Indie Pub Two Dollar Radio to Open Bookstore

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From Publishers Weekly:

Two Dollar Radio, the Columbus, Ohio-based small press, is opening a bookstore where it will sell its own titles, alongside a carefully-curated selection of books published by other independent literary presses.

In September, Two Dollar Radio will move into its new headquarters in the city’s South Side neighborhood. Aside from an office to house its publishing operations, the building will also feature a bookstore, café, and a bar. The press’ expansion is following a trend set by other small literary presses: in 2016, Milkweed Editions opened a bookstore in the Open Book literary center near downtown Minneapolis, followed a few months later by Curbside Splendor Publishing, which opened a bookstore in Chicago’s Revival Food Hall in the National building.

An 1,800-square foot space in the front of the building that has been leased and is being built-out this summer will house the bookstore, café, and bar. The company’s publishing operation will be located in the 1,100-square-foot back area, which also includes enough space for storage. The entire enterprise will operate under the business name, Two Dollar Radio Headquarters.

The publisher’s bookstore will emphasize the offerings of independent publishers, and the café will be vegan, serving only plant-based items, as well as locally-roasted coffee and tea.

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

PG doesn’t want to be insensitive in matters of literature and culture, but a bookstore in Columbus, Ohio, might want to sell Ohio State sweatshirts in addition to vegan dishes.

21 thoughts on “Indie Pub Two Dollar Radio to Open Bookstore”

  1. An 1,800-square foot space in the front of the building that has been leased and is being built-out this summer will house the bookstore, café, and bar.

    So, 300 sq ft. for the books?

    • They don’t appear to publish enough books to need much more than 300 square feet. It’s not a bad idea, really. They put out unusual out-of-the-mainstream books that would get lost in most bookstores if they were stocked at all. In this way they have a destination (the cafe/bar) that pays for itself (one hopes) and a place to display the books without payola competition.

      Oh, and their website does sell ebooks. There is that.

      • I agree. It does sound like a good idea. They won’t be everything to everyone, but they will appeal to a certain group.

    • “Sounds doomed to fail.”

      Most small-business startups do… for a variety of reasons. But primarily because decisions are made (including deciding to start the business up) based on emotion. Not on cold, hard, rational logic, clear-eyed analysis, and non-whale math.

      Oh, and insufficient initial cash reserves, too.

      • and vegan only dishes being served in the Midwest? I can’t imagine this concept is supported by extensive market research. Talk about an emotional decision, then again I’m sure everyone these owners associates with is a vegan too. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

  2. Wow, clcosed minded, folks. WMG has had a bookstore as part of its operation now for over a year, and collectable stores as well. We actually don’t put all our books out in the store mostly because we just haven’t gotten to it yet. We have over 600 titles.

    For forward-looking folks, closed minded about this one topic seems to be the case. No rule other than your beliefs say that bookstores can only sell books. Purity does not work in this modern world. Our bookstore is a large part of our collectable store and books are our second highest category of sales next to comics.

    And if you go back from 1850 to 1950, most bookstores also ran small presses and the big traditional publishers you see today mostly sprang from the backs of those bookstores. So this trend of indie presses and medium-sized presses like WMG having stores is not new. In fact, it’s ancient and in this new world not a bad thing as far as extra cash flow.

    Sorry, just got tired of the snark from people who know nothing about running a bookstore or the history of publishing.

    • The issue here is the mixed message in the report.
      There’s nothing inherently wrong about bookstores or small presses having an “outlet” store. Done right they can be profitable.

      The question here is about this specific announcement.
      Is it a bookstore with an attached cafe area or is it a vegan food facility with a few shelves/tables for books? Both exist.

      If an 1800 sq ft facility is devoting a sixth of its space to books and the rest to food service, might not one reasonably wonder if books are the primary business or a sideshow?
      Or even decor?

      The context here is that every week breathless reports come down of “new Indie bookstore, yay! Print rules!” that on closer inspection look to be questionable ventures at best. These reports come alongside less touted announcements of closures of both recent and old, established shops. There is a natural skepticism of rah-rah reports coming from the NYC publishing establishment and their mouthpieces like PW, the Bookseller, NYT, the Guardian, etc because these are tough times for B&M retail of all kinds. So new ventures and their business model get extra scrutiny.

