My Sisters’ Words Bookstore, 304 North McBride Street
Syracuse in focus: Describe your collection
This is a feminist bookstore. Everything we have in the store is by, for or about women. We do have a small used book section, but what we primarily carry is new stock.
Sif: Explain the origin of the name, My Sisters’ Words
When I opened the store, I wanted to have just the right name. I asked friends to help me brainstorm and one of them said to me, "what is it about having a women’s bookstore that’s important." I said women’s voices have been silenced for so long and I want our voices and our words to be heard. I also talked about my childhood. I had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia and we never talked about it in our family. I said something about my sister and about my sister’s words, and someone jumped up and said "wow, that’s a great name for a bookstore."
So it went from being the singular, my specific sister, to being all of the sisters’ and all our words. I've been happy with it. It takes some explaining, but that’s okay because it says something important, I think.
How long have you been a bookseller here
Eleven years.
What did you do before this
Before this I taught high school English. I guess it makes sense for a retired high school English teacher to sell books.
Why did you choose this location
There’s no one right, really good neighborhood for bookstores in Syracuse. The town isn’t set up that way. I looked at a number of buildings and a number of places. The woman who owned this building offered me a good enough deal that I couldn’t turn her down. She thought this would be a good place for a bookstore and she was right. It’s a little of the beaten track, but actually Route 690 has two exits within two minutes of here and Route 81 has exits within maybe five minutes. So it’s very accessible to the major highways.
Who is your competition
There’s nobody else in town who does what I do. I’m one of only two feminist bookstores left in the state. I’m also the largest feminist bookstore left in New York State. So in terms of someone doing exactly what I do, I have no competition.
I do have competition from the superstores here in town and from the online bookstores. They compete with me because they buy books at a better price and can sell them for less because publishers give them better deals.
And how can you compete with the Internet. It’s in someone’s living room. Can’t sleep at 2 a.m., you can get up and play on the Internet. You can’t compete with that.
Where the others can’t compete with me is my knowledge, my connections, both here in the community and nationally. They also can’t compete with the depth of the back list of titles that I carry. If you go into Barnes & Noble and look their women’s studies section, they have very few books. They have maybe what is new. They don’t keep a deep back list. Front list is all the books that come out in a given season. Back list is anything that’s two seasons or older.
Do you think people are reading more
I don’t know if people are reading. I know that people are buying books and there’s big difference. I don’t know how you measure if people are reading more. You can only track sales, and people are buying books.
What makes a good bookseller
A good bookseller has to be knowledgeable. They need to know how to talk to people, how to ask questions about people’s reading habits, and how to get people to talk about their interests. A good bookseller also has to have a lot of stamina and energy to keep up with what’s going on. This is an exciting field to be in now, but it’s changing radically, as are all retail areas.
A good bookseller has to be really alert and on top of things. You also have to pay attention to cultural trends and keep your ear to the ground. You have to be on the look out for what’s coming next.
How do you do this
I read a lot of alternative publications. I read Utne Reader, the Nation and several feminist newspapers and magazines. I’m also connected with publishers who carry books that I sell. There’s a feminist bookstore network (all the feminist bookstores in the country) and we stay connected in lots of ways.
I also read a monthly journal that has articles about what’s going on in the industry and suggestions of books from publishers. I’m not a big TV watcher. My primary news source is NPR.
"People say to me 'oh you should have a coffee shop here.' I tell them, ‘maybe you’d like to open a coffee shop here, I’m already running a business.’ I want to sell books."
What’s special about an independent bookstore
There are a lot of people who won’t set foot in a superstore because they know that independent bookstores are keeping money right here in the community and offering a deep back list. They have a knowledgeable staff. You might find one or two clerks at Barnes & Noble or Borders who are good at what they do, but you’re not going to find a whole staff that can go to any section in the store and be knowledgeable at any given time. You’re just not going to find that.
A lot of people also understand that it’s important to support the independent bookstores because we’re on the cutting edge. I carry presses those big stores won’t even touch. When you support independent bookstores you’re supporting independent publishers as well. And in this age when conglomerations are buying out publishers, the real cutting-edge writing is coming from small presses. It always has.
Do you patronize superstores
Absolutely. I go to Barnes & Noble and Borders. I have to know the competition. I check out what they have and where they have it. I think where they have it is very important. When Barnes & Noble first opened, it fascinated me that they had gay and lesbian studies, African-American studies, women’s studies and true crime in the last row. What does that tell you? A lot of folks wouldn’t think to look for that. It jumped out and screamed at me.
