The temporary – now going on nine months – closure of Newtonville Books has been a tremendous loss to my hometown. A community fixture for over 20 years, the bookstore, has seamlessly endured, even thrived through new ownership, a change of location, contractions in the publication industry and living in the shadow of the A to Z company a popular destination for book readings, cultural events, and podcasts.
Like many other small businesses, independent bookstores have felt the financial pain of the last nine months. And like many businesses, independent booksellers who endure have pivoted and innovated new ways they operate and market .
This past week, I spoke with Tim Huggins, an etrepreneur & financial executive, Newtonville Books founder and former Chief Financial Officer of Brookline Booksmith.
“Before I left the Booksmith, I'd worked with our bank to apply and acquire a significant PPP forgivable loan for the store.” said Huggins. “We'd also done a great deal of creating cash flow forecasts and scenario planning, communicating with staff, vendors, and key stakeholders, as well as adapting and marketing core strengths to maintain connection and relevance with customers. The brutal reality is the pandemic lasted much longer than anyone imagined.”
Even before the pandemic, the Booksmith applied for a liquor license, and in a newly renovated and expanded space launched The Novel Kitchen, an innovative food and beverage venture that offers light meals, artisan snacks, and beverages.
Many booksellers offer memberships, gift cards, and merchandise, like cards, tee shirts, socks and mugs and novelty items. A well-timed business Bookshop.org, was launched in January. Huggins says Bookshop.org “provides an ecommerce opportunity for many stores that did not have an effective website and way for them to stay connected and sell books once the shutdowns began.”
Check out the Indiebound website to see if you’re local booksellers participates on Bookshop.org.
Huggins praises the owner of Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS. “John Evans has done a remarkable job adapting and staying motivated and relevant to his community. He and his staff have done great, creative work, including being featured in Forbes Magazine for a fun project using a dinosaur costume for curbside delivery that customers and their kids adored.”
If you want to get a sense of how the pandemic has disrupted the industry , Huggins recommends Shelf Awareness, an online newsletter about the book business. It now features a column called How Bookstores are Coping that highlights ways that stores across the country are struggling yet adapting to stay open and relevant.
Like many other businesses, the supply chain remains problematic. Huggins concludes. “Even if they opened their doors, an existential problem faces most booksellers: a broken supply chain. It’s hard to sell what is unavailable to stock due to publisher printing challenges.”
As if 2020 didn’t present challenges to booksellers, the hits keep coming to the publishing industry as Penguin Random House plans to by Simon & Schuster.
So how do local booksellers stay healthy enough to stay relevant once they open their doors in a far off time we look to in 2021? It’s clear an ability to pivot, and find more ways to be relevant to consumers will be a vital part of any sustainable business plan.
In the meantime, support your local bookseller. Let’s inspire you with some recommendations for holiday gift-giving. While you’re at it, pick one up for yourself.
Here are Tim Huggins’ picks:
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet. She is wonderfully strange and brilliant, and this one was a finalist for the National Book Award.
In the Valley by Ron Rash. An incredible collection of stories by one of my favorite writers at the top of his game.
Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai. My nine year old son read it this summer for school and gave it to me to read. It was brilliant and so funny and heartwarming.
The New Yorker lists their picks for the year that was.
And here are some from the New York Times
Forbes highlights ways some other stores are getting creative and making the best of the Covid crisis.
Here’s a sample of books I enjoyed this year:
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. Subtitled A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed. Fun, frank and entertaining. Knowing even a shrink needs a shrink makes me feel so much better about spending decades in therapy.
The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood. The Sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale. I listened on audiobook, and was enthralled with Atwood’s brilliance, and Ann Dowd’s formidable performance as Aunt Lydia.
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez. Alvarez’s writing never disappoints. A short, powerful novel about grief, loss, race, immigration, sisterhood, and grace.
