Independent bookshops fight back

A report in the Twin City Daily Planet says that independent booksellers are not going to take it any more. They are fighting back. In a story titled Independent booksellers fight chains with community and character, correspondent Taylor Cisco says that after decades of assault by corporate giants that offer 'sweeping discounts, multimedia merchandise, coffee, snacks and other non-literary goods ... a few indies (are) looking to give the big guys a run for their money.'

[A bit of trivia: Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America -- which had by then been in business for thirty years -- filed a suit against Amazon.com for trademark infringement in 1990. They ended up 'signing over the rights to their own name, then licensing it back from the corporate website'.]

The formula appears commonsensical enough: focus on 'hard-to-find niche materials and a truly personal shopping experience'. One indie bookshop differentiates itself by 'offering titles by local authors as well as titles by those who regularly top bestseller lists' with 'shopping environment (that) was warm and social'. When customers were asked why they picked a particular indie bookshop instead of Borders or Barnes & Noble, the most common answer was: '... customer service that is well above average, a unique selection, and a neighbourhood focus'.

"You know, I have always wanted to open a bookshop," has to be the most popular comment we have heard since Silverfish Books opened eight and a half years ago. (One customer told us a story of how her friend wanted to open a bookshop and call it Silverfish, and didn't know what to do, now that the name had already been taken. The customer said she helpfully suggested an alternative name: termites.) There is no shortage of people who want to open their own indie bookshop. So what is my advice?

First of all, be prepared to give up your life as you know it. (If you don't have a life, it helps.) Absentee bookshop owners almost never make it. The bookshop is about you. It should reflect your personality, your tastes, your niche and your work. Trust your instincts. What do you really know a lot about? Don't try to fool your customers. You will be found out fairly quickly. Be prepared to dedicate your whole life to it – ten/twelve hours a day and six/seven days a week until it stabilizes (which can take several years), and don't expect to employ staff to do all your work. Don't curi tulang from yourself. Work hard and do it yourself, and save the money until you can't squeeze anymore out of your body. Dig in for the long cold winter, which can last several years. The ability to sustain is everything. And don't expect to make a lot of money. Diversify (into related areas) to supplement your income (and pay the rent.)

Still interested?

Okay, then you have the customers to deal with. That will be the best part. Bookshop customers are generally quite a fantastic lot. They will be friendly, helpful and a joy to serve. Help them. Some will be shy to ask, others will be forthright. Good recommendations are mostly appreciated. Offer to help but don't insist. Don't bluff. And, you know what? You will learn as much from your customers as they will learn from you.

Customers are your best friends. No, seriously. I have made more friends in the years at the bookshop than at my previous career of twenty-five years. I make new friends every single day. There will be so many who will come in and tell you, "I'd rather give my money to you then to one of those mega bookstores." And you know they are being absolutely sincere. They are not unreasonable. (We don't sell cookbooks, because we know nothing about cooking. So when they want something like that, they know where to go.) Then you will have customers who walk into the shop, look around as if for a supermarket cart, run through the shelves, pick up two-dozen books, or more, and deposit it on the counter, all in twenty minutes. All this, without saying a word. The only exchange will be, "Will that be cash or credit?" and, finally, a smile and a thank you. And they will be back again and again. You will still not know who they are although you would have progressed to acknowledgement nods, smiles and, even, exchange of niceties. Many book people are very shy. Not everyone will want to be hugged. Respect that.

There will be those who become friends enough to drop by for a chat and a drink while they browse. There are those who will insist on bringing you goodies from the local delis -- and not cheapo ones, either. Sometimes you will have entire families of customers, leaving with books for mom, for dad, for abang, for adek and for the baby. That is really quite a heart-warming experience. (Who said reading is dead in Malaysia?) But you also get parents coming in with such badly behaved children that you want to slap them. (The parents, I mean.) Watch out for these children of parents from hell -- you will have to learn how to handle that without killing one of them (disposing of dead bodies can be quite messy, and might even ruin more books) even as you worry about that child spilling Coke on a perfectly good Peter and the Wolf pop-up book, or another smearing ice-cream on the new encyclopaedia, because the parents don't seem to care or bother to control them. (One father looked on indulgently as his two-year-old daughter ripped up a perfectly good book, but refused to buy it when asked. He simply grabbed the child and ran out the door and down the stairs. We thought that was the last we would see of him. Good riddance. But he came back! A few days later. This time without the child, but still refused to pay for the book, pretending not to know what we were talking about. Instead he tried to smooth things over by turning on his nauseating charm. If ever we came close to manslaughter, that must have been it.)

