been thinking...

five years ago i called my dad on the phone and told him that we wanted to open a bookstore. he simply said that was a great idea, because failing to try was worse than failing at trying. he also said, hey, you're young, you'll have tons of time to recover and even successful business men like donald trump have failed a few times before they got it right.

in this blog someone has decided to leave comments that i shouldn't have tried and that i should have been a librarian if i loved books. eleanor and i had a bit of a disagreement yesterday as to whether or not i should respond after much thought, i've decided that it's worth it.

you are right that librarians love books and in my opinion, there should be more libraries and more books. as important as librarians are to books, booksellers are too. bookstores that handsell titles successfully launch careers for some authors. both chains and indies succeed at doing this. but indies have to be there to counteract the way that chains buy. we care about different kinds of books. for this reason, i have stated over and over again (check the press coverage on folletts and b&n) that more bookstores in norfolk are necessary, and that we each fulfill a nitch.

but for goodness sakes, if all we have is chains it's going to be nearly impossible for less-known authors to become known and chains are going to push them around. i have an author friend that named the title of his book after his mother and when b&n asked harpecollins to change it or they would lower the number of books they ordered, harper wanted to. the author said no. b&n lowered their order. this type of bully tactic is "just business" to some, but not to me. it's his work, support it. it's good. but chains don't. if you go to b&n at the beach, you can't find his book, published by a national publisher that is SET in virginia beach. you can't find a book by sheri reynolds or michael pearson either. without the indies, these authors are forgotten and they shouldn't be. their work is important!

i went to business school and was not an english major. i chose books because i saw a need for a bookstore that was community oriented, and i lept. you can choose not to leap in your life, but don't judge me for deciding to in mine. simply because i made a very bad business decision in choosing location and rent price, doesn't mean i failed or my choice in opening a bookstore at all was the wrong one.

i'm proud of the store and what it was to both portsmouth and norfolk and whatever you say will not change that. on a side note, i have never not taken credit for my wrong choices. since you obviously visited the store in portsmouth and still felt it was unsuccessful, i think we will have to disagree as to what makes a bookstore a success. i feel that we did very well in portsmouth. there were many reasons we left portsmouth, many of which we have not discussed publicly, and i had poor judgment in deciding to move to this specific location. ghent residents came over to ask us to move here. i dreamed too big with this space and expected more in sales. i don't need you to point out that mistake to me, and i doubt the rest of the world does either.

as for your attack on the publicity that we get here at bsb, i think it's a business term you should maybe look up. i have worked hard making contacts with local media, of which i have had since we were in portsmouth. but so have the chain stores and you can't deny that they get as much coverage as we do when they open or close a store. it doesn't come easy for us, yet the chains have to make one phone call to say that they're opening and they're covered.

publicity is necessary for any business to be known in their community. i think it's ironic in your first comment that you post that i'm an attention whore but in your last that you state that nobody knew we were here. it's not my fault that people don't know we're here. advertising is expensive and pr isn't always easy. i worked in downtown norfolk for three years and never knew prince books was there. i don't blame sarah for that but myself. she does events that are listed in the paper, she has a website, she has been in norfolk for 25 years, she is active in the community and you see her name around town. by me having my head in the sand and not knowing she existed, i can't blame her. people who read the paper, walk around ghent or participate in it's activities like first friday's and the odu lit. fest or film fest would know we are here. we've been on the news several times. i don't know what else you would have expected me to do. (and i don't want to know it at this point!)

liking a local bookstore and pointing out their faults is fine, but not necessary when they're down and out. not here. this is not a forum discussion. it was a personal space that i was simply devoting to talking to the people that loved me and the store and my dreams. it's not a space for you to bash me or my choices. from this point on, all negative comments will be deleted, so you might as well not leave them.

finally, you said i should examine if i'm ready for the struggles of small business. again, thanks for your judgement but i'm not sure i'm going to listen to it or consider it. you supported your community by shopping locally, and i appreciate that. i supported mine by investing my time and money into a business that you could shop at. i waited tables for nearly 7 months to try and sustain that, funneling all income back into the business to make rent. i spent all my spare time either here or there. not being here during those hours was the only thing that made sense at the time, because i could make money to put into the store. i ran this store for five years, and believe that i know exactly that YES!, i am ready for the struggles of a small business. and you're negativity will not ever keep me from trying again, and again, and again, until i get it right. just like my dad said.

-susie