Our fab lead architect, Frederick Tang of deFT Projects, has just begun a weekly blog series chronicling the renovation/construction process of Greenlight Bookstore. Thrillingly, the series is being featured on the uber-famous Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner. The Brownstoner folks are the force behind the Brooklyn Flea, which has been an exciting addition to the Fort Greene neighborhood, and we're pleased they're interested in our project as well. We'll continue to blog here (and on the New York Times Local blog) about other aspects of the bookstore opening process, but we're leaving it to Fred to talk about the nitty gritty (literally - cough cough) construction itself.
Check out the first Brownstoner post here!
Thanks to Fred and to Jonathan at Brownstoner for making this happen. Even though we're both visiting the space every day to see the construction happening, we're looking forward to hearing it described by a professional!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Third Place
Every time I pick up the free Edible Brooklyn magazine, I get a little jealous. There are so many people doing cool stuff in Brooklyn, so many that I haven't discovered or wish I had thought of first! But in fact, I think that Brooklyn's vibrant culture of locally produced food and funky independent restaurants is part of what makes an independent bookstore such a good idea here. Brooklynites value the quirky, the independent, the idiosyncratically local -- and they understand the ethical and cultural reasons for valuing locally grown produce as well as locally owned businesses, in order to decrease our environmental impact AND support local, sustainable economies. As indie booksellers, the foodies are our comrades.
The most recent issue of Edible Brooklyn has an article on Red Hook cafe/bar Fort Defiance (pictured above), which talks about the idea of the "third place" -- something Greenlight hopes to embody. As owner St. John Frizell eloquently describes it (referencing Ray Oldenberg's famous book The Great Good Place), it is
"that place between home and work that has existed in every human society, where one can interact with people who aren’t family or coworkers, meet new people, get community news. In early rural America, it might be the feed store; in France, the café; in Germany, the beer garden; in China, the teahouse. Our society is suffering from the lack of good third places."
At Book Expo back in June, I spoke on a panel called "Bookstore as the Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events." I was awed by my fellow panelists: Kelly Justice of The Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, who puts together entire festivals involving authors, cooks, artisans, and readers together; and Robert Sindelar of (appropriately) Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington, who has a massive event space dedicated to events for (and often curated by) his community.
Obviously, a bookstore has incredible potential to become the kind of place Frizell is talking about, and that potential is something we actively pursue. I'm proud to be working toward the same goals as these other incredible independent business owners, foodies and readers both, to help create more of these places for our community in Brooklyn to come together.
(More construction news soon, we promise!)
The most recent issue of Edible Brooklyn has an article on Red Hook cafe/bar Fort Defiance (pictured above), which talks about the idea of the "third place" -- something Greenlight hopes to embody. As owner St. John Frizell eloquently describes it (referencing Ray Oldenberg's famous book The Great Good Place), it is
"that place between home and work that has existed in every human society, where one can interact with people who aren’t family or coworkers, meet new people, get community news. In early rural America, it might be the feed store; in France, the café; in Germany, the beer garden; in China, the teahouse. Our society is suffering from the lack of good third places."
At Book Expo back in June, I spoke on a panel called "Bookstore as the Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events." I was awed by my fellow panelists: Kelly Justice of The Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, who puts together entire festivals involving authors, cooks, artisans, and readers together; and Robert Sindelar of (appropriately) Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington, who has a massive event space dedicated to events for (and often curated by) his community.
Obviously, a bookstore has incredible potential to become the kind of place Frizell is talking about, and that potential is something we actively pursue. I'm proud to be working toward the same goals as these other incredible independent business owners, foodies and readers both, to help create more of these places for our community in Brooklyn to come together.
(More construction news soon, we promise!)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Counting Down, Ramping Up
Okay, now it's getting serious.
I've left my day job to focus full time on Greenlight Bookstore business -- and the countdown to opening day is beginning!
As we've mentioned elsewhere, we're hoping to have Greenlight Bookstore open for business sometime in September (earlier would be better than later, but given the many factors that have to come together, we're looking at a pretty wide window).
Some days that seems very far away -- and sometimes it seems like tomorrow, as there is a LOT that has to happen between now and then! With that in mind, all kinds of things are now beginning to ramp up -- here's a little bit about where we are right now.
Last week, after lots of bid-sifting and negotiating (thank goodness for having a partner who is a good negotiator!), Rebecca and I signed a contract with Hugo Construction, a general contractor based here in Brooklyn. They're a great firm that has worked with our architects before, and they can do the work within our budget and time frame -- hooray! You may see them at the space this week, bringing in materials and doing the last bits of demolition.
