The Young Guns of Bookselling

4 Nov 2010

In an age of e-books and with online purchasing and more entertainment options competing with reading, there is a posse of young and vibrant booksellers who are tackling the challenges head on.

In this special feature, The Read caught up with five young guns of bookselling from around New Zealand and asked them each about what excites them, what challenges them and their idea of a dream bookstore.

Adam Isa – Manager, Paperplus Whangarei

See more photos of events at Paperplus Whangarei on our Flickr stream.

Adam began working in the Howick Paperplus store while studying at The University of Auckland and worked in the head office as a business advisor. Following three years in the optometry industry, he returned to his love of books when he and his wife Kim purchased Paperplus Whangarei.

What are your favourite childhood memories of books/reading?
I inhaled books as a child and probably beggared my mum and dad. I loved my Asterix and Tintin books as a young reader and still do! After that I graduated into The Hardy Boys and Willard Price adventure books.

What excites and motivates you about the bookselling industry?
I love the fact that books are effectively the entrepot into education and learning. I love having a yarn with a customer and helping them to discover a ‘new author’ and the feedback when they come back for more when they are every bit as passionate as I am about reading.

What challenges do you face in the bookselling industry?
We face a significant and growing challenge from the internet and our government doesn’t seem to be willing to acknowledge that we are increasingly operating in an online environment. Our GST rate is effectively a 15% subsidy for offshore online retailers. Add to that the increasing impact of the e-book and our publisher friends seeming lack of interest in working with their established bricks and mortar sales network.

What are you currently reading?
I’ve recently been introduced to Conn Igguldon’s Genghis Khan series and am absolutely loving it!!

What books are you recommending to customers?
My personal interests haven’t really developed much more since my Willard Price days and I regularly sell Clive Cussler, Wilbur Smith, Andy McDermott, Matthew Reilly and lately Greig Beck. I look forward to sharing the delights that Conn Igguldon is sharing with me right now.

What big ideas do you have for the future of bookselling?
Personally and as a team we would like to build on our win of the MoreFM Customer Choice Award at the recent Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards and strive to provide the best value, service and retail environment in Northland.  I look forward to the exciting, new environment that the e-book is going to challenge our existing distribution model to move to. The children of Gen Y may never be read a paper book as a child and that will remove any emotive connection to that format that we have. I think with the increased impact of online retailing, we have to focus on the points of difference that we have as bricks and mortar retailers that the internet providers cannot replicate – 100% NZ owned, a great physical environment to come into, knowledgeable staff and exceptional service.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream bookshop look like?
If I had unlimited funds, I would have the most beautiful, welcoming and friendly Concept 6 Paperplus Store, much like what a significant number of our franchise network are currently converting to.

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Kim Gruschow - Senior Bookseller, The Children’s Bookshop, Kilbirnie, Wellington

  

Kim began working at The Children’s Bookshop five years ago soon after finishing a BA at Victoria University.  “I’d been book-crazy since birth and as a teenage punk I wrote and self-published my own zines with essays, art and music reviews. I immediately felt at home in the bookshop.”  
 
What are your favourite childhood memories of books/reading?
I was so obsessed with Badjelly the Witch that my mum photocopied the whole book and glued it into an exercise book because it was out of print and we couldn’t get a copy. I fondly remember scheming with my siblings to get rid of our nana while reading George’s Marvellous Medicine.

What excites and motivates you about the bookselling industry?
There are always great new books arriving to read and recommend. I work in a fun environment and there is plenty of variety in my job. It is especially rewarding to suggest books for young people and see them excited about reading. I love it when kids come in with a pile of coins and spend their pocket money on the newest book by their favourite author.

What challenges do you face in the bookselling industry?
To an extent you are working with what you are given by the publishers, who don’t always get it right, sometimes you’ll get a great book with an unfortunate cover, a book that is over-priced or a good idea poorly-executed.

What are you currently reading?
I just finished The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine and I’m now onto Deborah Ellis’ upcoming No Safe Place. I am also reading a “grown-up book” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, with the help of a large dictionary.

