In business for a total of 122 years, four well-known African-American–owned bookstores—Eso Won (22 years); Hue-Man (10 years); Marcus Book Stores (52 years); and the Shrine of the Black Madonna Cultural Center & Bookstore (37 years)—are no strangers to economic ups and downs. Recently, PW caught up with them to find out what strategies they’ve adopted to keep up with the changing marketplace. For African-American–owned stores, relationships with customers and community remain critical to survival. More important, they are unanimous in the need for publishers to make it a priority to send African-American authors to independent African-American bookstores.
Eso Won: Changing the Buying Strategy
Six years ago, Eso Won downsized slightly, to a 3,200-square-foot space, about two miles away from its original location in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the store’s profits also downsized, which co-owner James Fugate attributes to the area, plus the fact that not all his customers followed.
Accordingly, Fugate and business partner Tom Hamilton changed their buying strategy. “Once I got used to our daily sales being what they were 20 years ago, I could manage better,” Fugate quips. Now, they buy less, stocking 30,000 to 50,000 titles, which no longer include academic books since the category stopped being a strong seller. Fugate also reduces his buying in June in response to slower summer sales. The new strategy is bearing fruit, he says: “Last year was good and got us closer to where I want to be.”
The addition of remainders has helped the store’s bottom line, as has expanding the video section to several hundred African-American–interest titles, including “lots of ‘race movies’ from the 1940s.” E-mail marketing brings people in, especially when Fugate makes personal reading recommendations. And by next month, Eso Won expects to be selling Google eBooks online through ABA IndieBound.
Fugate would also like to have more author events. “Walter Mosley comes to our stores whenever he’s in Los Angeles. But we didn’t get Shaq or Harry Belafonte when they came through. Whatever bookseller the publishers knew, they used—they didn’t know us. Other independent stores are a bigger account, so we end up not having as many authors.”
Hue-Man: Clever Partnering
Hue-Man owner/CEO Marva Allen partners with both authors and local merchants. “We actually had increased revenues last year—our sales were up 18%—partly because we work so darn hard. But we’re doing 25 signings a month—that’s really intense. We need to find some wonderful, well-heeled people to invest so that we can continue.”
Renting out store space contributes to income to the New York City store. “We’ve partnered with our authors. We tell them how many people they must have in the room, and they must guarantee that they’ll sell at least 25 books. We’ve made it real realistic, especially for authors without a name.” The 4,500-square-foot store carries 30,000 titles and, lately, “a lot more ancillary products like teas, and baskets from the Happy Basket Project.” Allen also helped to create the Power of One affinity program of cross-promotions with 70 local businesses.
Until investors come along, “We’d like to partner with our publishers to give us an economic boost. Publishers need to make sure that when they have an African-American author, they book him at an African-American bookstore. We depend on the signings. But the publishers are not sending a lot of those authors to the African-American bookstores, and that alone will kill a bookstore. It feels like I have to beg for them, when [my customers] are the people who made these authors. I didn’t get Shaq, Common, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, or Whoopi. If we can’t get investors, it is important that we get those authors.”
Marcus Books: Collaborating and Engaging
Founded in 1960, Marcus Books, with outlets in Oakland and San Francisco, is the oldest African-American indie in the country. According to Blanche Richardson, general manager of the 4,500-square-foot Oakland location, profits have dipped by 40% to 50% in the past four years due to competition from online bookstores and chains. The retailer has also had to deal with what Richardson calls “malicious rumors spread not only against us but others. Our stores are not now nor have they ever been in foreclosure or bankruptcy.”
The Oakland store stocks between 8,000 and 10,000 titles, which she says is “down from the 20,000 it used to be a few years back. One of the difficulties we’ve had is that we have to pre-pay for books. So we can’t have expensive titles; they sell too slowly.”
Richardson says the store’s renewal will focus on a greater online presence, “so we can sell online for the first time. We are already a big presence on social networks, and we have an e-mail newsletter.” Redesigning the store space is also in the works, with a view toward renting it out for community meetings and after-school programs. Currently, the store holds events on- and off-site, including selling at book events in private homes.
Marcus Books has also had a longtime collaboration with radio station KPFA. Said Richardson, “Recently they hosted an evening in conversation with my mother, Raye Richardson, interviewing Harry Belafonte about his book. They discovered, in the green room, that they had been members of the same Harlem theater group, and bonded. Then we had a two-hour autographing, with 1,000 people. Our events are always very successful.
“We see very few African-American authors on book tours. About four years ago we had about 20 events that publishers sent their authors to—they were just crisscrossing the country,” Richardson said. Visiting authors would see a poster of another writer in the store, Richardson added and say “ ‘I just saw him in Detroit’ or ‘I just saw her in Chicago.’ Not anymore.”
The Shrine of the Black Madonna Culture Center & Bookstore: To Raise Consciousness and to Serve
Ewa Omo Oba, manager of the Atlanta store for more than 25 years, believes that simply surviving is a big deal for any independent bookstore. Each of the Shrine’s three independently managed locations has its own distinctive clientele. Currently, the Houston store is temporarily closed because of nearby construction, and the Detroit store is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for events only, “and the clientele has adjusted beautifully,” Oba says.
Oba notes that her store is updating itself through the use of social media and is planning to increase monthly, seasonal, and regular activities; these include book club meetings, crafting, and story time. Because the store is also a cultural center, “We do art exhibits, movie screenings, exercise classes, and health workshops in conjunction with related books.”
Oba’s store stocks 1,500 titles and benefits from its proximity to what’s locally known as the Atlanta University Center, comprising four colleges (Spelman, Morehouse, Clark Atlanta University, and Morris Brown College). “A lot of professors have their books or dissertations published by small presses, and we carry a lot of those. We can sell hymnals because we are in the Bible Belt. I can hand-sell a book because I’m the book buyer,” Oba says.
“We are definitely working to be a bigger success because we’re needed,” says Oba. “When students come and tell me I had a hand in their pursuing academic excellence, that means something to me.”
