1. You have an unusual business plan: a consignment-style set-up with small presses, in exchange for net-90 terms and the standard 40% discount, they have prominent placement at the front of the store. Where did this idea come from? How have publishers responded?

The idea came about in 2009. We were trying to figure out ways to change things up in the store a bit amidst the economic collapse and the rise of The Great Satan’s (Amazon) e-reader service. These discussions were happening concurrently with finding ourselves reading many, many more small press books. What we found was that many of our favorite writers had been shucked from the major presses and were finding great homes in the small presses. Books and book recommendations were going around the staff as always, but more and more of them were books from small presses.

We realized this and decided that we should try and just bring the presses in en masse. It’s sort of like buying records, for those of us that love whole albums: you might not know the singer or band but you recognize the record label and have liked what they put out before so you take a chance this time around. Buying books with the small presses works the exact same way. Each has their own aesthetic and we wanted to expose our customers to that. At first we reached out to six presses, hoping that one or two would go for it. But all of them wanted in and since then we’ve expanded to more than twenty presses covering every conceivable genre.

The publisher response has been incredible. At first no one had any clue if it would work, but everyone, ourselves included obviously, was willing to give it a try. After the first six months we had moved something like 300 small press poetry titles and we were floored.  It was wonderful when you think about it. Especially with everyone bemoaning “the death of poetry” or “the death of the bookstore.” The publisher enthusiasm never waned. They’ve sent writers our way to teach workshops or do signings, or themselves have come to the store to visit and hang out and have drinks with us, they’ve introduced us to other publishers that we’ve ended up working with. One of the best things to come out of the whole arrangement is this very close and personal working relationship with so many publishers. It makes things much more vibrant and fun.

2. What got you into selling books? What keeps you inspired?

The bookstore is 47 years old. It was founded by Jim Farley who, with a little help from James Michener and Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers fame), bought out a small bookshop that had already been in town. He and his wife Nancy built the shop up into what it is today, a good-sized, eclectic, nooks and crannies filled bookshop for readers who love books. We’re a small staff, seven people, who would all say the same thing: we got into selling books because we love them—the physicality of holding a book in your hands, the jacket design, the typography and typesetting, the smell of them—and we love reading.

What keeps us inspired? Good regular customers, good books, good music, good wine and fighting that long hard good fight.

3. You have an extraordinary number of shelf-talkers in the store. Have customers responded to these recommendations? What are your favorite titles to hand-sell?

We realized that shelf talkers written by us scattered all over the store was like having that many more booksellers working the floor.  Some people are afraid to ask for a recommendation or aren’t sure about how to find what they need, so a well written shelf talker can help out there.

Customers have been really happy to have them. Most often they’ll come up to the register with a book in hand and tell us that they are buying it, and are excited to read it, because of what the shelf talker said. Many have told us that they love just coming into the shop and reading through all of the shelf talkers in order to find what they want. In each case it leads to a discussion, perhaps more recommendations (from us to them or them to us), which is what it’s all about anyway.

What we love hand-selling changes daily, if not hourly. It is really dependent upon what the person is looking for, or what they’ve asked about. If it is a graduation present for a high schooler that could mean a number of things (Education of a Wandering Man, Tapping the Source, Rule of the Bone, Leaves of Grass, Monkeywrench Gang) versus a Christmas gift for the same person. But we’ve each got our “go-to” books for various things.

Lately these are the books we’ve been hand-selling for a host of reasons: Steve Davenport’s Overpass, Ron Cooper’s Purple Jesus, Patrick Michael Finn’s From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet, Eric Miles Williamson’s Welcome to Oakland,N.K. Jemisin’s Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Joe Bolton’s Last Nostalgia, Doug Peacock’s In the Shadow of the Sabertooth, John Thorne’s Outlaw Cook, A.B. Guthrie’s Big Sky, Raymond Hammond’s Poetic Amusement, Charles Bukowski’s Screams from the Balcony, Daniel Woodrell’s Death of Sweet Mister, James Welch’s Winter in the Blood, Sherman Alexie’s One Stick Song, Shelley Stenhouse’s Impunity, John D. MacDonald’s The Deep Blue Good-by, Peter Brown’s Will You Be My Friend?, Tom Hennen’s Darkness Sticks to Everything, David Buchanan’s Taste Memory, Larry Fondation’s Martyrs & Holymen, James Agee’s Cotton Tenants (you guys did a superior thing bringing that book out—thanks), Pete Dexter’s Paper Trails, W.C. Heinz’s The Professional, Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling, Karin Tidbeck’s Jaggananth, Paolo Bacigalupi’s Shipbreaker

Who is William Hastings, and when did he write the “Kindles aren’t books piece” that’s hanging in your store?)
I am an employee here, also a writer. I started working here in 2009. I got fed up with constantly hearing about Kindles and digital things. I just couldn’t imagine that anyone actually wanted to own one of those things. And as a writer I started thinking about what things would look like without books, about all those moments in novels that I loved where characters are reading (Sun Also Rises, Savage Detectives, Tropic of Cancer, etc). Bolano’s novel would not have the same beat to it without the characters reading in the shower. One thing led to another and I wrote that little essay about books, about catching a Greyhound and having a nightlong conversation with a stranger because of the book I was holding in my hand.

4. If your bookshop were to be granted one wish — by the ghost of Sylvia Beach, let’s say — what would it be?

Death of Amazon. And, as part of the wish, we would like to be able to pour champagne over the smoldering ruins of its headquarters in a gigantic “good riddance” party that has The Allman Brothers Band as the house act.

5. What titles are you most looking forward to?

Daniel Woodrell’s The Maid’s Version
Joseph Haske’s North Dixie Highway
Richard Burgin’s Hide Island
Jim Harrison’s Brown Dog
Tom Burford’s Apples of North America
William Vollman’s Afghanistan Picture Show
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow
(We have to mention those last two. We’re big fans of Melville House’s books.)
W. Eugene Smith’s The Big Book
Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens
Richard Dawkins’s An Appetite for Wonder
Vian Invents Vian: A Boris Vian Reader
Patrick Rothfuss’s The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle
James Lee Burke’s Light of the World
USA Noir
Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch
Charles Finch’s An Old Betrayal
Ken Bruen’s Purgatory
Joe Sacco’s The Great War
Sherman Alexie’s next collection of poems on Hanging Loose Press (it’s untitled as far as we know, but in the works).
Andre Dubus III’s Dirty Love