I met Jamie Fiocco, Sarah Carr and Land Arnold last September at SIBA's trade show in Greenville, S.C. In a column I wrote after the SIBA show, I said I'd been immediately impressed by their collective knowledge and passion as booksellers, as well as their undeniable courage as business people. Their new bookstore, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C., had its soft opening in November and a successful grand opening January 9. 
Now that the bookshop is three months old--and with so many news stories appearing about bookstores on their last legs--it seemed like a good time to explore an indie that is on its first legs. Every bookstore is a story, and this one just hit the "Once upon a time" stage. For the next couple of weeks, the Flyleaf crew will share some early impressions of their new lives as bookstore owners. Jamie got the conversation started.
When Flyleaf Books hosted its grand opening, they had anticipated a crowd of about 150 people. "I got 125 wine glasses, thinking we’d have extras, and we had 350 show up," Jamie recalled, noting that community support "has been very, very good. I’ve bumped into folks in town talking about the store; folks walk in the door every day and immediately thank us for being brave enough to open an independent bookstore in town. We were overwhelmed with how many folks didn’t hesitate to become Flyleaf members or to buy gift certificates from us for their holiday gifts. Industry support has been equally positive. The reps and publishers made everything from their end move very easily. The other folks in the industry--media, vendors--were very supportive as well. I think with all the shifting going on in the publishing world folks were happy to have a positive project to be excited about."
After years as a frontline bookseller, being an owner has been "exhilarating and exhausting," Jamie observed. "It’s a beautiful thing to be able to talk to customers and to explain to them why the store is a certain way, or why we carry a certain book or type of book (or don’t carry them). It’s a whole new crowd of folks to introduce to all your favorite books and authors. And, on a different note, it’s nice having veto power in my back pocket, meaning I (we) have the ability to say 'no' when dealing with a customer, vendor or a self-published author who is being unreasonable. There have been a few times where someone was pushing an idea that didn’t dovetail with the store’s goals and it was nice to be able to tell them nicely that I just wasn’t interested."
I wondered if there was an aspect of the bookstore that they were uncertain about before opening, but have found exceeded expectations. She cited Flyleaf's events space: "We have a 1600-square-foot dedicated events space that we are using for readings. It’s the old aerobics/yoga room from the gym that used to be in this space, so the acoustics are great and there’s a beautiful wooden floor. We’ve been taken by surprise at how many community groups want to use the space for meetings, musical groups that want to use the space for performance, and all sorts of literary groups--writing classes, open mics, poetry slams--that need a space to meet regularly. We have had to develop rules about who can use the space; first priority to author events, then other events with a book tie-in. We’ve even developed a fee schedule for non-literary groups to rent the space when we don’t need it otherwise. We had a Phase Two in mind for the events room, and we’ve already moved ahead with part of that in installing a really nice AV projector and screen so we can accommodate DVD presentations and films in the room."
And what's personal life been like for the new bookstore owners? "I’ve had to almost completely abandon the notion of life outside the bookstore; since Sept 2 it’s been nonstop," Jamie admitted. "We’ve been open for 90 days now and we’re finally at the point where Land and I have discussed having regular days off. We don’t know when those days are yet, but we’ve been able to take a few here and there. We’ve got an employee who is able to close for us on weekends. Sarah’s been the rock; she opens the store 9 a.m. Monday through Friday and works into the early afternoon so Land and I can sleep in a bit. My husband has been very understanding; we talked about it before we started this project and decided two years of chaos was a fair price. Land and I have gotten pretty good at simply telling the other to go home and get some sleep. I absolutely cannot imagine doing this alone."
More from the Flyleaf Books crew next week.--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)