Around Indies

The Booksellers to Open in Dayton, Ohio

Neil Van Uum, the owner of The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, Tennessee, and The Booksellers on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio, has announced plans to open The Booksellers at Austin Landing in Dayton, Ohio, in September 2015.

The 12,000-square-foot store’s inventory will have a special emphasis on books for children and families and will include stationery and gift items. It will also feature a café.

“The past 10 years have been challenging for bookstores,” Van Uum told local TV station WDTN. “The Internet, online retailers and electronic books have taken their share. The growth in these areas has slowed significantly and readers are finding that the experience of shopping and browsing in bookstores is all part of the reading culture. Readers are a special people and they comprise a special culture. They need bookstores. Not big boxes filled with books. Great bookstores. And that is what I am about crafting in this new era of bookselling.”

Aspen’s Explore Booksellers to Sell for $4.6 million

Explore Booksellers, which includes an historic house on Main Street in Aspen as well as $200,000 worth of books, furniture, computers, and other business assets, is under contract to be sold for $4.6 million, according to the Aspen Times. The original asking price was $6.5 million, which was later reduced to $5.5 million. In a motion filed last Friday in store owner Samuel Wyly’s bankruptcy case, the buyer was identified as Explore 221 Main LLC.

Last fall, Wyly filed for bankruptcy after a New York judge ruled that he and his late brother Charles’ estate owed up to $400 million to the Securities Exchange Commission for hidden stocks in offshore accounts, the Times reported.

Wyly’s wife, Cheryl, owns the books and other inventory and operates the business, whose fate is unknown. Karen Setterfield, a commercial real estate broker, said that there was “overwhelming interest” among prospective buyers in keeping it a bookstore, but that she had no knowledge of the interest by the buyer.

Flying Pig to Be Featured in Wall Street Journal

WPTV reported this week that Shelburne, Vermont’s Flying Pig Bookstore will be featured in a December 27 Wall Street Journal article about seven great bookshops in vibrant towns.

Store co-owners Elizabeth Bluemle and Josie Leavitt talked to the TV station about the surprise of being recognized nationally and what it means to be a community anchor in such a great destination.

For Bluemle, surprise about the Wall Street Journal feature “was made even better,” the station said, when she was notified the next day that her book (Tap Tap Boom Boom, Candlewick) had been named to the New York Public Library’s 100 Best Children’s Books of 2014.”

That Bookstore in Blytheville Launches Campaign to Fund Renovations

Chris Crawley, the owner of Arkansas’ That Bookstore in Blytheville,“is looking to the local community and beyond to help turn the store into a ‘top shelf’ independent bookstore,” the Blytheville Courier News reported.

Crawley, who bought the nearly 40-year-old store earlier this year, is working on a plan to beautify the store and increase its customer base, and he is hoping to raise $50,000 through his “Restore the Store” Indiegogo campaign.

While he has a long list of upgrades planned, Crawley told the Courier News that one of the most important things to him is maintaining the bookstore’s historic look and feel.

Key will be the restoration of the store’s front facade, including a brand-new sign and refurbishing the tile that surrounds the store front. Inside, floors will be repaired and painted, the heating and air conditioning units will be replaced as well as much of the electrical wiring, and the ceiling will be repaired. Behind the store, Crawley hopes to build a covered bandstand and resurface the parking area.

Donations start at $1, and those pledging between $5 and $10,000 are entitled to a number of perks.