An integral part of New York University's Summer Publishing Institute is visiting independent bookstores in New York City. This year, four students wrote about their impressions of bookstores they visited, which they kindly have shared with Shelf Awareness. On Wednesday, we published Mallory Stock's report on The Ripped Bodice. on Thursday we ran Alison Keiser's report on Greenlight Bookstore. And Friday featured Brianna Angeliz's report on The Strand. Today Suzanne Hutt reports on Book Culture.
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| Book Culture's Cody Madsen (back row, left) with NYU Summer Publishing Institute students. photos: Suzanne Hutt | |
Cody Madsen, v-p of operations at Book Culture, outlined the history and day-to-day experience of running an indie bookstore recently to NYU Summer Publishing Institute students.
Book Culture was founded in 1997, originally as Labyrinth Books, and houses both new and used books of all genres. The West 112th St. flagship store has a close relationship with Columbia University and the surrounding neighborhood; in fact, the first week of September is just as busy as the December holiday rush due to coursebook sales. The bookstore company is led by owner & president Chris Doeblin, v-p & head buyer Devon Dunn, and head sideline & gift buyer Susan Doeblin, who help provide a carefully curated selection of books and gifts that contains something for nearly everyone.
The story of Book Culture is a master class in taking risks. For instance, when beloved Morningside Bookstore, on the corner of West 114th St. and Broadway, was closing its doors in 2009, Chris recognized an opportunity to expand. Even though the two locations would be extremely close by, he saw it as a chance to create a different model for Book Culture, where the new space could focus on specific categories (like bestsellers, new releases, and a robust children's section at the Broadway location). That shift led to more locations, in Long Island City and Pittsford, N.Y. Each Book Culture store has a distinct identity while maintaining the same characteristic warmth.
A risk-taking approach also applies to Book Culture's events programming. Book Culture has a full calendar of 50 or more events each year, but they are also very intentional about the events they host. They want to ensure that programming serves the neighborhood and champions authors they love. Sometimes, this means going out on a limb to ask local celebrity authors to see if they'd be interested in doing an event, like R.L. Stine and Bill Nye (who said yes!).
Is working at a bookstore as dreamy as we like to think? Cody explained that it's not like Audrey Hepburn at the start of Funny Face, where she's staring wistfully out the window most of the day. It's a dynamic environment with a constant flurry of activity. Still, there's no lack of movie magic at Book Culture, for example, when a Hollywood star turns up in the second row at a community poetry reading. And the true magic, of course, is in the everyday interactions with fellow readers, helping them find the perfect next read. Current sought-after titles include The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood, Spent by Alison Bechdel, and I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.
Staff recommendations also make a huge impact. Cody compared working in the store with tending a garden. "If we have someone on staff who really loves poetry, poetry sales will go up," he said. "If you pick up something and touch it and move it, the psychic energy of that will also encourage the customers to interact with it. So the space is very much a reflection of the booksellers that work here."
Cody's message for new indie booksellers is to cultivate your network, including people near you and around the country, and to get creative about growing your community. And if we may take a page from the Book Culture playbook, taking risks can make all the difference.
Suzanne Hutt (Northwestern '13) is a recent graduate of NYU's Summer Publishing Institute. She loves writing fiction, recording music, and working at her sister's bookstore, Bookish Notions in Media, Pa. Suzanne has lived in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan for 10 years and can often be found in Fort Tryon Park with her favorite combo: chai and a good book.