BOOKSELLING EDITOR: JOHN MUTTER / ASSOCIATE EDITOR: MARIA HEIDKAMP Women’s Bookstores: 20 Years and Thriving Pioneers of business ideas that general independents and chains are now pursuing, feminist bookstores continue to create a future of their own BY JUDITH ROSEN a store, Minneapolis, Minn., the oldest ‘women's bookstore in the country, is typieal of the strongest women's stores, having posted double-digit sales increases in 1991. Barb Wieser, ‘one of Amazon’s two store managers, says growth is attributable to “a de- voted clientele, an active reading pro- gram, an active outreach program and a really good location.” She credits Amazon's new neighbor, a women’s cafe, with bringing in customers—so many customers that even the newly ‘opened Borders “doesn't have much Inayear in which many general book- effect on us.” =Reoren reported sales Gna race neat “= GAG Ams ssn) cavtarocra arelvaving a ly flat, if not ‘women’s book- Tot of two nonfiction titles: Gloria stores, wit le advertising or promotion, continued to survive and—in most cases—thrive. One bookseller referred to George Bush, the Clarence Thomas hearings and the impending court battle over Roe v. Wade as her strongest marketing tools. “The recession is hitting women's bookstores less than oth- er stores,” reports Carol Seajay, editor and pub- lisher of Feminist Book- store News, a bimonthly publication’ considered by many to be the wom- en's bookseller’s. bible. “A Canadian bookseller told me, ‘Our customers pay their rent, buy their food and buy books—in that order!" The “tiny downside” to the loyalty of women's bookstore customers is that wom- en’s stores did not have the last- ute spurt in Christmas sales that gen- eral stores reported. Some women's stores, however, re- ported a jump in sales in the first half of 1991, at the height of the Gulf war (when most general stores were ghost towns). According to Mary Farmer, owner of Lammas in Washington, D.C., “A lot of people were depressed by the war. They had to read.” ‘The 22-year-old Amazon Book- Rosen is a frequent contributor to Pw. Feminist Bookstore ‘The University Press fssve EBN, edited by Carol Seajay, is the feminist bookstores? community center. Steinem’s Revolution from Within (Little, Brown) and Susan Faludi’s Backlash (Crown). Fiction from wom- en's presses, self-help books and spir- tuality titles are also doing well at Amazon, which experienced strong sales in traditional women's store sidelines—music, buttons, T-shirts, pottery, jewelry and cards. Sidelines make up 30% of Amazon's profits. ‘Women and Children First in Chica go, the number one women’s book- store in the country in terms of dollar volume, posted equally strong sales last year. Co-owner Ann Christopher- sen says the store was helped by its move last July into new quarters, dou- bling square footage. As the name im- plies, Women and Children First plac-~ es a strong emphasis on children's books, which account for nearly a quarter of the store's gross sales. De~ spite its success, even Women and Children First is encountering price resistance from customers, particu- larly at ‘the upper level of trade pa- perbacks; $12, $15, $16 seems over the edge to me,” Christophersen says “Some people gasp when they see that the cost of mass markets is $5.95." Charis Books: And More in Atlanta felt the effects of the recession long before most other stores—and re- bounded early, too. “We nose-dived from August of 1990 for about a year, and then it turned around,” explains co-owner Sherry Emory. Among her current bestselling titles is Southern author Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe (McGraw-Hill), which has topped women’s bookstore bestsellers lists for many years. She credits old-fash- ioned hand-selling with keeping the book in print prior to the release of the movie earlier this year. Staffers at Full Circle in Albuquerque, NM. are so enthusiastic about Flagg’s book that they have been selling it with a money-back guarantee, Other books mentioned frequently as top sellers during the first quarter of 1992 are: Bushfire: Stories of Les- dian Desire, edited by Karen Barber (Lace/Alyson); Don Juan in the Vil- lage by Jane Delynn (Ballantine); Just Say Yes by Judith McDaniel (Firebrand); Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman (Colum- bia University Press, to be published in paperback by Penguin in June); and The Beverly Malibu by Katherine V. Forrest (Naiad). What Sandi Torkild- son at.A Room of One's Own in Madi- son, Wis.,refers to as “minority litera- ture by minority Americans—Asian ‘Americans, Hispanie Americans, Af- riean Americans” has done well, too. Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Paula Gund Allen and Sandra ros are among the most frequently mentioned names in that category. ‘Magazines have long been an es- sential part of the typical feminist store's merchandise mix. Even ones that don't necessarily sell well may have ideas that are important to get ‘out to the community at large. David 18. ‘PUBLISHERS WEEKLY / MAY 11,1992Wilk, co-owner of Inland Book Co., East Haven, Conn., one of the key distributors for women’s bookstores, maintains that it makes good business sense for women's stores to carry a broad spectrum of magazines. ““Wom- en’s stores earry magazines for ex- plicitly political reasons, so they'll car- ry magazines that they can't make any money on. Obviously a store will profit from earrying a magazine, be- cause it will bring customers to the store. Magazines are crucial to the culture, and a bookstore is involved in cultural work.” Wilk’s list of bestsell- ing magazines includes Ms., Lesbian Outlook, the Women's Review of Books, Sojourner, Woman of Power, Off Our Backs and Deneuve, a