Many dealers don’t want to touch erotica with a 10 foot pole.  If you’re a specialist in a totally unrelated area, that makes sense, but many dealers find them just…. distasteful.  The content is often not significantly more extreme than a modern romance novel, it’s just packaged to highlight the sex, not the romance.

A lot of vintage and antique pornography was printed on very, very cheap stock.  These were also books that tended to be read and reread often so many fell apart.    This means the prices are quite high and the supply very limited.

Content is generally king with erotica.  Some writers are collectible, but often its the subject matter of the book or the cover art that is what the true collector is after.  The more exotic, the higher the price.  Straight vanilla pornography commands the lowest price.  The more adjectives involved, the higher the price.  The more “deviant” the activities depicted, the higher the price.  Well known authors writing under a pseudonym will also command a good price. Of course what was once considered “deviant” is now turning up more and more frequently in modern romances.

If you do come into possession of some vintage erotica, the two key components to the listing: a picture and the contents.  The picture alone may be enough to sell the book!  As to the content, the key part is listing what type of erotica it is.  Straight?  Lesbian? gay? Multiple partners?  Any fetishes involved?  Wikipedia has a handy list of sexual fetishes. (click any of the individual fetishes and it’ll tell you more, there’s often subsets)  The more specific you can be, the higher the odds of selling it. Is is part of another genre?  There is a lot of erotic science fiction, but other genres spawned their own erotic spins offs.

Here’s some selections that have fairly typical cover art. Click on any of them to be taken to the original listing.

$850- Satan Was a Lesbian

Really, do you need to know the plot with a cover like that?  No.  Not really. The cover sells it.  Lesbians, whipping, AND Satan.

$125 Suzanne’s Punishment School

Books featuring spankings and S&M (sadism & masochism) are often very desirable.  The naughty school girls motif often pops up with S&M.  Prison is another popular setting for S&M scenarios.

$250- Tender Buns

Another one featuring spanking.  Tongue in cheek (ha!) titles are common with erotica.

$80- Butch

Lots of gay and lesbian titles fall into this “erotica” category, even if they contain very little explicit sex!  Vintage pulps are highly collectible.  You will sometimes see them described as “vintage sleaze”, especially if they are books featuring lesbians but are clearly aimed at men.

The price on this one also reflects that it IS actually by a well known author: Donald Westlake, writing under a pseudonym.

$150- The day the Universe Came- A Sci-Fi Sex Tour de Farce

When erotica crosses over with another genre, things often get really strange.  Scifi is the most popular genre to cross erotica with, but others are popular.  The scifi and fantasy just stand out since it can involve alien species, like the bunny girls show here.  Titles are often parodies of other books or movies.

It’s not often that these types of books walk in the door, but when they do, they often come from unlikely sources.  Every time this type of thing has come into my shop it’s been brought in by stately older ladies wearing mink stoles who matter of factly plunk it down on the counter like it’s nothing unusual.

When one of these comes into your store, smile nicely, pretend it really is nothing unusual, and try not to giggle too loudly at the silly titles.  Even if you don’t want to personally carry erotica, odds are good you can sell it to another dealer in a heartbeat.

1. Where are the lightswitches?

Oh you laugh, but I had to call the previous owner the first day because I couldn’t get the lights on.  The lightswitches by the door didn’t work.  All the switches are actually BEHIND bookcases. You need to move books to find them!  If you’re in a brand new building, this probably isn’t a problem, but many bookstores are located in repurposed older buildings… which means the lightswitch may not be by the door.

Make sure to ask what ALL the switches do!  If you’re in a subdivided space, it may turn out that some switches in your space control the neighbor’s lights!  Some switches may also be master switches that control whole areas and if they’re off, nothing in that area will come on, no matter how many times you flip the switch.

2. Where is the fusebox? The gas hookup? The oil tank intake?

If it’s a repurposed space (like a converted house) the fusebox may not even be IN your space. It may be in another tenant’s space!  Ditto that you may have an extra fuse box that belongs to a neighbor!

