Ep. 98: Behind the Scenes of Opening a New Indie Bookstore (with the Founders of The Book and Cover)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.9 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 98, the three founders of The Book & Cover (@thebookandcover) join me to share a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into opening an independent, brick-and-mortar bookshop. We discuss non-traditional way they financed the business, how they learned the reading taste of their community, and how a new indie builds its inventory.
Highlights
- Blaes and Emily talk about balancing this new venture alongside their full-time day jobs.
- How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their decision.
- How their community played an incredible role in the first big steps.
- Between an Instagram account and a Google Doc, the simple beginnings of this endeavor.
- Going from their ‘dream space’ to their ‘dream location’.
- The role social media plays in their book buying.
- How the book-buying experience feels like a first date with publishers.
- Scarves and enamel pins and notecards, oh my! How they approached including bookish merchandise at the store.
- Looking at backlist titles versus new releases.
- The driving factor behind knowing how many of a particular book to order.
- The way they were able to get a great sense of the reading tastes of their community.
Book Recommendations from Blaes, Emily, and Sarah [36:14]
Two OLD Books She Loves
- Emily: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org
[37:22]
- Emily: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [38:28]
Other Books Mentioned:
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne [39:40]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- Blaes: Under the Whispering Door by T. J. Klune | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [40:27]
- Blaes: Dear Miss Metropolitan
by Carolyn Ferrell | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [42:02]
Other Books Mentioned:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune [41:10]
One Book They DIDN’T Love
- Blaes, Emily, and Sarah are skipping this segment, but there will be a full discussion about their thoughts on this for the November Superlatives episode available to my Patreon subscribers. [44:04]
One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About
- Sarah: A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow (June 14, 2022) | Buy from Amazon[44:19]
Other Books Mentioned:
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow [44:27]
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow [45:04]
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow [45:05]
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine [45:18]
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman [45:40]
Last 5 Star Books They Read [46:34]
- Emily & Blaes: If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Bookshop.org [46:48] [47:50]
- Sarah: A Little Devil in America
| Buy from Bookshop.org [48:19]
Other Books Mentioned:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt [48:11]
Other Links
About the Founders of The Book & Cover
Blaes Green enjoys running, knitting, wrangling kiddos, and sobbing over epic family sagas. In her day job, she manages a team of customer service representatives in manufacturing for her family’s 100-year-old Chattanooga printing business. She is running the New York City marathon in a month!
Emily Lilley enjoys cooking, playing with her dachshund Bertie, and curling up with a cozy or smart TV comedy. In her day job, she is the Vice President of External Affairs for a statewide education policy and advocacy nonprofit. Emily and her friend Audrey are writing their own mystery series!
Sarah Jackson enjoys organizing, Enneagramming, glitter, and getting lost in magical realist tales. In her day job, she is the chief operations officer of her home. In college, Sarah “beta” read fan fiction.
Next Episode
In two weeks (November 24), Susie Boutry (@NovelVisits) will join me to discuss our choices for the 2021 Best Books of the Year.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm |
| 0:15.5 | talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new |
| 0:22.7 | release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things |
| 0:28.3 | books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends, |
| 0:33.8 | subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes by |
| 0:41.2 | supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my |
| 0:47.5 | Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, this summer, one of my superstars patrons, Christy Phillips, sent me an Instagram account for a soon-to-be indie bookstore where the founders were documenting their journey to opening their new store in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And it's called The Book and Cover. I've loved watching the space develop on Instagram, and I am thrilled to have the three co-founders of the book and cover here today to talk about what it's like opening a brand new indie bookstore. |
| 1:17.3 | And y'all, we're also doing our first ever episode with four people on, so we are going to try our very hardest not to talk over each other. |
| 1:26.0 | Fingers crossed. |
| 1:29.4 | All three of our guests are Chattanooga natives. Blaze Green enjoys running, knitting, wrangling kiddos, and sobbing over epic |
| 1:36.1 | family sagas. In her day job, she manages a team of customer service representatives in |
| 1:41.3 | manufacturing for her family's 100-year-old Chattanooga printing business. |
| 1:46.1 | And she's running the New York City Marathon. Emily Lilly enjoys cooking, playing with her |
| 1:50.7 | Dutch and Bertie, and curling up with a cozy mystery or smart TV comedy. In her day job, |
| 1:56.5 | she is the vice president of external affairs for a statewide education policy and advocacy nonprofit. |
| 2:03.1 | Emily and her friend Audrey are also writing their own mystery series. And Sarah Jackson enjoys |
| 2:09.0 | organizing, enneagramming, glitter, you and my daughter would get along really well, and getting |
| 2:14.8 | lost in magical realist tales. In her day job, she is the chief operations officer of her home |
| 2:20.4 | and in college, Sarah Bader Red fan fiction. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for having us. First of all, |
| 2:26.7 | Blaze and Emily, you are doing this alongside full-time day jobs. How are you doing this? And do you plan to |
| 2:34.0 | continue this? We do. Okay. When do you do the work on |
| 2:38.4 | the bookstore? So my day job, I am lucky in that my day job is actually pretty flexible. And my |
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