new lesbian magazine published in San Francisco, ‘Many women’s booksellers make their stores community centers. They display bulletin boards with informa~ tion on housing and women's-oriented events, They let groups, such as writ- ers or incest survivors, use their space for meetings. A Room of One's Own “serves as a center of information— not only in terms of books in print, but information on the community,” says manager and co-founder Sandi Tor- kildson, ‘And they help one another. For ex- ample, when Audrey May and her partner decided to open Meristem bookstore 18 months ago in Memphis, a notice appeared in BN to that ef- fect. Immediately “we got notes of encouragement from women we didn’t even know,” May says. In fact, another bookseller was responsible for the Meristem’s first in-store event. Linda Bryant at Charis told her Har- court Brace Jovanovich sales rep to set up a signing for Alice Walker at ‘Meristem when she was in Memphis. So out of the blue, we got a call from a publisher's representative, ‘Would you like Alice Walker to be at your store?” May says. Despite pouring rain on the day of the autographing, the store sold 250 copies of Walker's new hardeover book of poetry. Readings and autographings are Just one way that Meristem and other ‘women’s bookstores attempt to gain exposure for their stores and increase sales. ““As much work as they are—all the mailings, getting the books in,” says Carol Levin, co-founder of New York City's Judith's Room, which opened in 1989, “they are important tous. Sometimes people will come just for a reading who haven't been here before.” This is especially important for Judith’s Room, since it is in an out- of-the-way location in the West Vil- lage. In Northern California, where many women's musicians reside, stores like Mama Bears, Oakland, Calif, produce women's music and comedy performances in addition to book events. Book signings are free, 20/20: The 20 Most Influential Women’s Books of the Last 20 Years ‘When asked what they consider to be among the most important books they have sold over the last 20 years, booksellers mentioned the following. titles. The books ‘that were chosen for inclusion are roughly divided be- ‘tween nonfiction and fiction/poetry. Many are by women of color, and more than half were first published by ‘women’s presses or other smalll presses. After each list- ing we have included the name of the original publisher ‘and the year the book was first issued, We have also listed the name of the current publisher and the year its edition first appeared. ‘Two new books that many women's stores thought ‘would be on a list if it were to be done again in another 10 years were Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek, which was reissued by Vintage in 1991, and Susan Falu- i's Backlash (Crown). —3R. The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Survivors of Child ‘Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis (Harper & Row, 1988) The New Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective (first edition New England Free Press, 1969; subsequent editions published by Simon & Schuster, 1978) Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown (first edition Daughters, 1973; Bantam 197) Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron (Press Gang, 1981) Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism by Mary Daly (Beacon Press, 1978) The First Sex by Elizabeth Gould Davis (o.p.) Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone (Morrow, 1970; op.) Ina Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development by Carol Gilligan (Harvard Univ. Press, 1982) The Work of a Common Woman by Judy Grahn (first edition Diana Press, 1978; currently available Crossing Press) Ain’t Ia Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks (South End, 1981) ‘Their Byes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Girst edition J.B. Lippincott, 1987; a revival of interest occurred in 1981 with the publication of Alice Walker’s essay in Ms, magazine; currently available from Harper- Coltins) Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (Crossing Press, 1984) Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (first edition 1959, reissued by the Feminist Press, 1981) Lesbian/Woman by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon (first edition Glide, 1972; also available in a revised 20th anni- versary edition, Volcano Press) Patience and Sarak by Isabel Miller (self-published; reis- sued by Faweett Crest, 1972) This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Wom- en of Color edited by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Augal- ‘dia (first edition Persephone, 1981; Kitchen Tab! Women of Color Press, 1988) Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Mor- ‘gan (a collection of writings that originally appeared in pamphlet form before they were brought together and published by Random House in 1970) Of Women Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institu- tion by Adrienne Rich (Norton, 1976) Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess by Starhawk (Harper & Row, 1979) The Color Purple by Alice Walker (HBJ, 1982) De arly vane | 19but Mama Bears charges a fee for nonbook events, ranging from $2 to $10 for benefit’ performances. Store buyer Kay Murphy considers this to be in line with what the founding moth- ers envisioned for the store. “They wanted to make a space for women’s culture, and they wanted to make a women's-only space.” Charis in Atlanta relies on off-site sales to improve the bottom line. “We figured out that we made over $50,000 from book tables last year,"” says co-owner Sherry Emory. “We really work at doing book tables like the Couneil on Child Abuse and the National Georgia Therapists. From A Room of One’s Own, Madison, Wis. February through May we have 12 conferences and several are out of town.” Although Emory acknow!