The gas hookup and oil tank may not be present in every building and they aren’t really your responsibility in most cases.  But when the delivery or repair guys shows up and asks where they are, it’s better to know.  You’ll get your problems fixed faster that way.

3. Where’s the phone and cable jack?

This does control somewhat where you can put things like the front desk.  You can only move it so far.  The jack itself may not be anywhere near where the phone currently is and the cable may run behind or under cases.  Find out where the original jack is so when something goes wrong, you can find it. Also find out where it comes in from outside, should you ever need repairs.

4. Where are all the plugs?

Plugs may have gotten buried under or behind bookcases.  But you’d never know they were there.  If you want to change the layout, knowing where the power is a big deal.

5. What’s behind this wall or bookcase?

If there appears to be some sort of discrepancy between the layout and the space, ask what’s behind the case or the wall.  It may turn out the odd layout is due to something hidden behind the case.  This is relevant if you ever want to move things.  I have a hidden FIREPLACE in the middle of my space!  I just have to work around it.  This may also be relevant for repairs.  If the piping for upstairs is what’s hidden in that space, some day the plumber may need to get at it and it’s better you know where it is!

6. Which ones are my parking spaces?

If it’s a shared lot, there may be spaces that are either officially or unofficially yours.  There is no sense pissing off the new neighbors by parking in “their” spaces.   There also may be some that aren’t used on specific days for some reason.  For example, if one of the neighbors has deliveries on Tuesdays they may need to leave X space empty that day to get the truck in.

7. Where’s the dumpster? Is there recycling? What day is it picked up? If there a specific day for “special” items? Who do I call for early pickup?

Usually it’s behind the building, but if you’re in a large strip mall it may not be obvious which one is yours.  Knowing which day the pickup is also lets you know which day you can get rid of really large items.  They need to be the first thing in. Or if you are throwing out a large quantity of stuff, you may need to call for an extra pickup.

If there’s recycling there may also be specific instructions for what you can and can’t recycle and how you’re supposed to bundle them.  Some places require things to be rinsed, some don’t.  Some places require paper to be bundled neatly, some want it loose.  Find out what the restrictions are.

Depending on where you are, there may also be special pickup days for things like yard waste and leaves or an annual pickup of hazardous waste.

And if you don’t ask, it may even turn out you’re somewhere there is NO pickup and the landlord expects you to haul it to the dump yourself!

8. Does anything tend to flood, freeze, drip, or catch on fire? Do any of the trees drop anything unpleasant or weird? Are there any animals I should be aware of?

Hopefully nothing regularly catches on fire, but if your store is an area prone to wildfires, you need to know that so you can be ready to deal with it.  Flooding or freezing is much more common in most places, and easier to prepare for.  If you tend to get ice slicks in front of the door or sometimes it floods in a specific areas, you need to know this.  Perhaps that corner of the store is empty for a reason…

Nearby trees may drop… interesting things at some times of year.  Fruit trees are the ones most likely to cause a mess, but other trees may drop large quantities of sticky sap.  Female gingkos drop seed pods that smell of sulfur.  Knowing your tree is going to stink once a year can save lots of aggravation later as you try to determine what died.

Problem animals could be things like wasps tend to build a nest under the eaves every summer or aggressive birds that dive bomb people that get too close to the tree.  Or you may have a neighborhood cat that expects you to feed it.  You may not be able to do something about all these, but you won’t be surprised.  Or can warn customers on your mailing list about the issue.

9. Where is the mailbox? if I have a package delivered, where does UPS, USPS, Fedex, DHL etc usually leave boxes?

In most cases, this is obvious, but for a large building, it may not be.  It may all delivered to a central office.  The previous business owner may have had packages dropped with a neighbor when they aren’t in.  If you don’t know which neighbor has your box, you may be in for a frustrating time figuring out where the drive put it!  Or if there’s an attached garage, shed, etc they may well have left it there and you’ll never find the darn thing!