What books are you recommending to customers?
Recent favourites are Gregory Hughes’ Unhooking the Moon, Fruitloops and Dipsticks, published by our wonderful Gecko Press, the anarchic picture book Wild Boars Cook by Meg Rossof, and Elliot Allagash a hilarious book about scheming teenage boy weirdos by Simon Rich.

What are your favourite bookie websites and blogs?
A Journey Round My Skull is full of beautiful old and foreign illustrations and artwork that would otherwise not be seen. I also quite like Write Nerd - the author is a passionate independent bookseller in New York.

What big ideas do you have for the future of bookselling?
I think independent booksellers will do best continuing to be community-focussed, knowing both their customers and books well, and organising events that are worth leaving the house for. Constant communication between publishers and booksellers about what works, what doesn’t work and what is needed would be a positive for all.  

If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream bookshop look like?
My dream bookshop would be an eclectic collection of my affections, I’d stock zines, graphic novels and a selection of comics and art books, books about music and pop culture, great fiction and the best children’s books. It would also be a record store because music is my other great love.  There would be good reading nooks amongst nice, densely-packed wooden shelving but also space and gear for the shop to be a venue for music and bookish events and activities. There would be good art on display, and a group of smart staff who are friendly and unintimidating   No café, but definitely diner-style filter coffee with unlimited refills.

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Cameron Hyland – International Book Buyer, Unity Books Wellington

Cameron began working at Dymocks Lambton Quay as a buyer for the Computer and Business departments, but admits that at first he had “absolutely no idea” what the position entailed. “Fortunately we had a relatively large buying team who all helped me to find my feet.”

What are your favourite childhood memories of books/reading?
Being terrified and enthralled by Spike Milligan's Badjelly The Witch; sitting on the floor in class aged 6ish listening to the teacher read Roald Dahl's The BFG, Witches, and Matilda (always followed by the corresponding movie on the last day of term).

What excites and motivates you about the bookselling industry?
The booksellers themselves! Booksellers (as well as publishers, reps, and authors) love what they do. There's also the customers - it's a cliche, but few things are more satisfying than putting the right book into a customer's hands. Having that person come back to you a few days later to ask for more recommendations is the icing on the cake.

What challenges do you face in the bookselling industry?
The death of the book, if you believe the media! More realistically, for independents at least, I would say that competition from online retailers is the pressing concern. The GST increase in October only exacerbated the difficulty of matching the price of a book which is 50% off, tax free, and delivered to your door.

What are you currently reading?
Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, and Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L O'Connell

What books are you recommending to customers?
The Folding Knife by K J Parker, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, Information is Beautiful by David McCandless and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

What are your favourite bookie websites and blogs?
Beatties Book Blog (NZ trade news & reviews), Crimewatch, Pat's Fantasy Hotlist (Scifi & Fantasy news), Guardian Reviews (some of the more reliable reviews out there!) and NY Times Reviews.
 
What big ideas do you have for the future of bookselling?
More emphasis on the classical roles of bookstores as meeting places, lounges away from home, intellectual hubs of a community. With the e-book revolution here, bookstores need to focus on the social and aesthetic aspects of books and really hammer the idea of escaping from the electronic screens that we already spend most of our time on. After all, no one looks up from a book after reading for hours feeling drained and stressed (unless they're students!).

If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream bookshop look like?
My dream bookshop would have high ceilings, wooden floors & shelving, soft (but not eye-straining) lighting, an oversized Sci-fi/Fantasy section, and a lounge area in the quietest corner of the store (with bottomless help-yourself coffee for staff and customers alike). Display stands would have more in common with modern art sculptures than retail displays. Children's books would be surrounded by colour and floor cushions. Near the counters would be the gloves-only multi-thousand-dollar limited edition art books, in glass cabinets. Upstairs would be the staff room – more of a study than a kitchenette, with a balcony. Wireless internet & laptop computers in store for less clutter at the counters and a focus on the best and most beautiful books. And a small, five-seat bar, tucked away near the coffee and away from the books, for late Friday nights!

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Nevena Nikolic – Book buyer, Time Out Bookstore, Auckland

  

Nevena used to be a freelance book publicist and about four years ago she organised some author events at Auckland’s Time Out Bookstore. “I liked the store so much, and wanted some good indie retail experience, so I asked Wendy for a job!”

