About Bookstores

The Women's National Book Association (WNBA) has announced the nominees for this year's Lucile Micheels Pannell Award. This year, six stores were nominated in the children's bookstore category, and 11 stores were nominated in the general bookstore category.

The nominees in the children's specialty store category are:

New York City's independent bookselling landscape continues to change. On the heels of news that Oscar Wilde Bookshop was sold and Bluestockings Women's Bookstore may close, New York City's Coliseum Books announced that it is set to reopen in a new location directly across from the main branch of the New York Public Library. The store signed a lease with Tishman Speyer last Friday. Coliseum owner George Leibson told BTW, "I'm euphoric in signing a new lease, but also terrified. I'll probably be running on adrenaline for quite awhile."

One key element to successful bookstore succession planning is to know your ideal buyer and terms. Experts attest that the process of selling a store is complicated enough without having to negotiate with a buyer who is, at best, an unknown quantity.

Coleen Harty of Madison, Wisconsin, has spent years perusing the vast category of personal growth books and tapes. Beginning March 1, she will be putting her knowledge into practice and helping others navigate the self-help arena in her own bookstore, Invest in Yourself. Harty, a long-time employee of the Middletown, Wisconsin-based Pleasant Company, founder of the American Girl dynasty, is opening the 1,500-square-foot store, also in Middletown.

Another well-known New York City independent bookstore is looking for a last-minute reprieve. Just two weeks after announcing that her store was up for sale, Bluestockings Women's Bookstore owner Kathryn Welsh told BTW that the store would close at the end of February unless a buyer materializes before then. The news comes less than a week after Deacon Maccubbin announced he had purchased the landmark gay and lesbian bookstore Oscar Wilde Bookshop, just prior to the store's scheduled closing.

Sometimes there's more to an investment than just profits. That was certainly the case when Deacon Maccubbin, owner of Lambda Rising, decided to take over operations of the New York City independent Oscar Wilde Bookshop.

Skylight Books, the six-year-old bookstore in the art-steeped La Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, will host an unusual photography exhibit from February 2 to March 1, titled Memorial for the Skylight Diaspora by Rebecca Tuynman. Artist and art educator Tuynman is a neighbor and frequent customer of Skylight Books. The exhibit will include a series of her portraits and responses to postcards distributed inside of books sold at the store.

The old adage, "When one door closes, another one opens," certainly rang true this month for Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California.

On Tuesday, January 21, almost all of the approximately 200 Austin, Texas, city residents at a community forum gave a proposed development that would bring Borders Books & Music to downtown Austin a resounding thumbs down, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman.

In The Great Good Place (Marlowe & Co.), sociologist Ray Oldenburg writes that a community's social vitality hinges upon having a gathering place where people can meet and exchange ideas -- a place that satisfies America's quest for community. He refers to this as the "third place." It seems only fitting then, that, in Lake Forest Park store, Washington, just north of Seattle, Third Place refers to an independent bookstore -- a popular gathering place that recently opened a second, much smaller (and much different) bookstore.

When Kayt and Donald L. Huttlin, Jr. purchased a house on Second Avenue in Lexington, North Carolina, one of the selling points was its close proximity to Frazier's Bookstore. Kayt Huttlin, a former librarian, had always been a book lover, so she enjoyed the idea that she could just pop into the community bookstore on a whim.

Just over six months later, Huttlin enters the store not on a whim, but with a purpose: She's one of Frazier's new owners.

For many independents, December sales were less than hoped for -- but for most not as dire as feared. In a season that didn't produce a must-have title for consumers, a wealth of handselling opportunities meant that when the holiday rush kicked in -- for some only days before Christmas -- many booksellers saw strong sales.

This past New Year's Day, two bookstores marked the holiday with successful celebratory sales events as a way to thank their customers. In Tempe, Arizona, Changing Hands Bookstore continued its tradition of holding a Customer Appreciation Day sale on January 1, while The King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City launched its first appreciation day, complete with hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and lots of handselling.

Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Arizona

By Neal Coonerty

Whew, this Christmas stunk! Or, to be more precise, this Christmas retail season really stunk. As we closed the doors of our bookshop at 7:00 p.m. after an exhausting Christmas Eve, our sales were down 5.6 percent. Not only was the season bad, it was scary. On December 14, our sales were running nearly 10 percent down, and we were wondering if it might get even worse.