10. Get a copy of the equipment listed on last year’s Grand List

The policy here at least is that you can’t get a copy of the detailed property list from the tax assessor, only the previous owner can give you this.  You need that list of equipment and when it was bought and for how much to properly list it on your property taxes for depreciation. Otherwise you’ll be writing “see return from year XXXX” on the Grand List for a loooong time.  And you may have trouble disputing an assessment if you don’t know what the original value of some of the equipment was listed as.

And be sure to write some of this down! Some of it may not come up very often and if it’s 3 years before you need to find all the plugs again, you may have forgotten by then.  Write it down and tuck it in a file somewhere.  It’ll save you lots of aggravation.

After years of dreaming and almost two years of planning, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting finally opened Greenlight Bookstore in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.  I’m well aware of Greenlight Bookstore’s opening even though I live 3,000 miles away and have never been to Brooklyn.  How did they do that?

Internet Savvy

Jessica declared her desire to open a bookstore right here on The Bookshop Blog in February, 2008 and she continued to document her journey on her own blog, eventually entitled the Greenlight Bookstore. Readers kept up with her progress from the initial posts when all she had was $15,000 grant from the Brooklyn Business Library, a few contributions, and high hopes, to the most recent announcing the activities for opening day.  Along the way, Jessica shared finding a partner, a location, a name, an architect, a logo, and more.  What she built was a following for Greenlight Bookstore and a sense of anticipation for its opening.

Greenlight Bookstore Launch

For months, I’ve seen traces of the store’s development on book blogs, bookstore newsletters, and social networks.  For every new development, tweets spread through the book world and posts appeared on my Facebook newsfeed.  Their architect, Fredrick Tang, joined in and posted about the store remodel on his blog, The Brownstoner. Greenlight Bookstore blog lists over 17 recent articles about the store, all free publicity.  Jessica and Rebecca also write for AOL’s The Startup about small business issues beyond just the book world and have appeared on AOL’s opening page.

It looks as if they have leveraged the Internet to its greatest potential, what will be interesting to watch is how much that will translate into sales.  Hopefully, they will see their efforts pay off and future booksellers can follow in their Internet footsteps.

Financing

Jessica noted that many bookstores started with funding from real estate equity or rich relative/friend/angel.  She had neither.  She discovered that she did not qualify for a standard bank small business loan (and that was before the impact of the recession).  She was left with drive to succeed and a few clever ideas.  Last year when people received stimulus checks from the government, Jessica started her own “Stimulating Reading” fundraising drive for her future bookstore.   In return for contributing to Stimulating Reading, the donors received various swag items, depending upon the amount given.

Most interesting is their community lender program which literally gives the community an opportunity to buy in.  A recent blog post described the terms of a community loan:

• Lenders choose their own interest rate, between 2.5% (just above the minimum required by the IRS) and 4% (just above the prime rate at the time of the original post),
• Loans of $1000 or more will be paid back by Greenlight Bookstore with quarterly payments over five years, beginning one year from the opening date of the bookstore,
• Lenders receive the employee discount of 30% off all purchases until the loan is paid in full (for a 30% discount, I might not ever want my loan fully repaid),
• “Community lender privileges” include advance notice of author appearances, sales and other store functions throughout the life of the bookstore,
• Lenders at the $10K+ level will be included in meetings of the bookstore’s Advisory Council, to get in-depth updates on the store’s progress, and
• In the future, an optional “lender internship” will be offered for high-level investors, in which they’d have the chance to experience the various parts of the store’s operations, such as buying, receiving, hosting events, etc.

Granted, I’m a lover of bookstores, but the terms are attractive for booklovers and the return beats my local banks CD rates.

Community Involvement

Courting the Fort Greene community didn’t begin and end with financing.  Jessica and Rebecca chose a community that truly wanted a bookstore.  The Fort Greene Association surveyed the neighborhood to find out what business the residents wanted, and the number one choice?  A bookstore.  While Jessica and Rebecca had a willing partner, they still went all out courting a relationship with the community.

