Call it a highly unscientific poll, but I took advantage of my recent conversations with several booksellers who attended June's BookManager Academy in Kelowna, B.C., to ask a question somewhat unrelated to the conference: Having had the opportunity to spend a few days at BMA among so many other independent booksellers, what was your sense of the "indie mood" (for lack of a better phrase) overall?
"I think in general most of us booksellers live a passion running a bookstore, but the mood was generally upbeat and positive," said Joy McLean of Cafe Books, Canmore, Alberta. "I felt most of us were getting on and just selling books rather than moaning about things we can't control. I had a fantastic time and came away energized and excited for the future of small indie stores."
Melissa Bourdon-King of Mabel's Fables Bookstore in Toronto described the indie mood as "very positive. We were all so fired up after the conference, ready to get back to our stores and implement some of the new skills we had learned, to try new techniques we had discussed, and to brainstorm new ideas that had come out at the conference. We all came back with knowledge about new titles that had been selling well at other stores, eager to order them and try them out at our own locations.
"The conference was also a great opportunity for us to talk about the unique struggles we face as independent booksellers, and different coping mechanisms that stores are trying, and to discuss ideas for how we can change things," she continued. "With the loss of three main Canadian warehouses in the past six months, Canadian independent booksellers can find themselves at a real disadvantage in trying to get books into their stores quickly. I think being able to talk about some of these challenges with peers who understood and face the same challenges was a real asset. It can be really isolating focusing solely on your business (or the business you work for) and it was important, especially for me personally, to be reminded that there are so many others out there doing incredible things, and working just as hard as we are here at Mabel's Fables."
Cathy Jesson of Black Bond Books, Surrey, British Columbia, said her team "came away positive from BMA. Our 10 locations are ticking along, challenges with rent and suppliers continue, but overall I am feeling pretty good. Our biggest challenge will be the falling Canadian dollar, and the predator that is Amazon. In our business, it seems there is always something."
"I would say the indie mood is at this point very positive," said Jim Schmidt of Galiano Island Books, Galiano Island, B.C.: "Over the last few years we have seen our numbers shrink in B.C., Canada and the U.S., but now more bookstores are opening and those of us who have survived are a lot more savvy about what we need to do to survive. The big e-book revolution seems to have fizzled a bit, or at least plateaued well below the early projections of what their market share would be and more and more people are turning back to the traditional paper book. The whole idea of 'shop local' has also captured lots of people's attention and customer loyalty is growing, driven in large part by the way that independent bookstores and other independent retailers give back to their communities in so many ways from creating jobs to paying property taxes to sponsoring community programs to just giving folks a pleasant place to spend a few hours browsing. To paraphrase Mark Twain, 'the news of our demise was greatly exaggerated.' "
While agreeing that "the mood was upbeat in general," Garry MacGregor of Volume One Bookstore, Duncan, B.C., added that "the only concern may have been the aging nature of the population. There are not enough young people entering the profession in Canada--perhaps a function of the unending false tale of woe issuing from the popular media even if it is not true or generally shared by people in the trade."
Offering an American perspective, Tiffany Harlan of Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis, Ore., said, "Our North American neighbors share the same challenges we do; but just like U.S. booksellers, those that remain (and the new stores opening) are reinventing the bookstore as a physical space for book lovers and communities to gather. The 'indie mood' is one of open-eyed (not blind) optimism for the future, so long as booksellers and bookstores continue to evolve to meet the challenges."
Barbara Pope of the Mulberry Bush Book Store, Parksville, B.C., struck a chord that will sound familiar to many of us: "When the 100 or so indie booksellers from across the country were introduced on the first morning, I felt like throwing my arms out wide and calling for a group hug! It's been so long since we were all together, and it was so good to be connected in person once again! I think all of us felt that." --Robert Gray, contributing editor (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)
