Help me build a bookshop...

[Arlanymor]

Say you were going to be made redundant in two years. And say you are at the midpoint in your career. And say maybe it's kind of now or never to really commit to your own business... and that business is an independent bookshop.

What would you like to see? What would make it stand apart? Other than bookshop obvious things... like the sales of books! Author events/signings/etc.

Early ideas:

• Monthly book prescription/subscription service
• Friday/Saturday later opening with a 'quiet wine' space (for those who don't want to read books in pubs) - or can be beer, just doesn't rhyme...
• Community room to be booked for DnD, Stitch and Bitch, etc. low rates
• Monthly book session - not a book club, but more of a thematic thing, like: The line in literature that stuck with you the most - so people can share their own preferences and not have to read the same thing every month
• Collaboration with local city farm
• Read and Relax - book and spa experience

No idea too 'out there'... they wanted to open up a cat café in my city not so long ago but I am so unsure about the ethics of that and would want to take them all home to my flat at the end of the day anyway... not practical.

Thank you for this post! I love a good bookshop and am reasonably local to Shaftesbury, haven’t been up for a mooch around in a while so didn’t know about Folde. Last time I looked that was a jewellery/gift shop!

https://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/

We have a lovely local, independent bookshop. They do author events, book club, etc. and have a good range of books big enough to make me it worth browsing, plus games, cards and other bits and bobs. What I really appreciate, though is that the staff are brilliant. They know everyone, they remember who you are - the customer service is fantastic. There's a loyalty scheme, so when you've bought a certain number of books you get £5 off the next purchase. They are great at ordering books you want, and letting you know when they come in.

Agreed. Libraries have become community hubs and are no longer quiet spaces to read or study. The past few times I've tried to do either, I've been disturbed by members of staff talking, children running around doing treasure hunts, booked entertainers for children, some sort of coffee club (a group of women were all seated directly behind me and talking while I was writing an assignment). I lost all concentration and had to leave. I miss how libraries used to be. There are plenty of noisy places around. I don't understand why they've put libraries into that category as well.

Agree. I can't work out why the noisy activities can't happen in village halls etc.
It was so special to have a space that was peaceful and quiet

And good security…if people know you keep alcohol in quantity on the premises you would be likely to be broken into.
I think book clubs/ reading circles for adults and children would be the way to go…maybe a literary quiz night?

I also live in Leeds and visited the Leeds Library during Heritage Open Days a couple of years ago.

I wouldn't join ongoing because I don't visit the city centre that often but just looked on the website and see that they do a one month trial membership for £15 so I'm definitely going to do that one day and then go a few times to waft around looking at books and the building and spend time reading.

Personally, I’d only do this if it was going to be a specialty bookshop for a genre that I really knew a lot about. And if I could get so stock in that genre that interested people might come from miles around because they knew it would be considerably better than other independent bookshops.

I still prefer paper for novels, and actually I know younger people who do too. My early 20s daughter collects the beautiful hardback editions of classica and favourite authors, friends of hers lend her books which are always paper copies, and my youngest teen son is actually reading paper books too even though we have a Kindle... (teen son is very into all things "vintage" - which to him appears to mean my teenage years!).

Admittedly I buy books second hand for the most part, but my daughter not so much (though she and her friends pass books around).

I think a lot of the ideas on the thread are mutually exclusive - I like children generally, but don't want them to be specifically targeted en mass to attend group activities in the kind of book shop that is simultaneously a quiet place to sit and read (especially if paying a subscription for the atmosphere). The same goes for quizzes.
I like a good book club - but that, like all group activities involving lots of talking, belongs in the room for hire, not in the quiet reading space...

I don't think this imaginary book club can be all things to all people - the one with quizzes and children's entertainment could be nextdoor to the one with a subscription to allow access to a quiet reading space with coffee and wine...

Mind you the OP's ideas were already quite contradictory, with the city farm involved and all ...

Silent book club
Kids Book cub (Subday pm)
Local authir visits/readings
Tie ins with local schools

Um, libraries?

And now the discussion about whether David Walliams should be stocked...indeed whether stock of his books will be available to order!

I love some of these ideas but really most of this isn't financially viable anymore. Unfortunately, independent bookshops are dying out because they just can't compete with online offerings, not just Amazon. If you want a particular book you can search for it from your sofa and have it delivered in a couple of days. You can see if you can get it second-hand somewhere and save a lot of money. The vast majority of my books are second-hand. Also I am particularly interested in a few niche topics and I will have usually read all the books on sale in the main high street chains.
I don't have a kindle and I'm unlikely to switch to one but so many people love their kindles and swear by them and so all of those book-lovers and avid readers have basically removed themselves from the customer base for independent and chain bookstores.

Something that might work is some kind of subscription model where you get access to a quiet reading and working space, coffee, water and snacks for a monthly fee with access to book clubs and other events.
It has to be something that is financially viable beyond just the sale of books. Trying to sell books and letting people hang around for hours in the larger space you've had to rent so they can sit there all day is never going to work.

Or perhaps a niche interest bookstore in a particular location could work. I'm thinking a shop that sells books about the outdoors somewhere like the Cairngorms or the Lake District (There are probably shops like that anyway, I don't know, I live abroad now).

Free bookmarks by the till. Great window displays. I went in a lovely independent one today and round the back within the store coffee shop - not advertised it was thriving.

Sell coffee and cake, or gift type stuff, or have kids' activities like story time etc. I love bookshops, but it's a hard thing to make work in the age of Amazon etc.

Surely if you want to run a cafe you would train as a barista and work in a cuisine based job for a while.
If you want to run a bookshop it would be a good idea to work in one...learn about discounts and negotiating better terms, experience Christmas trading, cost all the hidden things like rates and insurance as pp points out.
Unless you want to risk losing any redundancy you need to have a firm grasp of what you are doing.
I know one person who has successfully opened a bookshop. With 40 years experience of bookselling and as a judge for book prizes in a niche subject. Plus a pension which means a salary is less important.
He doesn't run a book club but advises people who do. He doesn't have a cafe but his shop is beside one. He has a good base of customers who know him from the bookshop he worked in. Suppliers and publishers respect him.
I know 2 people who have tried and failed.