They held a launch party a year before the store opened, in fact, before they even secured a location, all they really had was a desire to connect with the community.   Jessica and Rebecca used the party to advertise the future store and encourage investors, but also to ask the neighborhood who to hire as an architect or contractor or bookseller and how the community shops.  A year later, in the midst of clearing out their premises and remodeling, they hosted a community mixer inviting the neighborhood to look at the plans for the store.

These efforts look like the best laid plans and a firm foundation for a successful independent bookstore.  Let’s all hope for a successful future for Greenlight Bookstore!

[editor's note: I remember Jessica writing for us and I remember her sincere love for books. I am thrilled that she got her dream off the ground and wish her and her partner all the success they deserve.]

First up, I’ve just advertised by word of mouth through friends and acquaintances around town.  10.30 Tuesday mornings.  For the first week’s reading, I chose three books out of my son’s library – Yellow Bird, Black Spider; Tryannosaurus Drip (a personal favourite); and Russell the Sheep – and made up a couple of games to follow a book about sheep – drawing sheep faces on balloons & herding them around the shop, and some sheep races.  I’d also suggested that we could have a picnic after it all, and interested parents should bring a plate to contribute.  Our first week had 14 in attendance (9 of the 14 were kids), as well as my two boys.  It was the perfect number to start out at – not too big, and not too small.

I found I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be – the kids seemed perfectly happy with my reading.  My boys were quite proud and possessive (of their mum, the shop and the books!), and the games seemed to go well.  But I decided that perhaps running around games aren’t really good for my nerves.  Not with an art gallery attached to the bookshop!  And after the herding game and the races, the kids were all a bit wound up and hard to tame again.  (Mine especially!)  I provided a fruit platter and sausage rolls (heating in the oven out the back while they played their games), and other parents brought cheese & biscuits and popcorn.  This was fun.  Yes, it created a bit of a mess but nothing that couldn’t be quickly swept up at the end.  Floorboards are pretty easy to maintain like that.  And we don’t have tablecloths etc.  So it’s all fairly fuss-free.

The second week (the Tuesday just gone), my kids were excited and looking forward to it.  15 attended this week (10 of the 15 were kids), with some not attending from last week, and some new faces for this week.  This week I read The Gruffalo; The Way Back Home; and This is Our House.  I spent some time previously on preparation for this week, and had made up booklets, and some text for each child to create a book.  I made up 12 booklets, so I was spot on for numbers (including my boys).  We just chopped up the text, and glued on pictures out of our ‘picture box’ (cut-out images from magazines) to make entertaining stories.

The text was “One sunny day, **** went for a ride on a **** to go and see a **** but a huge **** was in the middle of the road.  Luckily, a happy and helpful **** came by and moved it out of the way.  After stopping to look at some **** and pat some ****, **** finally made it home and had a ****.  THE END”    As an example, my two year old’s story came out thus:  ”One sunny day, Ferris went for a ride in a yellow car to go and see some scones but a huge cow was in the middle of the road.  Luckily, a happy and helpful dinner plate came by and moved it out of the way.  After stopping to look at some golf balls and some penguins, and pat some chooks, Ferris finallly made it home and had a piece of cake.  THE END.”  It was good fun reading all the stories created!  There was even one boy who was patting sailors on his way home!

I found I was much more comfortable with this activity, being more a bookworm than a gym instructor!!!  So from now on, I will have these kinds of activities.  I’m thinking next week we’ll make some bookworm bookmarks.

After the activities, most of the kids (who are largely friends of our kids) disappeared out the back into our house, so the parents who chose to stay back (again, friends) had a nice, quiet coffee, cake (thanks Ali & Michelle for their delicious contributions!) & chat while we pretended for a moment we didn’t have kids.  Perhaps it may turn into a gourmet picnic for the parents while the kids magically disappear “out the back”!

