book « Robin Writes

So, yeah, today’s the day, I guess, that I officially announce that All on the Same Page Bookstore is closing. It’s not really news, we’ve been heading that direction for a while—December sales were just 50% of last year’s.

Let’s examine this, um, social experiment, shall we?

We took no salary, so no worries there; we had no employees. Our rent wasn’t ridiculous, our expenses pretty minimal for a business, utilities, Internet, and so forth. Our location wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t horrible, either.

Maybe I just suck at this. Maybe.

Or—and here’s where I start grumbling and griping about everything. Or everyone. Or should I be professional until the end? Hmmm.

Sure, I’m upset and sad about closing down the bookstore. We’ve been there two and a half years, after all. We put a lot of time and money into it. And a lot of heart.

But I’m pretty irritated right now. Won’t lie.

We decided NOT to do a crowd-funding project on the regular sites; after all, there was a campaign for Main Street Books a few weeks ago and two of them for The Book House since last summer. I know. I was pretty involved with those last two.

But we did our own thing, and we raised almost $2000. Not enough, sadly. And you know what? Everyone talks all the time about “local” this and that, but only half of that came from any local peeps—three locals, to be exact. The rest was from around the country AND OVERSEAS. Seriously.

Oh, I could go on and on, but I won’t. Someone will yell at me and I don’t like to be yelled at—in spite of all that, I do own the business, and I own the fact that we failed. Just can’t help but think hardly anyone gives a damn. Maybe I’ll think differently later. Maybe not.

Watching a funding campaign from, in effect, a grocery store, raise $30K in one day didn’t help, either. Sure, people have to eat, I get that. But still.

WARNING—AMAZON GRIPE SESSION ALERT!

So the next time you go to Amazon to buy your books or, worse yet, use their cutesy little share button to promote the fact that you really DON’T care about the “local” stuff, think about all the bookstores that are going under because you have to have that book RIGHT THIS MINUTE and can’t be bothered to walk out the door and go into an actual bookstore once in a while.

We’re far from alone. Since we opened, FOUR independent bookstores around the area have closed.

Well, then. If you’re still with me, I wanted to let you know that we’ve starting closing out our stock—all used paperbacks are $1.50, used hardcovers are $2.50. We have some new books too, at half-price. Author consignment books, however, are full price. At least until the authors come and pick them up. Which is okay now, since we’re closing anyway . . .

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

I’m a little cranky this morning. Maybe a lot cranky. Things aren’t going well at the store, but hey – we got some press coverage! Sort of. I mean, not to complain (or maybe I am), but we’ve been virtually ignored for two and a half years until now, when the axe starts to fall. The last few days, we seem to be all over the Internet.

We began carrying local authors’ books when almost no other bookstore would do that – we have more than 130 local authors’ books on our WALL. We started with just one shelf . . .

When we said, a couple weeks ago, that if things didn’t turn around we’d START closing out stock at the end of the month, we literally had more “can I come pick up my books” than we did “is there anything I can do” messages.

Not that I’m picking on authors – I am one, after all. We’ve had customers, regulars, who march in and ask for particular books AFTER reading our “for sale” sign and stand at the counter and stare at our membership plan and say not a single word. Nothing.

The phone is ringing off the hook, usually distributors, who want to know if we have any returns planned. Or what day we’re closing.

Sheesh, people! We still have a few days!

Okay, that sounded lame, even to me. Not gonna happen. I know that. But let’s wait until the formal announcement until we write the obit, okay?

And to those of you who HAVE helped us out – you have our eternal gratitude. Really, I mean that – it was pretty amazing!

It’s come down to this: IF All on the Same Page Bookstore is to remain open, we need to get some cash. So we’ve come up with a novel (ahem) approach: [which you can read about at the link]

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It’s simple, really: you purchase one of these memberships, avail yourself of all the perks, and we get to stay open! In effect, you’re paying for your books in advance.

Like I said before, crowd funding websites and their programs have been done to death around here this year, but this is something a bit different. You’re getting actual value for your money, besides the helping out part, instead of just a t-shirt or a coffee mug or whatnot.

See, every small business has its ups and downs, and most end up closing because of cash flow problems – if they could hang on a bit longer, and/or have more operating capital to continue and to grow, they could last long enough to develop a real following, a larger customer base.

And that’s our plan. We can do it, with your assistance – and how cool would it be to say, “Yeah, I belong to a bookstore!”

And, if you’re still with us here, we’re also holding a NOT-a-Raffle!