Reasons not to open a bookshop

Pop your Kindle down a sec and take a read

There are many reasons it is not advisable to open a bookshop.

1. Margins

   Oh those margins are tight. Booksellers get a 30-40% discount on the RRP, so you’re making a little less than $15 per book on the hardback new releases.

2. Low return

   Because of that, any money you put into things like fitout is unlikely to be returned in the first 5 years. Even spending $10k on a polish up in-store would take selling an ominous additional 666 books on top of the usual trade to cover. And that’s before you put any cash into marketing.

3. Challenge of footfall

   Not going to lie, we’ve looked at three other vacant shops in the same strip, which currently boasts seven to lease. It’s not a heaving spot. That said, the newly opened Ophelia, just three doors down, has been packed on a daily basis. And these are a clientele confidently ordering staropolska for breakfast (sausage, I had to ask) and opting in to red elk atop their tartine. Surely this is a literate crowd.

4. Old school tech

   The critical tech that facilitates tracking stock and ordering is built specifically for the quirks of how the book market operates, but it’s clunky and not built to be digital first. There are no APIs to plug into modern day e-comm platforms, which, given Anth and I have both spent years in tech, feels mind-boggling.

5. Bookselling is an art

   The magic of a bookshop is dependent on the curation of its booksellers. Their experience, breadth of reading and ability to handsell (get a recommendation into the hands of a customer) to a broad range of people, is what creates a really special place. I won’t lie, I am a slow reader. And I’m totally unfamiliar with genre stuff. Kids stuff beyond the age of 5. Non-fiction even. My gaps terrify me.

6. I am 57% through this pregnancy and, TMI, am already wearing bust-to-thigh-length support shorts for pelvic pain. Let’s just say lifting heavy boxes is ill-advised at this point.

So am I going to do it?

Yes, of bloody course I am.

That’s right - we’re steaming ahead. Done right, it can make business sense, in what I like to call a ‘break-even-y way’ and which my husband calls ‘technically solvent’. I won’t be earning a shiny six figure salary, but I should be able to cover the lease and overheads, the technology and the minimal staffing.

So why are we doing it? Because I can’t stop thinking, or even dreaming, about it. On my speedy trip to London last week I managed to cram in 13 bookshops - big thanks to all the friends and family who incorporated one, or several, into the limited windows of time we had together.

I love the places, always have done, and passionately believe that we can be a part of Westgarth’s transformation.

This is where we’re at:

1. We’ve negotiated the lease and are hoping to sign in the next day or two.

2. Joined the Australian industry’s Book People and are getting to grips with things like group buying deals - where indie booksellers pool together to get bigger margins on top titles.

3. We’ve opened accounts with the four main book distributors and are in touch with publisher reps to start forming our offering. Good news is stock won’t be an issue - turnaround times are speedy, as long as the credit lines are approved. We should be good to place orders in two weeks time.

4. We’ve opened our as-yet-empty business bank account.

5. We’ve secured our URL. You can now get me at katie@ramonabooks.shop

6. We should start to see some of the brand vision come to life in the next week, with first rounds coming through from the brand designer.

7. We’re sourcing gifts, wraps and cards - vital if we’re going to lift the average basket total.

8. I’ve given up on TV for the foreseeable, while I broaden my reading horizons and maybe even up my WPM (words per minute) rate. Don’t even tell me if there’s a new season of Love Is Blind UK.

When?

26 DAYS… ya. Being open for 1st December is the target, though that falls on a Sunday so, ideally, the Saturday. Gulp.

We’ll halve the floor space for the initial phase, and are still planning to close down for full refurb (but continue online) when the baby arrives. That way, we only have to polish up half the shop (about 35m2), cheaply, for soft launch. We’ll get to know our customer, and get to know the ordering process ahead of ramping up stock for the full footprint.

Why ‘Ramona’?

In a household that’s going through a current phase of greeting each other with ‘hello penises’, (the four year olds, not Anthony), naively I assumed this third baby would be a girl child. I felt the feminine calling. She was going to be called Ramona, and surely she’d be the chill, bookish tonic to my tornado twins.

Fate is laughing at me. I’m leaning in on the ‘hello penis’ with another boy, but hell, I’m getting my Ramona someplace else.

So, we’ll keep you posted on how it’s chugging along.

Painters, people handy with MDF, gosh, even people who have worked in a bookstore before and can guide us in what on earth we’re doing - we’d love to hear from you!

And please, please keep adding your top reads here. Ask your parents too. Your nine year old. Any and all!

Speak soon!

Katie

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What I’m reading: I, along with every other millennial woman sighted on the London Underground, just finished Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. A story of two brothers and the differences and similarities that divide them, this is Rooney’s first-person debut. I thought it worked brilliantly - structurally clever, very emotive and no one writes a modern sex scene as cliche-free as Rooney. I appreciated having travel to propel me through the first hundred words, and to keep up a decent pace on this. A perfect holiday read, I think it would be too meandering at a ten-page a day rate - save it for when you can relish it.