So, as a summary, I’d say I’m very happy with how it’s progressing to date.  There have only been two.  And being me, I can’t leave it to just a few stories and then all go home.  It’s all or nothing, usually, with me.  We’re not charging for this.  The cost of the materials will be minimal, and if everyone contributes to a picnic, then it’s all good fun.  It’s cheaper than childcare, and it’s a great way for kids and parents to get together and perhaps meet new faces, and just break up the day a bit.  If anyone out there runs anything similar, please feel free to let me know what kinds of activities have worked well for you.

Ambrosia’s Books and More

Bad Summer at the Bookstore

This summer, though my first as a bookstore owner, was horrible.  I’ve been agonizing over closing the doors completely or waiting out my lease.  In reality, I’ll wait out the lease, but I dream of being home and writing more.  The work involved in a used bookstore is far more than I ever dreamed.

I do love being here, I love being surrounded by the books, and seeing that it’s been me and them for most of the summer, we’ve become friends.  Seriously, even though sales have been slow(25% drop in sales for August alone) I’ve still been very busy.  Customers are still exchanging books and we’ve had a trickle of new customers. It’s time for changes.

I decided I’m not selling new books except children’s books, any longer.  I will order for a customer if they request something with 50% down, but I can no longer spec buy.  I still have stock from when I opened the doors, deeply discounted, they still aren’t moving.  Having new books here isn’t a reason for customers to come here.  They go to the grocery store every week and pick up a brand new paperback for 20% off.  I can’t compete with that.

I have also changed my hours.  I read a blog on here a while back regarding hours and closing on Sundays.  The authors name eludes me [Shane Gottwals] but I understand the article more now than I did when I initially read it.    I thought, be here as often as possible so you’re here for the customer.  I was spending every possible minute at this store after working my 30 hour a week job.  Missing evening dinners with my family; dinners which I prepared in the morning before going to work and I’d get the cold leftovers. I would sit here three evenings in a row and not one customer would walk through the door. We are still open six days, but only three evenings.  I’m open from 9am -1pm on Sundays giving me time to make my son’s football games.  I took my youngest daughter out of daycare two days a week and keep her with me here at the store.  It’s difficult at times but the time we spend together is worth it.  We’re still getting a schedule of things to do around customer visits and cleaning up the children’s section.

I’m also trying to make things more interesting.  I have events scheduled for the next two months.  October we’re doing a Halloween story hour with flashlights and a costume competition.  In November we’re doing a book signing/talk right before Veterans Day.  The local paper is doing an article on the event and hopefully we’ll pick up a little after that.  Our book club is still going well.  I still have customers coming in telling me they are so happy we are in town.  Every time someone says that it gives me hope to hang in there and enjoy every day.

September was better than August.  October, though I started it with the flu, is already ahead of August and September at the end of the first week.  I am realizing first hand what an up and down business this is.  I’m just hoping for more ups than downs in the coming months!

Every weekday morning, as I walk my two children to kindergarten, we pass a bookshop. The bookshop is a small independent establishment that sells new, mainly paperback books. The neighbourhood is scruffy verging on run-down, but the bookshop’s location must be the envy of many a potential bookseller, myself included. It is located on the main thoroughfare of the downtown core of the city, and on its doorstep are many fine universities and colleges. It seems a perfect little place for the bookish student to go and browse for the new Murakami or the latest polemic from Slavoj Zizek. The bookshop is also in an area of the city where the blanketed homeless prayerfully emerge from the doorways to greet you with a polystyrene cup, while the busy and preoccupied (again myself included)  rush by avoiding eye contact. It is fair to suggest that the locale, despite it being central, is somewhat edgy.  Even the gaudy neon strip-lights of the dépanneurs and sex shows around the bookshop bring blurry blades of candour to the location. It all adds to an eclectic concoction, both in the human and material sense, which is thought provoking.It is a very busy part of the city and the pedestrian traffic of the sidewalk flows constantly.