I know my customers go there. I think there’s a whole different population that shops at Barnes & Noble that doesn’t come here. What I want to know is how I can get them to come here.
Our bookstores are turning into entertainment centers. People say to me, "oh you should have a coffee shop here." I tell them, "hey, maybe you’d like to open a coffee shop here, I’m already running a business."
I want to sell books. That’s why I’m here. I care about books, and about reading. Aside from the entertainment factor, I can offer them pretty much what those other stores offer. I can order any book in print in the United States.
Will superstores squeeze independents out of business
In 1988, there were 9600 independent bookstores in this country; in 1998, there are 3500 left. That’s a lot of squeezing.
There are I believe almost as many books sold outside of bookstores as there are in the superstores. That’s Sam’s Club, the grocery store, and pharmacies. That’s more competition. In 1994, 19 percent of the books were bought in the independent bookstores, 27 percent in the chain stores and 46 were brought everywhere else. Things have changed since then, and I don’t imagine those numbers have changed a lot.
Also sales have increased 4 percent per year over the past 4 years, while space has increased 120 percent. In 1996, 18 percent of sales were in independent bookstores, 26-28 percent in superstores, and all others were in shopping clubs, grocery stores, home- shopping channels and online sales.
With that in mind, who is your biggest competitor
The project I’m working on now addresses how online booksellers are creating exclusive agreements with organizations for book sales.
What project is that
A good portion of my sales are for gay and lesbian titles and good portion of my clientele, but not all, are gay and lesbian. Right now, two national gay and lesbian organizations (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and Human Rights Campaign) have signed exclusive rights agreements with Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble will give them a percentage of sales generated through their Web sites. This could kill the gay and lesbian and feminist bookstores. Absolutely kill us.
I’m a member of the steering committee of the national feminist bookstore network and I’ve been working on a national level to address these organizations. I don’t know the terms of the deal with HRC, but I know Barnes & Noble would plan to give PFLEG five percent of any sales over $2,000 in any given quarter. That’s not a lot of money, but they get a lot of advertising.
What I’m trying to do locally is educate some of the gay and lesbian organizations to remind them of the importance of this store and what we offer that they will never get in those other stores. I’m trying to raise consciousness about keeping this store alive.
So at the moment, I personally feel more threatened by the online services. But at the same time, it’s kinda like being bombarded by snowballs. Does it really matter…they're just coming at you.
Could you be more specific about your plan of action
I’m contacting the five or six major gay and lesbian organizations in the city and I am offering them a percentage of sales if they will educate their members about what’s going on and promote the bookstore. It’s something I’ve never done before, but my back’s against the wall. It’s not a financially advantageous thing to do, but as far as community building, consciousness raising and a little hell raising, it’s important.
What ways do you promote the store
I do a newsletter that mails to 3,000 people. I’m doing book reviews for a local woman’s radio show on WAER FM-88. The show airs Thursday’s from 6-7p.m.
I also co-sponsor a lot of events. I’m co-sponsoring an event with Girls Inc. in a couple of weeks. I do conferences. Monday, the Central New York Council on Adolescent Pregnancy is having a conference so I’ll set up a table, take my catalogs and talk to people all day long. I’ll do some sales and make some connections.
I also do some national outreach through the network.
Is this a good time to be in the book business
I am having a good time. Folks in the book industry will tell you this is not a book town. What that means is that there are no live morning shows that do interviews. That’s how publishers decide which city to send an author to visit.
And everything in the book industry is very market driven. I get a catalog every season and for the new titles it tells me every bit of advertising that’s been earmarked for that book. It tells me every city that the author is going to appear; it also tells me every place a book review is going to appear. All of that is set up before the book even goes to press. That’s why the publishers do advanced orders, so they can get a sense of how many to run.
It’s all market driven. So it’s no coincidence that you turn on the Today Show and see an author with their new book, and in the afternoon you watch Oprah and she has that same person on her show. Then you see that same person on Entertainment Tonight. Then you go into Barnes & Noble and you see the book in the front of the store. It’s no coincidence.
Have things in the book industry always been this way
I got in on the cusp of things beginning to change. It was not so much like this 11 years ago. It was headed in this direction, but it’s very clearly there now.
Will things change and become less market driven
I don’t know if it’s possible to predict what’s going to happen in this business. Something’s going to have to give somewhere, and I don’t know what it’s going to be.
