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01/04/2005: "What It Takes..."

I cannot count the numbers of times people have said to me, "Oh, I've always wanted to open a bookstore...". Then they go on to explain how their schedules or their luck hasn't been right enough to allow them the luxury of doing so. I always smile when I hear that, because it takes a lot more than the desire for books to be a professional bookseller.

One of the first things that it takes is patience. You have to be willing to put up with delays, frustration, reptitive chores, and blind alleys in research. If you want flash & thunder, glamor, and constant excitement then this is not the place for you. Stocking the shelves is a job which is vitally important, but requires the will to keep going. Sometimes I'll stay late to shelve books, but the work is halfway done before I think to turn on the radio. For me, it's just a task that needs to be done, so I do it.

You should also be friendly. Remember, the bookseller is in front of the general public constantly, and this means dealing with phone-in orders, Customers From Hell, bureaucrats, noisy kids, and you have to keep smiling. If you lose your cool, you may lose customers.

Persistence is another virtue. Keep pecking away on the orders, the research projects, sales figures, etc. If the task is set aside, chances are it won't get done.

And of course there is the love of books; but not just of reading, but of books themselves. The best way to spot a bookseller in a crowd is to show him/her a book. The true bookman sees not just an object, but all the parts: spine, ends, boards, pastedowns, facing page, front free endpaper, binding, epigraph, etc. A bookseller can identify the colophon, the publisher, and probably knows a little trivia about the author, too.

A book is more than just an object--it's a form of art; it's a written communication from the mind of the author. When you read it, you learn; it educates you and speaks to you, drawing you into the author's world. Books have tremendous power, but like a magic spell it can only work if you invoke it. Simply pushing books onto a shelf and offering them for sale is not enough. You must know the thoughts and meanings, and be willing to talk about them. Many a bookstore simply falls apart because the people involved aren't readers. That's like a nonsmoker becoming a tobacconist! It doesn't work!

To be a bookseller, you have to not only like books, you have to live with them, let them litter the floor in your house; they must be the first thing you see when you get up in the morning, and the last thing you look at before you sleep. Your books are your family, and you treat them accordingly. One bookseller of my acquaintance refused to sell art books to a customer when he learned the buyer intended to cut the pictures out for an art project! Those books were like his children, and he refused to doom them!

Yes, operating a bookshop may be the heart's desire of many, but precious few ever really appreciate what it means.