And starting next week, our architect Fred Tang of deFT Projects will be blogging about the construction process on the fantastic Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner! So I won't tell you too much about our building plans here -- I'll be linking to Fred's posts where you can get a more in-depth view of the project (and lots of pictures) from a real expert.
In the meantime, we're working on the other side of things: the books we're going to sell! I've made buying appointments for almost every day in August with sales reps from the various publishers we'll be buying from. We're also working on getting a "suggested opening order" from a book distributor -- that's a list of bestselling titles in the areas we cover, which Rebecca and I will look through and edit to determine the books that will be in the store on Day 1. Looking through the lists and catalogs is in some ways the most fun part -- it's certainly what we got into this business to do! I feel especially lucky that we're opening this fall -- everything I hear from booksellers suggests that there are a ton of great books being published this season, so our "New Releases" display is going to be fantastic.
And there are a million and one other things, of course. We've applied for and received our Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax, so we can send our Resale Certificate to vendors and buy wholesale. We've purchased our inventory and point-of-sale software (it's called Booklog), and we're working on finding a good price on the computers we'll need. We're working with the American Booksellers Association to get set up with their website platform, which includes e-commerce (much more on that in a later post!) We're working on creating a logo. A bit later we'll need to sift through the many wonderful folks interested in working for us and hire our staff. And we'll need to get set up with electricity, telecom stuff, trash pickup -- all that stuff.
As I said -- a lot has to happen between now and September. But we're on our way!
Got questions about the store or the startup process? Want to join our growing list of volunteers? Leave a comment here and I'll answer it, or email me at jessica@greenlightbookstore.com and I'll do my best to get back to you. We love the community's involvement in this project, and we want to stay connected with you!
I've left my day job to focus full time on Greenlight Bookstore business -- and the countdown to opening day is beginning!
As we've mentioned elsewhere, we're hoping to have Greenlight Bookstore open for business sometime in September (earlier would be better than later, but given the many factors that have to come together, we're looking at a pretty wide window).
Some days that seems very far away -- and sometimes it seems like tomorrow, as there is a LOT that has to happen between now and then! With that in mind, all kinds of things are now beginning to ramp up -- here's a little bit about where we are right now.
Last week, after lots of bid-sifting and negotiating (thank goodness for having a partner who is a good negotiator!), Rebecca and I signed a contract with Hugo Construction, a general contractor based here in Brooklyn. They're a great firm that has worked with our architects before, and they can do the work within our budget and time frame -- hooray! You may see them at the space this week, bringing in materials and doing the last bits of demolition.
And starting next week, our architect Fred Tang of deFT Projects will be blogging about the construction process on the fantastic Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner! So I won't tell you too much about our building plans here -- I'll be linking to Fred's posts where you can get a more in-depth view of the project (and lots of pictures) from a real expert.
In the meantime, we're working on the other side of things: the books we're going to sell! I've made buying appointments for almost every day in August with sales reps from the various publishers we'll be buying from. We're also working on getting a "suggested opening order" from a book distributor -- that's a list of bestselling titles in the areas we cover, which Rebecca and I will look through and edit to determine the books that will be in the store on Day 1. Looking through the lists and catalogs is in some ways the most fun part -- it's certainly what we got into this business to do! I feel especially lucky that we're opening this fall -- everything I hear from booksellers suggests that there are a ton of great books being published this season, so our "New Releases" display is going to be fantastic.
And there are a million and one other things, of course. We've applied for and received our Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax, so we can send our Resale Certificate to vendors and buy wholesale. We've purchased our inventory and point-of-sale software (it's called Booklog), and we're working on finding a good price on the computers we'll need. We're working with the American Booksellers Association to get set up with their website platform, which includes e-commerce (much more on that in a later post!) We're working on creating a logo. A bit later we'll need to sift through the many wonderful folks interested in working for us and hire our staff. And we'll need to get set up with electricity, telecom stuff, trash pickup -- all that stuff.
As I said -- a lot has to happen between now and September. But we're on our way!
Got questions about the store or the startup process? Want to join our growing list of volunteers? Leave a comment here and I'll answer it, or email me at jessica@greenlightbookstore.com and I'll do my best to get back to you. We love the community's involvement in this project, and we want to stay connected with you!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Report from the Preview Party
On Sunday evening, Greenlight Bookstore became a little more a part of Fort Greene when Rebecca and I opened wide the blinds at 686 Fulton Street for the first time. "Wow," said our architect, "it's almost like being outside!" We felt like a part of the street life, as passers-by pointed out our brand-new "Coming Soon!" banner and pressed noses against the window to see inside. And we invited a few members of the community – those who have helped us to get this far – into the space for a look around.