There are a few other types of insufferable customers you will have to suffer. Some will spend hours looking through your shelves, and then come and ask you for an obscure book they are sure you don't have, just to look intelligent. (There was once when such a customer did that. I was sure we had the book on the shelf, though. I searched and found it in another location, left there accidentally by another customer. When I brought it to him, he turned red, stammered, "Actually I ... I am looking for the ... the .. er .. other edition ... the othe cover.” So there. (The print was either too big or too small or both.) There will be those who will come in and, before anyone asks, declare loudly (as if someone asked) that they did not read 'fiction', or 'non-fiction' -- presumably to establish his pedigree. You will be tempted to go, "How sad for you." Resist that temptation.

Though these customers seldom buy books either, you will still need to suffer them because they can influence others. They will then try and tell you that they have libraries in their houses bigger that your bookshop, just make you feel small. Smile, and breathe deeply. Similar, but not exactly the same, are those who will come in and try and talk your ears off to impress you with their knowledge. (Don't ask why). This type of customer doesn't buy books either, and you will feel like throwing him down the stairs. Don't.

In the early days in Sri Hartamas, I had this person come in and spend several hours in the bookshop, quietly sitting in a corner, reading, browsing through every shelf. He looked like the type who could hardly afford books. He was forty something, hefty, with a weather-beaten face, dressed in what looked like a work uniform. He didn't say a word, or even look at any of us, and left just before closing time. After he left I went through the shelves to see if anything was missing. He was back the next day soon after we opened shop and left just before we closed, again without saying anything, or buying anything. I noticed he came in on an old motorcycle. On the third day, I said, "Hello," which he responded to with a grunt and a nervous half-smile before striding off (as if afraid I was going to ask him questions) towards the bookshelves. But the brief exchange was enough for me to notice a sadness in his eyes. I became determined to talk to him. This I did as he was about to leave that evening. He worked at Tenaga. He said he loved books but he couldn't afford to buy them, and he said that we had all the books he liked. I felt so stupid and embarrassed for pre-judging him. I told him that he was welcome to the shop anytime and that he could read whatever book he wanted, for as long as he wanted, and that he didn't have to buy anything. He smiled fully for the first time.

He came a few times after that, and then I didn't see him anymore. (Maybe he doesn't know we we moved to Bangsar now.) But several others have taken his place. They come in quietly, browse, read and then go back. You can spot them quite easily from the way they, practically, caress the books. Once in a while they will buy something, and this will please you tremendously. You will love selling the book to them. Knowing how much books cost, that will be lunch money for a week for them. And that the books have found a good home.

And talking about the price of books, do be reasonable. I have had several customers come in and complain about the price of books at a certain mega-bookstore. While some bestsellers are heavily discounted as loss-leaders, others can be quite seriously marked up. (One customer was so glad he had not been tempted to buy a certain book the previous day at that place. A book we were selling for MYR69.90, was priced at the mega-store at MYR 99.90 -- MYR 30.00 markup! A difficult to find book, no doubt. But still, not quite ethical.) Book distributors generally fix selling prices and most bookshops adhere to this. Obviously, there are rouge elements. Don't be one of them.

Then, there will be customers you don't want to sell a book to because of the way they handle books, or because of something dumb they said earlier, and you don't think they 'deserves' to own a particular book because they are unlikely to appreciate it or likely to mistreat it. When that happens, force a smile and repeat this mantra: I need the money, I need the money, I need the money, I need ... Remember, you still have to pay the rent.

There will always be room for independent booksellers, just like there will always be boutiques. Remember James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and a host of other writers? All of them rose from independent bookstores. Can mega bookstores claim anything remotely close?

The TC Daily Planet