What are your favourite childhood memories of books/reading?
I think that delicious sense of anticipation when you are about to start a new book by a cherished author – Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew stand out. Also the vividness of classic titles like Black Beauty, Heidi and Alice in Wonderland - the plots and characters still live with me today.

What excites and motivates you about the bookselling industry?
The next great title! It is really exciting to sit down with the reps and discover some fantastic new debut novel or title from an established author that we can get behind and sell.

What challenges do you face in the bookselling industry?
I would have to say 'online' sales. It is hard to compete against the behemoth internet book discounters. We need to stay community and service-oriented to provide a point of difference. Also, digital books are proving a short-term challenge in that we have no way of supplying them to our customers (yet).

What are you currently reading?
War Dances by Sherman Alexie (2010 PEN/Faulkner award-winner) and Sunset Park by Paul Auster. I just finished Michael Cunningham's latest By Nightfall which was fantastic! I am also dipping into Living with Books by Dominique Dupuich a beautiful coffee table book on dream libraries!

What books are you recommending to customers?
I spend most of my days upstairs now, buried in paperwork and seeing reps, but I have to say that Freedom by Jonathan Franzen has been a highlight for me and easy to recommend and our Baker's Dozen for the year! (see pic)

What are your favourite bookie websites and blogs?
Beatties Book Blog,  Good Reads, described as the 'world's largest reading room', and Salon.com for general arts and culture.

What big ideas do you have for the future of bookselling?
I think that in this Internet and price-driven world we have lost sight of the fact that a good bookstore can be the 'heart and soul' of the community. If we keep connecting with people then there will always be a bright future for the wonderful indies like Time Out.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream bookshop look like?
My dream bookshop: three floors in a heritage building. The basement devoted to children's books, with colourful murals and bean bags and mobiles and life! The ground floor devoted to fiction and add-ons like cards, reading glasses, bookmarks etc. Lots of comfy sofas, rugs and of course an espresso machine. Top floor: a huge array of non-fiction with large art, history, science and philosophy sections. Lots of bright, young staff. Lots of events, readings and signings. Ooh now you've got me started I could go on and on...


Stella Chrysostomou – Shop and Events Manager, Page & Blackmore Booksellers, Nelson

Stella completed a BA(hons) in politics, but decided a governement department job wasn't for her and fell into the booktrade almost accidently. “I started out wrapping the parcels at Bennetts on Featherston St in Wellington and worked my way up from there to a senior position.”

 What are your favourite childhood memories of books/reading?
Reading by torchlight under the covers well into the wee hours of the morning, and working my way through the local library shelves.

What excites and motivates you about the bookselling industry?
I love selling books. I like the challange of getting the right book into the customer's hands. It is very satisfying building relationships between people and books.

What challenges do you face in the bookselling industry?
Finding and retaining staff that have book trade experience. Be great if there was more training (Lucie Pepeyan of ABA's short courses are great – I encourage others to take them up).

What are you currently reading?
Just read the Booker Man winner, The Finkler Question. Now reading Your Presence is Required at Suvanto.

What books are you recommending to customers?
Room by Emma Donoghue, Your Presence is Required at Suvanto by Maile Chapman, and Born in Budapest – a poetry CD by local poet, Panni Palasti, and musician Gabor Tolnay – beautiful!

What are your favourite bookie websites and blogs?
Beatties blog for the trade gossip and information, occasionally have a peep at other independent's sites (eg: Unity, Auckland), book review pages at The New York Times, and Guardian.

What big ideas do you have for the future of bookselling?
Survival! As an independent we are in a strong position to weather the storm and rise of on-line book retailers and e-book industry. We are increasingly having more book events and plenty of involvement in our local community. Great knowledge has always been the key to good bookselling, and will continue to be so.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would your dream bookshop look like?
Unlimited space, beautiful wooden shelving, heaps of gorgeous display units-classical but mixed with clean modernist architectural lines, white walls and high tech screens for showing author interviews, book promo and having interactive book experiences. Really good windows for shop front display. Reading room and an events space. And great coffee.

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