BTW Talks to Gayle Shanks, ABA's Newest Board Member

Gayle Shanks

There's a cliché often said about anyone who has made a successful and fulfilling career in an area they did not expect: They didn't find their vocation, it found them. Cliché or not, in the case of Gayle Shanks, co-owner of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona -- and ABA's newest board member -- it's true.

In 1974, a friend asked her if she would help him run his newly opened, and small, used-book store. Shanks, who, with a degree in English literature, planned on being a high school English teacher, said yes. "I thought I'd play in the book business for a year or two!" she told BTW in a recent interview. "I never dreamed it would become my life."

Today, when one talks to Shanks about her 30 years in the business, her choice to remain a bookseller seems only natural. "Books have always been extremely important to me all my life," she said. "To be in an environment where I get to talk about books to colleagues and customers --it's a kind of dream job. It's been wonderful."

Wonderful, and successful. Since its opening, Changing Hands has grown from 500 square feet to 16,000 square feet, moving from downtown Phoenix to Tempe three years ago. "There are 15 chain stores within 15 to 20 miles of our [former downtown] store, so we knew we needed a larger store," she said. "We thought, a second location in the suburbs. We gave 3,000 square feet to a bakery-café. Subsequent to opening the new store, we closed the downtown location in 2000."

Overall, Shanks said that bookselling has brought more to her life than simply allowing her to be around books -- though that would have been enough. "One of the biggest things my job has brought me, it's shown me how important community is in people's lives," she said. "Changing Hands has really been the catalyst to any number of political movements and environmental consciousness platforms. Bookstores play a significant role in the community, being that central clearinghouse for [the] community."

Then there's the community of friends -- also known as independent booksellers -- that she has throughout the country. For the past two years, Shanks, and her husband, Changing Hands co-owner Bob Sommer, have taken a month from their busy schedules to travel (while their two other business partners mind the store). During their travels, they visit independent bookstores along the way.

Shanks and Sommer are currently in the midst of a tour of the East Coast. They've gone from North Carolina -- where they stopped in at Malaprops, to Littleton, New Hampshire -- dropping in at Village Bookstore, to Hickory Sticks in Morris, Connecticut, with many bookstore visits in-between.

"I've been visiting a lot of bookstores, seeing a lot of the friends I've made in the industry," Shanks said of her current trip. "It's a wonderful experience to see the diversity of stores. They all take such pride in showing other booksellers their store."

(For a report on Shanks' and Sommers' tour of the West Coast in 2002, click here.)

The idea for these sabbaticals came after closing the downtown store in 2000, Shanks said. "It was tough, the five or six years getting the new store up and running," she said. "And it was painful closing the old store."

Shanks said she felt that she needed a break: "In 2001, we went to Spain; I was there for six weeks…. I had decided to plan the trip to get re-energized, and it really, really worked." (She added that she didn't take a holiday from books, however, as she read about 40 while in Spain.) After that trip, Shanks and Sommer decided they would take a sabbatical every year.

The trips visiting her bookselling friends do more than inspire her, Shanks said. "I always learn things when I go into other bookstores…. It's hard to plan a vacation anywhere where we don't know booksellers."

Certainly, Shanks believes her experience and longevity in the book business will serve her and ABA members well during her tenure on the ABA Board.

"In my early years as a bookseller, I wanted ABA to know I was there," Shanks said. "I knew there were big and famous bookstores … but I wanted them to know what I was doing in Arizona. I think it's important, given the size range of bookstores in this country, that, as a Board member, I understand the needs of … stores [of] all different sizes."

Shanks stressed that she feels it's crucial to grow independent bookstores incrementally if they are to remain healthy, similar to the way her own store grew. And it's that type of veteran knowledge that she hopes to impart to the younger generation of bookstores. "It's important for independents to exist," she said. "We need to figure a way to grow stores so that the current stores aren't the last. We need to secure the next generation of booksellers; we need to nourish and support the new generation of booksellers." -- David Grogan