Allin Bookshop 1904 via Whitby Archives, Flickr

In the window of the bookshop the owner uses an interesting device to engage the passer-by with the product he is selling. In the foreground in front of the displayed books is a Hermes 3000 manual typewriter, a thing of beauty in itself. The typewriter is loaded with paper and displays, for the passer-by or window browser, a typed literary quote or poem or reflective passage from one of the books he stocks. It is a simple but effective idea and the quotes change over time. During the summer months there were a few lines of  poetry by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The passage was about a man walking down a street with a mirror for a head with a sign that read:

A POEM IS A MIRROR WALKING DOWN A STRANGE STREET.

This line concluded the passage. It seemed to me a perfect fragment of poetry to reflect on given the elements of the location, and every morning I would pause at the window and read the passage to my children. They would squeal in mock fear and look up and down the sidewalk for the imminent arrival of such a man. Of course, some would question my parenting responsibilities in reading Ferlinghetti to my two young children, but my four year old son became (and still is) quite enamoured by the idea of a ‘man with a mirror for a head’, and we would continue on our way, joyfully discussing the endless possibilities and scenarios that would entail in such a concept.

The text instantly engaged me with my surroundings and spoke with the deft touch of a parable. When the poet achieves empathy in the reader it is an inspired moment indeed. It got me thinking about many things. I questioned my firm judgements and wondered if they were just a veil for conceit, I thought about the clarity of innocence in a child’s perpective and  I brought forth a perennial question: whom is my neighbour? I am sure that my firm judgements will survive this small bout of empathy, as I am sure that all perennial questions are left unanswered. But the fragment of poetry uttered in its natural setting consumed my thoughts and left me with more questions than it did answers.Thankfully, it isn’t in the answers, it’s in the asking.

It also got me thinking of the act of placement of text in relation to environment. As often happens, simple ideas can be devastatingly profound. Presenting the text, in the type of machine in which it was probably conceived, to entice the passing world is eloquent in its simplicity. Presentation and its power of persuasion is a subtle art to master. The advertising industry have been using audio and visual icons from the arts for decades to help sell their product so, one would think, a good book should rightly sell itself? Yes, in the realms of my own personal Utopia. However, books are an investment in time which seems a scarce commodity, even the great ones needs to be ‘pushed’ to be read. Presentation gives the opportunity to express a connection with what we are selling in numerous ways, in celebrating the whole concept of books – the object itself,  the art-work, the emotional realms of communication, the profound beauty of expression and the meditative qualities that can be delivered by the process of reading – we have at our disposal something very unique and multi-dimensional. It is both emotional and cerebral.This opportunity is best expressed when it comes with a certain level of seriousness towards the content, it is an impoverished bookseller who is unaware of the emotional depth of the books they are selling.

Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago I passed the bookshop in the middle of the day and it was busy with customers. I walked in and asked the young man at the till if he remembered the Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem that was in the typewriter a month or so back? He did, and directed me to a small pocket book of  poems called Pictures of the gone world. It was inexpensive so I brought it. When I got home I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and read the poem (#5) out loud in an empty house. The words, so powerful read on the downtown sidewalk to my children, evaporated in the domestic chambers of my home. Somehow the poem had lost its poignancy and the words became just dots on a page, something had changed. The time, or the space….or maybe just me?

Book Sale

Book sales can be found all over the place being held by Friends of the Library groups, churches or various non-profit groups.  These sales are a great opportunity to acquire some great inventory but I’d like to share a few tips with you to make your buying experience the best it can be at a book sale.

1. Know what you’re looking for before you get there.

Depending on the size of the book sale, it may literally be acres big.  If you don’t know where you’re going prior then you’ll find your competition blazing past you to get to the valuable genres first.  This is especially true of online booksellers where certain genres are always more valuable than others.  Sometimes the sale will have a map laid out for you ahead of time on the sale’s website.  If not, you could call the person in charge of the sale to ask them for this type of information.

2. Update your book scouting service right before going.

For online booksellers who use book scouting services, always refresh your pricing data right before you go.  Refreshing your pricing data at the last possible moment ensures that the information you take with you is the most up to date market prices from Amazon so you’re ready to hit the ground running when you get there.  You never want to be scouting with out of date prices.

