Bookstore of the Future?

Is Scottsdale’s Poisoned Pen mystery bookstore the bookstore of the future?

Certainly owner Barbara Peters is one of the industry’s most innovative thinkers in our Brave New Scary World of e-books, Internet competitors like Amazon, superstore chains like Barnes & Noble, and speculation about whether the printed book will survive at all.

Poisoned Pen (www.poisonedpen.com) is a smart-looking independent bookstore with wood floors and brick walls in a suburb of Phoenix, and has carved a niche since 1989 by offering an expert selection of thrillers and mysteries. I appeared there recently with another author, Max Collins (“Road to Perdition,” etc.) and his collaborator on mystery “cozies” with an antique theme, his wife Barbara.

Afterward the other Barbara, Ms. Peters, explained how she’s adapting to tumult in the industry.

First is strong Internet promotion with a sophisticated bookstore website (regularly updated) and webcasts of author presentations. http://poisonedfiction.blogspot.com/p/webcasts.html is the webcast page. There’s an electronic newsletter, links to book clubs, online sales, and more.

Second is the regular hosting of author events that have made Poisoned Pen a regular stop for nationally-known mystery and thriller writers. She’s turned out a thousand people for those at the top of the field. Barbara builds on this with extensive networking at writing conferences and partners with Lesa Holstein at Glendale’s Velma Teague Library to “share” visiting authors.

Third is creation with her husband Robert Rosenwald of Poisoned Pen Press, putting the couple in the publishing business and letting them sell e-books of their own titles. Bob is the boss of the Press, Barbara of the bookstore, and they market both paper and electronic copies.

Fourth is development of global sales of autographed books. I signed many more copies of “Blood of the Reich” than will be sold over the counter at Poisoned Pen, but the couple have developed an extensive network buyers and collectors from around the world who order autographed copies. Most of Barbara’s sales are from the backroom, not the front.

At the same time the store has reduced its shelved inventory because it’s expensive to stock books and e-readers are cutting into paper sales. The physical store has become a doorway to events, book clubs, and Internet community as well as a place to buy good ol’ paper books.

It’s not a get-rich strategy but it is proving to be a survival scheme in a tumultuous industry that saw Borders recently declare bankruptcy. All authors have a stake in survival of bookstores, and so anything that works is something to cheer.

In my area of Northwest Washington State, we’ve had the usual worrisome trend of bookstores disappearing and not being replaced. Those thriving make a strong connection to their community, like Poisoned Pen.

Village Books in Bellingham (www.villagebooks.com) has become an anchor in what has literally been a 40-year-long revival of the Fairhaven neighborhood (I wrote about early efforts as a young reporter back in 1974) and survives with a coffee bar upstairs, restaurant adjacent, Hallmark-like paper company next door, and more than 200 annual events. Owners Chuck and Dee Robinson are some of the brightest, hardest-working entrepreneurs I know.

Watermark Books (http://watermarkbookcompany.blogspot.com) in my own town of Anacortes stays intelligently small and cozy, with owner Patti Pattee offering a particularly smart selection of general books and a we-aim-to-please ordering service. They host events in the store and library.

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, a Seattle suburb, (www.thirdplacebooks.com) has worked with developer Ron Sher to make itself a “third place” gathering center (after home and work) with food court, author visits, and a big selection of new and used books..

And so on.

Not all the industry news is grim. The e-reader may be broadening overall readership while lowering costs; if it gets more people to read everyone ultimately benefits. Through Amazon, I’ve been able to republish three of my early novels, Ice Reich, Getting Back, and Dark Winter, at a deliberate introductory price of $2.99 to invite readers to my work, and appreciate the chance for resurrection. Sales grow every month.

Amazon employment – a new kind of “bookstore employee” - has helped drive a real estate renaissance in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle.

Many of us will continue to buy paper books for their convenience and feel.

But bookstores and publishers struggle with overhead costs, and the hunt is on for business strategies that make sense in an e-reader world. What reading will look like in ten years is anyone’s guess, but smart businesswomen like Peters are showing a way.

Tagged as: Barbara Peters, Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Third Place Books, Village Books, Watermark Books