Another thing that’s driving this industry that doesn’t get talked about is the fact that publishers are being bought up at a very rapid rate by a few conglomerations. Right now Bertelsmann, which is a German company, owns--and this list is dated because it’s two months old--Bantam, Doubleday, Anchor, Dell, Dial, Pantheon, Vintage, Crown (she lists four others).
To me there’s a great concern that a few corporations could ultimately be responsible for what ends up in print in this country.
There was s a great article in the Nation that outlined who owned what and the politics behind the media industry. Looking at the list of who owned what is scary.
Take a look at who owns the New York Times, and who owns ABC, and who owns what particular publisher. That’s when you start to pay attention to a book that comes out from Random House that gets a lot of attention on ABC and gets reviewed in the New York Times, and hey what do you know, the same parent company owns all of them. You know what, that’s fine if they are honest about it, but most people don’t know these things. They think oh, this must be a good book because they picked it up on this station, they picked it up in this paper and everybody’s talking about it. Well everybody’s not talking about it. It’s one company talking about it, but that one company is everywhere, so you think everybody’s talking about it.
I think the big story is in local economics and talking about what's happening to our local economy, specifically here in Syracuse.
What would you say to someone who says conglomeration buyouts are good in some ways because they force small firms to shape up
I think there’s truth to that. If it weren’t for those superstores, I’d probably be really bored. It has whipped me into shape. It forced me to hone my skills as a buyer and to be more creative in my advertising and outreach. I could have lived happily without all of this and not missed it (laughs). I think this is what happened to independent bookstores. I think there are those for whom this atmosphere lit a fire under and those who just gave up and said oh my God, I can’t do this. For some reason or another, I fall into the other group.
What would you say to someone who’s thinking of giving up
It’s their prerogative. There was a period for about two years where I think probably 12 to 15 people that I knew who had bookstores just gave up and closed. The feminist bookstore in Ithaca closed and I was very close to the women who owned that store. We called each other every day and talked back and forth about business and that kind of thing. It’s discouraging. This is an isolated job in a way because there’s nobody around here that’s doing what I’m doing. So my connections are primarily in other cities. So when those connections, minimal though they are start falling away. It’s really isolating.
I had this dream right after that really, really bad snow we had a few years ago. I dreamt that I was outside with a bunch of people and we were shoveling and shoveling. There was so much snow. We kept shoveling and we were shoveling and snow was up to here…and I was so busy looking down at that snow and shoveling, and shoveling. All of the sudden, I stopped, looked around, and realized, what the hell, I’m the only one out here shoveling. I looked inside and there was everyone inside waving at me, drinking hot chocolate, they were nice and warm and toasty and happy and having a good time. I thought, oh man, what am I doing. That dream really shook me up. It made me think, what am I doing.
I had to make a decision. Did I want to make an attempt to make this work in this community.
What did you do
I decided to go against all business advice. I told my customers what was going on in my newsletter. I basically told them, you need to decide whether or not you want a feminist bookstore in this town.
I ended up getting a group of 13 women who helped me brainstorm. We created a brochure, sent it out to 2800 people on my mailing list and it asked people to make a donation of money to the bookstore or make a commitment of support.
There was a list of ways for people to support the store Things like bringing three new friends within the coming year or doing your holiday shopping in the store or something along those lines. I got 450 commitments of support from the community. I also received $6,000 in cash and a real clear message from people that yes, this bookstore is important and they are willing to go out of their way to make sure it stays here.
That energized me. As long as I knew that what I was doing is important to the people in the community, I was willing to give it a try. I’m not doing this for me.
How does the store compare to others in the feminist network
I think the size of the store is commiserate with the size of the city. The only stores that are bigger than this are stores in bigger cities. Like Chicago, IL or Madison, WI.
What’s your best seller
That varies, right now, the most popular book is Passionate Lives, which is Jackie’s book (Syracuse poet Jackie Warren Moore) and that’s probably because she was here last week for a book signing. After that it’s Pope Joan, which was written by a local author (Donna Woolfolk Cross) teaching at Onondaga Community College. Next is the Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and next is Alice Walker’s new book By the Light of My Father’s Smile.
What’s the most unusual request you’ve had
For a book…(laughs) I don’t think anything’s bizarre. I'm always fascinated by what people order. I always learn new and interesting things looking at what people order, and people order all sorts of things.
This interview took place at My Sisters’ Words Bookstore on October 30, 1998 at 6:30 p.m.
Copyright © 1998-99 Syracuse in focus. All rights reserved.