3. Bring a rolling cart.

Depending on how many books you’re looking to buy, you’ll always usually need a rolling cart of some sort.  Bags and boxes are very cumbersome and since the books at these sales are usually selling for so cheap, you might as well load up.  A rolling cart especially the ones where you can stack cartons one on top of the other are great so that you can load as many books as possible without having to go pay, take them out to your car, and come back in.

4. Stand your ground.

Depending on the atmosphere at the sale, it can sometimes get tense.  With hundreds or thousands of people at these big sales, you’ll find some people are simply rude and will try to roll over you in their quest to get those valuable books.  Take a look at one of my latest blog posts about the subject of A**holes at Friends of the Library Sales and stand your ground to not let these people shove you out of the way.

5. Be courteous.

Finally, always be courteous to other customers and especially the volunteers.  The volunteers are typically getting nothing in return to do this and should demand respect.  They are there to help people find the books they’re looking for and generally keep the peace.  The other customers also deserve a level of courteousness because it’s simply the right thing to do.  Don’t be an a**hole like some I’ve seen.  We’re all there to find some great books and there’s enough to go around.

Adam Bertram is a full time tech consultant, part time online bookseller and avid online book-selling blogger.  He has a blog at sellyourbooksonline.com that discusses all facets of the world of online book-selling and provides training material for others wanting to also start this lucrative business.

WRONG. You may even make more money than you do now!

Chains don’t move into markets where they don’t expect to turn a  profit.  They moved in by you because you’ve established there IS a market for a bookstore… and they’re convinced that there’s enough demand that they can turn a profit even with another bookstore nearby.  They’ll probably even turn a better profit by having you nearby.

Look at any retail sector selling mass goods.  Only small differences tell them apart.  Fast food is a particularly good example.  Look along any stretch of highway and McDonalds is right next to Burger King is right next Wendy’s is right next to Jack in the Box and so on and so forth. If there’s that much demand for fast food, why isn’t there just one really big McDonalds?   A large percentage of what each of these chains sells is interchangeable.  They spend a lot of time trying to prove that really small differences matter.  Our burger has SPECIAL SAUCE!

Yet, despite selling items that are very similar, they all choose to build near each other.  On a long strip of highway, the fast food will all be near each other.  Ditto for expensive items.  Car dealers tend to build near each other.  It’s not simply zoning or highway access.  Why does New York have a Diamond District? Jewelers could easily set up anywhere in New York.  Why be right next to someone that sells the same thing?

Being next to another store of the same type drives demand for goods.  People in the mood for X go to X… but may be seduced to its competitor if its right next door.  Two stores selling X type of goods that are right next to each other will often sell more than if they were widely separated. Those tiny differences are what drive consumption.  Until the second store of type X is built, there isn’t demand for it.  This is the entire driving force behind the enclosed shopping mall.   Like stores grouped together drive sales for all similar stores.  This works for any good that is not a necessity.  Two stores selling nothing but septic tanks probably won’t benefit from being next to each.  People really only need so many septic tanks and probably won’t remodel the one they have to make it more fashionable.

What does this mean for you?  If a chain (or another independent) moves in down the street, be prepared to experience a temporary dip in sales.  People love the new and novel.  Even your regular customers may be seduced by the call of the new store, but they’ll likely be back and you’ll see new people as well.

This may require adjusting what exactly you sell a bit.  If a chain moves in and you’re a new bookstore, you may want to back off on the number of new bestsellers you offer.  The chain can probably offer them at a bigger discount than you can and you won’t be able to compete in a price war. You’ll sell less of that type of book.  However, the chain only has so much floorspace.  While you may see the sales for the latest bestseller by big name author slide, you may see the earlier books by that same author fly off the shelves because the big chain next door won’t stock them all.  (and keep in mind that the chain is often selling those brand new bestsellers at near cost to lure in customers)

If your new neighbor is an independent specialist, you may need to adjust stock to trim down the section they specialize in.  Or maybe not.  If you’re both new book dealers, you’ll need to trim because you’re going to carry the same stock because you’ll probably have similar sources.  If you’re both used dealers, or one of you is new and the other used, you may not need to change a thing because you’ll have such different inventories because they’re drawn from different sources.

