We had the pleasure of chatting with Laura Donohoe, the Assistant Bookstore Manager and Receiving Manager, and Caroline Christopoulos, Book Buyer and Community Events Coordinator, at Malaprop's about what makes their store so special. In addition to all the great commentary about their very special store, Laura and Caroline also emphasize that Malaprop's has a fantastic website as well (as do many indie stores). For those of you who have recently lost a store in your area, consider purchasing from Malaprop's.
Welcome Laura and Caroline!
Tell us about your
store, what makes Booksellers at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe unique?
Malaprop's is a unique store in a unique town.
Asheville, NC is a quirky hotbed of liberals, radicals, punks, spiritualists,
hippies, hipsters, nerds, mountain folk, lesbians, and academics (much of our
community is several of these groups put together.) Malaprop's has the
AWESOME opportunity to bring books that might appeal to these folk- our
regional selection, general fiction, poetry, children's and young adult, and
graphic novel sections are particularly impressive. The booksellers range
in age from their early 20s to their early 60s and our tastes are broad.
We like cute books, romantic books, scary books, serious books, intense
fiction, fluid poetry, radical politics, and pretty pictures. We celebrate
each other like a family would- enjoying each others’ gifts and the things each
of us bring to the store, and forgiving each others’ weaknesses. Our
events are awesome- we have lots of them and we feature never before heard of
poets with their new chapbooks, and New
York Times bestselling authors who bring crowds of hundreds. Some of
us are extroverts and some are introverts. We love to talk lots with our
customers, authors, and coworkers regardless. We each love Malaprop's
like it's our motherland.
Give us a virtual
tour – what do we see when we first walk in? Is there a certain section that
jumps out at us? Where do we find the children’s section?
When you first walk in to Malaprop's you see a
round table full of teetering stacks of "new and notable"
paperbacks...local favorites and national bestsellers often comprise the selections
on this table. You smell the delicious coffee brewing away in the cafe to
the left of the front door (this is also where our amazing and very deep
Regional collection of titles can be found), and see the sun streaming over
author event tables in the front windows to the right of the front door.
The first section you will walk past is our staff picks (Malaprop's bestselling
section!) which always features big colorful children's picture books marching
across the top...after the staff picks, folks must go past all the less
interesting areas of the store to the very back, where kids books live!
They take up the whole back wall of the store, plus a little of the north wall
(we're taking over!!!).
How do you match a
child or a parent with a book? What questions do you ask?
When both parent and child are in the store, I try to talk to
the child directly. Some kids are shy, some are too little, some just
don't know what they want...but I think it is important to give a child agency
in the book selection process by including them directly. When they ask
for a book, I try to first guess their age and ask if I'm right (I'm often off
by 1 year...) then I ask what kind of books they like - or which books are
their favorites. Then I can find some comparable titles that maybe they
haven't heard of. It is the best feeling in the world when I can send a young
person or a family home with something new that they were not expecting and can’t
wait to read!
What are your
favorite titles to hand sell right now?
How much
space do you have for this one! Currently,
some of our favorite things to hand sell are Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz, Who
Done It? edited by Jon Scieszka, Colin Fischer by Ashley Miller, The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris
Lessmore by William Joyce, Pete the
Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making
by Catherynne Valente (I really could go on and on). I am answering this as one of the Children’s
Book Buyers, but our entire staff loves YA and Children’s books to such an
extent that we all fight to help anyone asking for recommendations!!
Does your bookstore
coordinate school visits with authors?
Or do you work with local teachers and librarians in some
other way? Currently we do not
coordinate school visits, but we do work with many local teachers and
librarians. We frequently have large
groups of kids come with their teachers to shop the store for books they would
like for themselves and their classrooms.
Librarians from both local schools and area public libraries come and
purchase what they need to keep their shelves stocked with the latest and
greatest or to replenish those titles that get too worn and torn from so much
use. We really enjoy those interactions
and the dialogue they allow us to have about all sorts of things with the
students, teachers and librarians.
Why are children’s
books an integral part of your store?
Malaprop’s
Bookstore/Café is such a critical part of the local community. We are currently in our 31st year
under the original ownership and our vision and mission has consistently been
to be there for this community in all ways possible. We have customers who
literally grew up in this store. We sold them their favorite books as children
and now we are helping them select books for their children. We wouldn’t be able to play such a large role
in the community without our children’s section. Plus…kid’s books are just the
absolute most fun to sell!!
Can interested
parties buy books from your website?
Yes they
can!!!! We have an amazing website. You can purchase anything - from the books
you expect to find to our Malaprop’s Exclusive items that you can only find
here. Our entire event schedule is available for months in advance and, when
the events are ticketed, you can purchase tickets online as well. You can see
all of our staff favorites if you need recommendations and we also post the
store bestsellers each week – including our bestselling Children’s Books! I wish more people realized that many Independent
Bookstores have very, very good websites and that they can easily support a
local bookstore even if they no longer have one in their immediate neighborhood
simply by shopping on line with a great Indie they have discovered while
traveling or heard about from a friend.
Why are independent
bookstores so important to the future of reading?
Books are
about great ideas, and great ideas should be discussed and shared. When you walk into an independent bookstore,
you are walking into a place where the people have come together for the love
of these ideas. Anyone can open the
newspaper and find the “bestseller” lists, but the fact that a book sold enough
copies to make those lists does not necessarily indicate that it is best book
out there (and, in my opinion, frequently, means just the opposite!). There are
thousands of wonderful books and authors you have no chance of discovering
without the help of someone whose lifelong passion it is to make sure you
do. If those books don’t sell, the
publishers will stop publishing them and that will be such a heartbreaking loss
to everyone. Helping people find those books is what we are here for and that is something that a corporately
controlled operation will never have the flexibility (or desire) to do. Books are much more than just another
commodity – they can be life changing and their care and feeding should be
entrusted to people who genuinely want them to stay around for the long run!
How to find Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe:
Location: Asheville, NC
Contact Info:828-254-6734; info@malaprops.com
Website: http://www.malaprops.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Malaprops-BookstoreCafe/20393760161Tumblr: http://malapropsbookstore.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Malaprops
Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/malapropsbooks/
Having visited Malaprops many times before I was a blogger and now that I am a blogger for events I will say it is absolutely worth the 2hr drive from where I live! I never feel pressured to buy anything, but c'mon, it's a bookstore! The cafe is a great place to sit and sip and read and the store is a great place to attend YA events. I've seen so many authors there! It's a very laid back place, like Asheville is. Glad you featured them!
ReplyDeleteHeather