4 ms·

It helps when you're a famous author/influencer and owner of said bookstore and have famous author/influencer friends who help promote your bookstore. This sadl

It helps when you're a famous author/influencer and owner of said bookstore and have famous author/influencer friends who help promote your bookstore. This sadly isn't the case for the many gems/rare book stores in the various cities around the US. My favorite bookstores that have been opened for 30+ years are recently going out of business. Not to discredit his success, but if anyone else followed these tips and did not have such a large following online, they would probably go under too. The one thing I think his bookstore does better than others? A personal curated collection. Also, Holiday is just simply a better marketer than your average bookstore owner. So just remember: - Start small. ... - Be famous.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jkaptur 5y ago
He notes that, though it is a little buried: > Permission assets are everything. All my success as a writer, right down to this bookstore, has been rooted in the email lists and social media accounts I have built.
bombcar 5y ago
A lot of those bookstores that are closing are because the owner is retiring and it's not financially capable of standing on its own. The owner often owns the building which lets them run at very low levels of income, which a replacement wouldn't be able to. If a community wants a bookstore to remain they'll probably need to set it up as a non-profit of some sort.
- anamax 5y ago
  > If a community wants a bookstore to remain they'll probably need to set it up as a non-profit of some sort. That doesn't solve the problem. Space costs. So does someone working in the store. The latter is true for both owners and employees.
  - meristohm 5y ago
    If we increase the value of public wellness, as part of GDP, say, then keeping small bookstores around becomes valuable. That's my feeling, anyway, as someone with a deep appreciation of small bookstores and public libraries from childhood onward.
    - gibolt 5y ago
      Isn't that the role a library already fills? The only difference is maybe their love of the craft and more random options.
      - whitten 5y ago
        You cannot donate a old book to a library and assume that they will keep it and lend it out. The best you can hope is that they sell it for a dollar at their next fund raiser. Only if it is rare and already known as a great book or historic or worth a lot of money is it likely someone will see the same value you see in it. Maybe the time for non-lending libraries And public reading rooms has come back.
    - anamax 5y ago
      "valuable" isn't enough - the rent and the person working there must be paid.
- jll29 5y ago
  The old owner somehow needs to be convinced to bequeathe the building to their community for us as a community bookshop exclusively.
  - tharne 5y ago
    Unfortunately, the sale of the building and property is often the owner's retirement plan. You'd have to find a way to purchase at or near market value.
    - musicale 5y ago
      Purchasing it at market value sounds fairly convincing.
gcheong 5y ago
A friend of mine was working as a db developer for a local hospital in a small port town when the local bookstore announced it was closing shop. He decided to buy it and now he runs it full-time. It's been several years and as far as I know the business is doing well but perhaps that was because the bookstore was already established.
mcguire 5y ago
"...a better marketer..." Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. "...a small town book store in rural Texas..." Bastrop is a (rather distant) suburb of Austin. "Rural Texas" is Roby (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923,-100.5799545,10.21z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8655e471ba626a2d:0xa9c2e3880a14e4fd!8m2!3d32.7448314!4d-100.3776067 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923...). "...the first 12 months of owning The Painted Porch. ... I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took weeks and months to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes." A whole year?! "I think one of the best decisions we made was making our book tower. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2000 books, 4000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap to do. It was not easy to do. It took forever. We had to solve all sorts of logistical problems to make it work. But it’s also probably one of the single best marketing and business decisions we made in the whole store. Because it’s the number one thing that people come into the store to take pictures of." This: https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3d335426e77da2390eebf10a2d6049a3ac6b09a https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=... Really? Really.
- srmarm 5y ago
  That looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean!
- wincy 5y ago
  What strikes me is the surrounding picture I’m struck thinking “where are the books? Where are the bookshelves? There’s like 6 books sparsely populating a shelf. When I think of a used book store like the one I frequented when I was a teenager, I expect it to be absolutely lousy with books in every nook and cranny, filled to the brim with interesting finds.
  - maicro 5y ago
    I mean, obviously they had to get the books for the tower from _somewhere_...
  - elliekelly 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jkaptur 5y ago

He notes that, though it is a little buried: > Permission assets are everything. All my success as a writer, right down to this bookstore, has been rooted in the email lists and social media accounts I have built.

bombcar 5y ago

A lot of those bookstores that are closing are because the owner is retiring and it's not financially capable of standing on its own. The owner often owns the building which lets them run at very low levels of income, which a replacement wouldn't be able to. If a community wants a bookstore to remain they'll probably need to set it up as a non-profit of some sort.

anamax 5y ago
> If a community wants a bookstore to remain they'll probably need to set it up as a non-profit of some sort. That doesn't solve the problem. Space costs. So does someone working in the store. The latter is true for both owners and employees.
- meristohm 5y ago
  If we increase the value of public wellness, as part of GDP, say, then keeping small bookstores around becomes valuable. That's my feeling, anyway, as someone with a deep appreciation of small bookstores and public libraries from childhood onward.
  - gibolt 5y ago
    Isn't that the role a library already fills? The only difference is maybe their love of the craft and more random options.
    - whitten 5y ago
      You cannot donate a old book to a library and assume that they will keep it and lend it out. The best you can hope is that they sell it for a dollar at their next fund raiser. Only if it is rare and already known as a great book or historic or worth a lot of money is it likely someone will see the same value you see in it. Maybe the time for non-lending libraries And public reading rooms has come back.
  - anamax 5y ago
    "valuable" isn't enough - the rent and the person working there must be paid.
jll29 5y ago
The old owner somehow needs to be convinced to bequeathe the building to their community for us as a community bookshop exclusively.
- tharne 5y ago
  Unfortunately, the sale of the building and property is often the owner's retirement plan. You'd have to find a way to purchase at or near market value.
  - musicale 5y ago
    Purchasing it at market value sounds fairly convincing.

gcheong 5y ago

A friend of mine was working as a db developer for a local hospital in a small port town when the local bookstore announced it was closing shop. He decided to buy it and now he runs it full-time. It's been several years and as far as I know the business is doing well but perhaps that was because the bookstore was already established.

mcguire 5y ago

"...a better marketer..." Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing. "...a small town book store in rural Texas..." Bastrop is a (rather distant) suburb of Austin. "Rural Texas" is Roby (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923,-100.5799545,10.21z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8655e471ba626a2d:0xa9c2e3880a14e4fd!8m2!3d32.7448314!4d-100.3776067 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Roby,+TX+79543/@32.7721923...). "...the first 12 months of owning The Painted Porch. ... I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took weeks and months to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes." A whole year?! "I think one of the best decisions we made was making our book tower. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2000 books, 4000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap to do. It was not easy to do. It took forever. We had to solve all sorts of logistical problems to make it work. But it’s also probably one of the single best marketing and business decisions we made in the whole store. Because it’s the number one thing that people come into the store to take pictures of." This: https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3d335426e77da2390eebf10a2d6049a3ac6b09a https://preview.redd.it/2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&format=... Really? Really.

srmarm 5y ago
That looks like it'd be a nightmare to keep clean!
wincy 5y ago
What strikes me is the surrounding picture I’m struck thinking “where are the books? Where are the bookshelves? There’s like 6 books sparsely populating a shelf. When I think of a used book store like the one I frequented when I was a teenager, I expect it to be absolutely lousy with books in every nook and cranny, filled to the brim with interesting finds.
- maicro 5y ago
  I mean, obviously they had to get the books for the tower from _somewhere_...
- elliekelly 5y ago