A collection of articles on Reimagining Bookstores
On our inaugural gathering, Oct 18-19, 2021
“Reimagining Bookstores” by Alex Green in Publishers Weekly, Oct 29, 2021
Earlier this month, Praveen Madan, CEO of Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif., delivered a dire series of observations to the attendees of Reimagining Bookstores, an online gathering of nearly 600 booksellers and publishing professionals. Independent bookstores face multiple crises that threaten their existence, Madan said, ranging from declining literacy to unsustainably low employee wages that he characterized as “institutional poverty.”
Then, before sending attendees into one of the most invigorating gatherings on independent bookselling in a generation, he offered warm encouragement: “Let’s have some fun. Let’s have some energizing conversation. Let’s go create some change.” Read on…
“Reimagining Bookstores Ends on a High Note” in Shelf Awareness, Oct 20, 2021
The two-day Reimagining Bookstores virtual event ended on a high note yesterday, with many participants praising the event and the exchange of ideas and hoping for followups that could include similar gatherings twice a year.
Jeff Deutsch, director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstore and 57th Street Books, Chicago, Ill., spoke for many when he remarked “how incredible it is to be in this community with everyone. We are all so busy all the time and to hold everyone together for six hours to imagine and envision and dream together, knowing how practical so many of us are, I think we’ll actually be able to change just a little bit the trajectory of the industry. I’m grateful for that, and one of the things I’m leaving with is a sense of hope for that possibility.” Read on…
“Saving Bookstores in the Age of Amazon” by Nasim Ghasemiyeh in Alta Online, Nov 4, 2021
With each passing day book lovers find themselves increasingly unable to resist the siren call of one-day shipping, making Amazon, already among the most profitable companies in the world, bigger and stronger. Publishers and proprietors of bookstores, the spaces once cherished as literary community hubs, are being asked to play by Amazon’s rules or forfeit the book game entirely.
Earlier this month, some of bookselling’s best minds and most enthusiastic supporters gathered for Reimagining Bookstores, a virtual conference launched by Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. The goal: to come up with practical solutions to ensure a future for their businesses and the communities that rely upon them. Twenty-three other bookstores from twelve different states, including six California locations, jumped in to co-host the gathering, which drew a diverse crowd of booksellers, publishers, buyers, authors, and readers from across the country. These were ardent book lovers sharing their hopes for the future. It was a smashing success. Read on…
“Re-Imagining Bookstores Kicks Off with Global Virtual Gathering” by Michele Caprario
in Splash Magazines, Oct 28, 2021
“Somebody said to me, ‘oh, that’s so Silicon Valley,” Madan shared in reference to his assertion that bookstores need to be reimagined as a social cause and should be funded by their communities and other philanthropic sources similar to how libraries and public radio and television stations are funded, adding, “I told her, ‘not really.’ Generosity was not invented in Silicon Valley, it’s built in to humanity. That’s what we’re trying to keep alive.” Read the full article…
On Reimagining Bookstores-related developments
“Is There Another Way to Run a Bookstore?” by Nathalie op de Beeck
in Publisher’s Weekly, May 12, 2023
Madan believes not only in community investment but in alternatives to conventional ideas about growth. Booksellers take tight margins and anxiety as givens; in times of inflation and flux, they worry about emergency loans, charitable aid, or fundraising. “We concluded at Kepler’s that maximizing profits is outdated,” he said. “There’s a contradiction between the drive to maximize profit and the need to raise employees’ salaries. What matters is that you have enough money coming in to pay everyone well,” and that means rethinking the basic framework of how stores operate.
Thanks to the conversations in 2021, Reimagining Bookstores is gaining steam. Investors and philanthropists, already in communication with the regional independent bookselling associations, have begun offering grants and investments, sustainable loan arrangements, and strategic advice to growing cohorts of bookstores. Films about indie bookselling are in development. And Reimagining Bookstores is partnering with the Washington, D.C.–based Whole School Leadership Institute on two informational sessions, May 19 and 25, to develop customized training modules for bookstore management and creative leadership.
Madan said he believes “narratives are starting to emerge” around bookstores as intrinsically valuable community spaces. “I’m trying to light a fire, and there are sparks all over the place. I’m asking how to turn this into a bigger movement.” Read the full article…
“Expanding the Reimagining Bookstores Campaign” by Nathalie op de Beeck
in Publisher’s Weekly, May 19, 2023
Last week, PW published an update on Reimagining Bookstores, a network of booksellers established by Praveen Madan of Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif., and a corps of like-minded indie leaders in 2021. One of their key goals is helping booksellers rethink what Madan calls “outdated” frameworks for maximizing profits and instead emphasizing bookstores’ social value. Now may be the time to double down on those efforts, because that argument is reaching the ears of investors, philanthropists, and change agents who want to support civic causes.
Despite adding value to their communities, “bookstores have to operate as for-profit in a marketplace that is totally stacked against them,” said Will Ames, the project manager for philanthropy at the Emerson Collective, an LLC founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. “There’s a rising cost of living and rent that is a tremendous existential threat to bookstores,” as well as the often-uncompensated labor it takes to coordinate literary events on-site, record podcasts, or connect young readers with books. “We see a solution, potentially, in opening bookstores up to public support, whether tax-benefited grants or gifts, to allow bookstores to thrive,” Ames added. Read on…
“What’s Next: Bookstores as Civic Centers” by Kathy O. Brozek in Stanford Social
Innovation Review, Spring 2023 (behind a paywall, embedded below)
Like most social movements, Reimagining Bookstores has a fluid organizational structure. “For now, we’re keeping Reimagining Bookstores decentralized, with nodes of activity,” co-convener, writer, and editor Paul Wright explains. “We’re still absorbing what it means to be a movement, in terms of structure and as a dynamic system with many moving parts.”
Funding for projects is flowing from diverse sources. The philanthropic arm of the Emerson Collective is currently working with a portfolio of 12 indie bookstores—the first step of its three-part bookstore agenda—which will expand to 24 in 2023. Selected bookstores represent three types of stores: those in book-desert locations, underrepresented booksellers, and innovative models. These indies will receive a multiyear grant and capacity-building services, plus access to online group mentoring sessions. And bookstore advocate and impact investor John Valpey is providing financial and operational advice pro bono and offers reduced- and no-interest loans with flexible terms to seven indie bookstores located in the New England region.
Bookstore advocates like Valpey are offering their time and expertise for new initiatives. For example, the Community Conversation project promotes civic discourse and strengthens community through a dialogue among participants. Co-convener and author Peggy Holman led an event on how to bridge the partisan divide with journalist Mónica Guzmán and 150 people.
New initiatives are in development for 2023, including Beyond Books, a community storytelling project that aims to effect positive social change. Beyond Books was inspired by three individuals—a publisher, an author/publisher, and a bookstore owner—who met at the conference. And, still in the design phase, a group of 10 to 15 indie bookstores will launch a series of events, displays, and other experiences around socially relevant themes tailored to their respective communities. In addition, two workshops are planned for this year on how to pay living wages to indie-bookstore employees. “We are supporting bookstores with new ways to engage their communities, access funding, and adopt new business models,” Madan says. He emphasized, however, that independent bookstores “need [to have] a broader vision and not just be a channel for publishers.” Read the full article below.