      Around here WMG is known as an agile, forward-looking operation that takes advantage of all options. Somehow, I doubt you devote 17% of your bookstore floor space to books and 83% to food.

    • just got tired of the snark from people who know nothing about running a bookstore

      Perhaps you would like to tell us how that bookstore of yours is doing?

      • Honestly, as we expected. Could the 25% of our 2,000 square foot store that is dedicated to books make a living wage of even one employee by itself. Nope. But it adds a nice cash stream into the picture, which honestly surprised me. I owned a bookstore for six years way back before I started writing. So my expectations on this one were small. We also have the second best bookstore in Oregon about one mile away. Robert’s Bookstore that stretches an entire city block along the highway.

        However, we use the bookstore as a staging for three different major eBay accounts that sell books among other things, and those pay wages plus a ton of money. Both our stories are very profitable with the combinations of books and collectables both brick and mortar and online sales. Called a modern concept. Nothing new, just the new world. That’s why the closed minds about bookstores needing to be only bookstores sort of surprises me here each time.

  3. Prediction: They’ll see a flurry of book sales at first, as people discover the café. Once there’s a regular clientele for the café, those people will cease to be book buyers because they already will have bought the titles that interest them.

    Cafes usually are neighborhood affairs, attracting few customers from any distance. The café clientele will max out soon. And very few people will go to the book store as such: the selection will be too limited.

    So, after a few months, the books will occupy a single shelf near the cash register, and the rest of the place will be just like any other trendy café.

    • As in any bookstore they will sell new titles, theirs and those of other indie presses. Are you suggesting that an bookstores only sells during its whole duration the books that are initailly in store ?
      So, even customers of the cafe will be able to see new titles, that, hopefully, will interest them.

      • It appears that they will sell chiefly their own titles plus some from “other independent literary presses.” The books from such presses tend to sell very few copies, sometimes only in the hundreds of copies throughout the books’ lifetimes. Yes, there will be new titles but probably not many, and none of them, in the best of circumstances, will sell well, especially out of a single outlet such as a café. There just won’t be enough book sales for the café to succeed as a book store, though it might succeed as a café.

  4. I like bookstores to sell books. Not food. Not drinks. Not overpriced crap made with slave labor. Books. Maybe nice journals and pens, some bookmarks, and magazines. But, I’m a cranky old woman who doesn’t understand running a bookstore, though I do actually know something about publishing history.

    I wish this new store and publishing house luck, but if Barnes and Noble can’t make it work, I don’t see much hope for this venture. Still, I’ve been wrong before (I only admit to two occasions, neither of which had anything to do with books).

  5. How do you make a small fortune in literary fiction? Start with a large one.

    I don’t see anything wrong with a publishing company starting a bookstore to promote their own books. Actually, it seems like a great idea. (Props to WMG.) And if the goal is to promote literary fiction, which by definition appeals to a very small audience, putting the bookstore in a cafe is probably the best way to get foot traffic. Maybe the only way.

    But the real question is: where is the capital coming from to finance the whole operation? I can’t imagine it’s being generated by sales of the literary fiction. And it’s unlikely the cafe will be instantly profitable (if ever). Can’t see getting bank loan to promote literary fiction. Two Dollar Radio has a ton of publicity out there (they even have a small indy film company, which is likewise of questionable profitability). So where is the money coming from to finance all this? I got to assume someone involved has got some family/friends with deep pockets or is independently wealthy and willing to invest to support the arts. All of which is fine. There are worse things rich people can do with their money.

    I have a somewhat similar idea to promote my own publishing company, Hyper Geek Press. I’m in the process of building a twenty acre waterpark called Mackayland in Burbank with water slides, rides and wave pools. (Burbank gets hot in the summer). Attached to it is a small book/gift store which sells my only novel. I’m getting the funding from a very nice Uzbekistan warlord (he prefers to be called an entrepreneur) who sees it as a good investment (money laundering) opportunity.

  6. This topic makes me ask one question I have a hunch I know the answer to. How many here sell their own books, signed of course, on eBay as another cash stream?

    We do. We sell a lot of copies on eBay, actually. But, of course, that doesn’t count in the Author Earnings reports. (grin)

    • LOL. I hope you and Kris aren’t forging your own signatures, Dean! 🙂

      (or using an autopen!)

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