The Indie Bookstores' success recipe

"How to Expand Your Influence and becoe an Integral part of your Community" is an article written by alvina Lopez, guest blogger for BookStoreGuide.

I will copy here some passages.

"Bookstores like Book People in Austin, TX, Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA, and The Strand in New York City, have all mastered the art of business branding and turned their stores into local treasures, hotspots, and even nationally recognized tourist destinations. The key to capturing and encouraging sincere indie bookstore spirit is to create a wholly cohesive mood or theme in your store. Depending on your personality, the books you sell, your location -- either geographic or building-wise -- and/or your customers, you'll want to develop your own subculture that gives visitors to your store an entire experience beyond just shopping for books.

You don't have to be flashy or conforming:
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From your store's design and layout to the employees you hire to the selection of books you sell (and how you display them) to the events and people you bring into the store, your individual dynamic is the most important factor in branding and marketing, and thus your longevity.

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Once you've evaluated your store's character, you should look for ways to bring in more customers so that they can meet you and experience your store's charm. So-called "in-house" projects that you can pursue could include weekly book clubs or discussion groups. (...) Or, you can encourage existing book clubs to use your store for their meeting space, and even allow them to bring in refreshments.

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Your willingness to host clubs and groups is a quick and easy way to get bodies into your store and cement your role as a generous, community-minded patron.

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 The more businesses and professionals you incorporate into live events at the store, the more opportunity you'll have for cross-promotion, community involvement and publicity. 

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To reach out to more customers in your city after hours, set up a website. 

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A podcast or regularly updated blog will also let customers behind-the-scenes and make them feel more personally invested and interested in your store's own little ecosystem.

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After taking the time to build up your store's dynamic and attract customers to the store, it's time to branch out and expand your influence beyond your career as a bookseller. If you want to be known as an influential community leader, you will have to invest more time networking with other businesses. Libraries, schools, colleges and other bookstores are great places to start,

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Communicate with art galleries, theaters and independent cinemas to host panel discussions and art festivals. Anything that you can do to support your community's economy and enrich its own indie spirit and unique character will be appreciated. You and your store will also enjoy increased publicity and more positive association corporate booksellers can claim."


NOTE1. I think that this recepy is basic but good. My feeling is that it is a good recepy to bring bookstores to the present, but that it might not be strong enough to make them necessary for the future.
How to make bookstores evidently important and strongly attractive for the future?

NOTE2. All those activities require time and most of the booksellers I have met so far did not even have the time to talk to me. How to allow small businesses to settle and develop with the minimum effort in terms of time and money?