Sunday night was our long-awaited Greenlight Bookstore Preview Party, which was conceived as kind of a big "thank you" – to the Fort Greene Association folks who have helped us connect to the neighborhood, the Community Lenders who have helped us to raise start-up capital, the small business professionals who have worked with us for little or no fee, and the book industry professionals who have given us invaluable guidance. Wine and home-made snacks were served, but the real treat for the attendees was meeting fellow Greenlight supporters, and of course imagining the bookstore that is taking shape.
Our great architects, Frederick Tang of deFT Projects and Jarrett Pelletier, brought along some visuals to help with the imagining, including poster-size mechanical drawings and artistic renderings of the construction plans.
(Don't mind the leftover electrical wiring, which is still draped all over the store!) We also had a mock-up of what the bookshelves will look like, and a couple of 3-D posterboard models of the future store. We gave tour after tour of the 2000 square foot space, until our voices were hoarse from describing the fiction wall, the children's section, the "den" reading area, the cash desk, the author events, and everything else we envision.
In the meantime, the many parts of this community effort got to meet each other. For example, below, from left to right: Fred, Jarrett, Toby Cox (owner of Three Lives Bookstore and a Fort Greene resident), Mike Gross of the Fort Greene Association and the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative, and Greg Callendar of the Pace Small Business Development Corporation (who helped us secure a small business loan and also lives in the neighborhood).
As the evening wore on, we proposed a toast: to the powerful community that is helping to create Greenlight Bookstore, with the hope that we will be able to give back all that they have given to us, and more.
As you can see by our faces in this photo taken by Mike, Rebecca and I were glowing by the end of the night. I love the way the composition of this shot turned out. Inside the window behind us, you can see the wonderful people who are helping to bring the bookstore together; in the reflection, you can see the beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood we're becoming a part of.
Sunday night was our long-awaited Greenlight Bookstore Preview Party, which was conceived as kind of a big "thank you" – to the Fort Greene Association folks who have helped us connect to the neighborhood, the Community Lenders who have helped us to raise start-up capital, the small business professionals who have worked with us for little or no fee, and the book industry professionals who have given us invaluable guidance. Wine and home-made snacks were served, but the real treat for the attendees was meeting fellow Greenlight supporters, and of course imagining the bookstore that is taking shape.
Our great architects, Frederick Tang of deFT Projects and Jarrett Pelletier, brought along some visuals to help with the imagining, including poster-size mechanical drawings and artistic renderings of the construction plans.
(Don't mind the leftover electrical wiring, which is still draped all over the store!) We also had a mock-up of what the bookshelves will look like, and a couple of 3-D posterboard models of the future store. We gave tour after tour of the 2000 square foot space, until our voices were hoarse from describing the fiction wall, the children's section, the "den" reading area, the cash desk, the author events, and everything else we envision.
In the meantime, the many parts of this community effort got to meet each other. For example, below, from left to right: Fred, Jarrett, Toby Cox (owner of Three Lives Bookstore and a Fort Greene resident), Mike Gross of the Fort Greene Association and the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative, and Greg Callendar of the Pace Small Business Development Corporation (who helped us secure a small business loan and also lives in the neighborhood).
As the evening wore on, we proposed a toast: to the powerful community that is helping to create Greenlight Bookstore, with the hope that we will be able to give back all that they have given to us, and more.
As you can see by our faces in this photo taken by Mike, Rebecca and I were glowing by the end of the night. I love the way the composition of this shot turned out. Inside the window behind us, you can see the wonderful people who are helping to bring the bookstore together; in the reflection, you can see the beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood we're becoming a part of.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The HarperStudio Interview
HarperStudio is a very cool new imprint of large publisher HarperCollins -- they're working on smart new models for publishing, paying authors, and marketing in the 21st century. They also have a very cool blog, 26th Story. Earlier this week, they asked me for an interview about Greenlight Bookstore.
And here it is!
Thanks to the HarperStudio folks for listening, and to Fort Greene for being the community that makes us not seem crazy.
And here it is!
Thanks to the HarperStudio folks for listening, and to Fort Greene for being the community that makes us not seem crazy.
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