Opening a Bookstore

Some stories & shared knowledge on How to Open a Bookstore. Learn all the ins and outs of getting your bookstore open.

The NYT bestsellers aren't my bestsellers

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The bestsellers on the used market aren’t necessarily the best sellers you see on the New York Times list or on Amazon’s hot list.  Often they bear no relation to each other.  However, statistics on the used market can be devilishly difficult to come by.  And of course, it’s all relative too.  The bestsellers in a small New England town where I am may be totally different than what sells in a shop in the heart of London.  But “what’s your bestseller?” is a question I get asked a lot by people considering getting into the book business.

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10 things to ask when you've already bought the store

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So you’ve just bought yourself a bookstore. Congratulations.  You asked all the big questions before buying, rent, utilities, cash flow, inventory, etc.  but before the old owner moves to Florida make sure to ask some specific questions about the details of doing business.

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 the white 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.

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Up, down, & sideways- shelving your books

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When you’re opening a bookstore, probably the last thing on your mind is how to shelve your books.  You just get some cases and put them on, right?    Wrong.  Particularly if you’re building your own cases, you want to determine HOW you’re going to display your books first.  Otherwise you’ll get stuck with a shelving system that doesn’t work for you or your customers and costs you time and money to redo.


The key part to consider is what KIND of books will you be selling.   If it’s almost all paperback, you’ll want to use a different system than if you’ll be carrying only hardcovers.

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Between Friends, the Joy of a Bookselling Mentor

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Here is a terrific post from a new contributor to The Bookshop Blog – Roberta Nevares

If you have some time take a look at her blog The Poet In You

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From The Book of Hours

I am a relative newbie in the world of book selling, my dear friend Nora who encouraged me to travel down this path is not. In fact, book selling is nearly all she has ever known save for a very short stint as a barista with a well-known coffee chain. This brief foray of hers was put to an end with an intervention by loved ones. Nora finally relented to their fervent entreaties to, “be done with this torturous career path”, an occupation that had resulted in a traumatic and recurring nightmare in which she found herself seated opposite the half-rabid coffee swilling author Balzac wagering on the ever popular card game, Piquet. In this dream Balzac could not be restrained from leaping up and shouting, “Carte Blanche!”. Nora would then be obliged to prepare yet another demitasse full of brew by manipulating a very complicated piece of 19th century machinery, glass tubes and metal parts would sputter forth a few pungent and very black drops of a full bodied dark roast for the never sated author. Ah, the stuff nightmares are made of. Intervention behind her, she shrugged off her apron and stepped back into the world of book selling.

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