So long as you have something memorable and different about your store than your neighbor, you’ll still do fine if you can survive a temporary cash flow crunch.  If you don’t have anything as a hook to make you stand out, you will be crushed.  This can be anything from a specialty, to a book club, to weird decor.  Hooks are wide and varied.  They key is that it either offers a different product OR a different experience.  Either is valuable.

Eventually you’ll hit a limit on how many stores of X type can be housed together… but it’s probably a lot further off than you think.  My own store is in a town of just under 19,000 and has four independent book stores in a two block area. The youngest store is 5 years old.  Nobody has gone out of business, despite being on top of each other.  Another nearby town has 200+ full or part time antiques dealers… or roughly one antiques dealer for every 42 people.  If the variety is wide enough, having that many stores of one type may actually be a boon for everyone.  Scotland actually has a National Booktown with 20 dealers in a town of a mere 1,000 people.

So when another bookstores movs to town, get ready to grow in new directions and you’ll be fine.  And if you’re looking to start your own bookstore and had been avoiding being too close to another bookstore, you may want to reconsider your choice.  Maybe being right next to another bookstore will be profitable for you both…

Continuing with the discussion in an earlier post concerning creating eye catching display tables, pairing modern books with classics casts a new light on both works.  My favorite recommendation is to read The Great Gatsby, then The Double Bind by Chris Bohjolian and/or Netherland by Joseph O’Neill.  The Double Bind plays with the plot of The Great Gatsby; the main character in Bohjolian’s book meets the Gatsby characters and discusses their post-novel life.  Then, the book ends with a blindsiding kicker.  Netherland is often referred to as the “new” Gatsby because it deals with a similar underlying theme of achieving the American dream, whether it is possible and at what cost.

Reading a book that updates a classic for a current audience adds meaning to both works and is great for a bookstore discussion event.  Philip Roth’s Everyman is a modern re-telling of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.  Both books reflect their authors; the scene with the main character flirting with the woman runner on the beach is pure Roth.  Lovers of Tolstoy would pick up on his style within the first few paragraphs of Ivan Ilyich.  The similarities in the views of two aging writers who are, shall we say, extremely self-confident are thought and discussion provoking.  These books can be read in any order, but I found I understood Tolstoy’s book better having read Roth’s first.

Switching to the other end of the age spectrum, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld gives a 21^st century female take on The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  Many readers are familiar with Salinger’s classic since it is on most middle school reading lists, but it felt different reading it as an adult after Prep.  As with many pairings, one of the takeaways is ‘nothing is new under the sun,’ the facts and circumstances change but the themes resonant over the decades.

For the truly ambitious, War and Peace inspired portions of The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud.  The opening scene in both books is a snapshot of high society.  As a modern novel, Messud doesn’t try to give every perspective of a period in time as Tolstoy attempts, but she still provides a sweeping panorama of New York literary life.  I liked Messud’s book much better after reading War and Peace, I recommend tackling Tolstoy before Messud.

Finally, a current favorite, The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey, boldly declares a literary godparent for each of the four main characters.  As Keats was an observer of life, so Sean watches and reacts to circumstances.  Admiration for Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland helps the reader sympathize with Cameron.  The plot of Jane Eyre is directly quoted in Dara’s life.  Abigail is Estella from Great Expectations.  Reading each of these source books adds tremendous depth to the meaning and style of Fortune Street. I read Great Expectations right before Fortune Street, remembered Alice as I read it, and went back to Keats poetry after finishing the book.  As for Jane Eyre, I’ll re-read it again to better empathize with Dara’s decisions.

Pairing classics with modern literature highlights back-list books and encourages customers to try the classics they wish they had read in school.