- edges that some organizations charge a fee for the tables—the most Charis has ever paid is $800—she and part- ner Linda Bryant have found that it is well worth it. “We've gotten better at tailoring the books for the audience, and it's fun once you're there.” ‘Ann Christophersen at Women and Children First is equally enthusiastic about book tables, but has not had much success with school fairs. “We've experimented with them, but the economies don't correspond with the core of our business. You have to be 100% a children’s store.” ‘Twenty-year-old Sisterhood Book- store, Los Angeles, has developed a large textbook section that brings in many thousands of dollars annually. Co-owner Simone Wallace credits the thriving text trade to hard work and to support from the UCLA Women's Studies department, On the other hand, stores like New Words, one of the oldest and largest women’s bookstores in the country, which is located in Inman Square, Cambridge, Mass., about a mile from both of the area’s most famous uni- versities, Harvard and MIT, has found it wiser to turn down some potential textbook sales. “There have been sit- uations where the faculty is commit- ted to us but the students don't want to go so far away” to buy books, co- founder Gilda Bruekman explains. Instead she and other members of the collective concentrate on displays to help build foot traffic. The store has just raised two colorful banners on either side of the drab brown building it occupies and changed its front sign- age as well. The staff has also pub- lished a brochure and is expé 1g with targeted mailings to the academic women’s community and to therapists. In addition, New Words was one of the first wom- en's bookstores to. offer general discounts. All hard- covers are discounted 10%. This past October the store added_a frequent reader card. For every $10 worth of books a customer buys, she or he gets a stamp. Af. ter 10 stamps, the customer receives a 20% discount on the next purchase. Bruck- man regards the program as a way to compete with other stores in Harvard Square, which discount heavily. Frequent readers eards or capital investment cards, which customers are required to purchase before buying books, are just one way that women's stores are competing in the general marketplace. These cards, whieh have lately become associated with chain stores, were used by wom- en's stores more than a decade ago to help get needed income up front. A Room of One's Own, which got the idea from a local food co-op, was among the first booksellers to pioneer the shoppers’ cards and pass the eon- cept on to sister stores around the country. Some women’s bookstores com- plain about discounting. Mary Morell, co-owner of Full Cirele Books in Albu- querque, says that her store is affect ed by anearby Price Club.““When they have a book we have, it drops dead in the store.”” Morell tells customers that the books are available at Price Club. She may lose the sale, “but you save a customer” she says. In addition, some feminist book- stores are being squeezed by general independents. Gone are the days when Bruckman was told at the Harvard Square bookstore, where she worked, that “creating a women's section would ‘break up the sociology see tion’ ” ‘Most independents have learned that women’s books sell, and many books appear on both types of stores’ bestsellers lists. (See box for a list of women's top sellers.) ‘A Room of One's Own fights back by being as well run as it can. Torkild- son notes that other stores ‘don't sep- arate out feminist theory. They have their incest books in with psychology. And people feel intimidated about asking about that information in these stores.” ‘Women's bookstores also no longer have an exclusive on books from femi- nist presses. For example, Naiad Press's list of customers that carry 75% or more of their titles at all times inelude such well-known indepen- dents as Northshire Bookstore, Davis- Kidd and Oxford Book Store. The Bor- ders Book Shops carry Naiad’s diverse list of lesbian-oriented titles, as do some B, Dalton outlets. This is not to deny that women's presses, which emerged at roughly the same time as women’s bookstores in the early 1970s as part of what is known as the Women in Print Move- ment, continue to be dependent. on ‘women's booksellers. Publisher Bar- bara Grier at Naiad describes their relationship as being “webbed togeth- cer. We're tightly woven together with ‘women's bookstores.” Seal Press co-publisher Faith Con- Jon coneurs, adding, “The women’s bookstores form a core for us. What's really great is that they'll carry our entire list. So in that way, they've been very supportive of the women’s presses.” Like Grier, Conlon is also encountering newfound support for her books in the chains, a support that she relishes but.does not seek for the list as a whole. “We don't want every book represented in the chain stores.” Carol Wilson at Mama Bears sums up the women's bookseller perspec- tive when she notes: “General stores carrying women’s books are only ear- rying the new, hot stuff. They're not, interested in carrying the books peo- ple need.” ‘And it is this sense that women's bookstores stock what people need to know—whether it is in magazines that may sell only a few copies a month or books that publishers no longer even list in their catalogues — that distinguishes them from most other bookstores. Women's stores are stores with a mission. By all accounts, while not necessarily recession-proof, they are viable businesses for the 1990s. o 20