Carol Goldstein from Mackerel Sky Books
Just recently I became a member of NAIBA, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. They are a regional group that allows booksellers to connect with other booksellers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, DC. As part of joining up, the following Twenty Questions survey was sent along so current members can get to know ‘moi’ . Since I get a lot of questions from customers and other business people, like, “Why are you doing this, you silly person?” (insert John Cleese-like voice complete with accent) I thought I would share my responses with all you lucky, lucky souls. Feel free to chime in with your answers, might be fun.
Question #1 What was the path that led you to bookselling?
Like a great many of us, I am an avid life-long reader. In college, my major was English Literature, Language and Pedagogy (high school English teacher) with a minor in Theater Arts. As a student and afterwards, most of my jobs were in some form of retail. I had finally come to a point where the annoyance factor of working for someone else far out-weighed the rate of compensation. This small town had no bookshop but they had a lake and I owned a nice house within viewing distance of same. A seed of insanity planted itself and that is how I came to open my own very own bookstore and gift shop here in the beautiful Bristol Hills of Western New York.
Question #2 How did you prepare to become a bookseller?
First thing was to get a business plan done. With the help of the SBA in Buffalo, NY, my home town, that was completed and financing came through that connection as well. Inspired by the on-line story of two women opening a shop in New York City, I chose my distributor, Ingram Book Company, and things took off from there. I got a lot of instruction and support from the SBA, Ingram and Booklog. The rest I have learned on the fly.
Question #3 What didn’t you expect when you opened/bought your store?
So far, I have been lucky. Nothing horribly unexpected has occurred, well, aside from the coffee shop next door, one of my earliest supporters and cheerleaders, deciding to give up the fight and close their doors for good. It was a bit of a shocker since part of the reasoning for choosing this particular space was the coffee shop/book shop dynamic. Other than that, nothing else of an unforeseen nature has taken place…… yet. It has only been four and a half months after all.
Question #4 What was the best advice you’ve been given about bookselling?
Keep your chin up, market your brains out and take one day at a time.
Question #5 What advice do you give to new booksellers?
See above and get in with a good distributor, make sure you have good software to keep your inventory straight and enjoy yourself.
