When Drew Cohen and Scott Seeley opened the Writer’s Block in 2014, it was Las Vegas’s only independent bookstore. Today, it still is. It is also the only independent bookstore in southern Nevada and, along with Sundance Books and Music in Reno, one of only two independent bookstores in the state focused on selling new books.
“The growth of Las Vegas has really outpaced the book scene,” said Cohen, who noted that Las Vegas’s best-known used bookstore, the Amber Unicorn, closed at the beginning of January after nearly 40 years in business.
Cohen and Seeley came to Las Vegas from New York City, where Seeley had been cofounder and executive director of Brooklyn literary nonprofit 826NYC. The opening of the Writer’s Block was serendipitous: “[Author] Jennifer 8. Lee was working with [late Zappos CEO] Tony Hsieh and approached Scott to ask if he knew anyone who might want to come to open a bookstore in Las Vegas,” Cohen recalled. “He said he did: us.”
Initially, the Writer’s Block was part of Hsieh’s $350 million Downtown Project, an effort to revitalize several blocks of Downtown Las Vegas, and featured a true novelty at the time: an Espresso Book Machine. Today, the machine is gone and the store occupies a much larger space in the Lucy, an arts and culture center established by local philanthropist Beverly Rogers. The Lucy also has residences for writers with fellowships from the Black Mountain Institute at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as well as space for writers on monthlong Writing Downtown residencies sponsored by Plympton, the digital publishing studio run by Lee.
In a rather unique decorative decision, the Writer’s Block also serves as what Cohen described as an “artificial bird sanctuary,” with a variety of plush, stuffed birds available to be “adopted” (i.e., purchased). The cash register is ensconced inside a large-scale birdcage, and the offices are in a “greenhouse.” The store also features several bird-themed attractions, including King Pigeon, a stuffed pigeon that offers advice and answers questions posed by customers in letters; there are also some resident “psychic peacocks,” Cohen said, as well as a chicken that dispenses recipes. Among the non-avian wildlife is the Baron, an elderly (live) rabbit that lives in a cage near the children’s section and has been with the store since it opened.
When the Writer’s Block moved to the Lucy in 2019, it expanded to have 3,000 sq. ft. of sales floor. Upstairs is another 800 sq. ft. for events and workshops that has, since the start of the pandemic last year, been converted to a fulfillment center for online orders.
The Writer’s Block stocks approximately 18,000 titles and typically holds just one or two copies of each; as a buyer, Cohen emphasizes breadth over depth. “The book buzz from New York doesn’t typically make it to Las Vegas,” he said, so the bulk of the store’s sales are backlist paperbacks. “A lot of our readers are playing catch-up, so we sell a lot of classics, from Bukowski to Plath. This past year, Camus was also popular, for obvious reasons.”
The sales pattern means Cohen is not obliged to purchase cartons of new hardcovers, so he often buys books as nonreturnable, adding a bit to the store’s profit margin.
Reflecting on the past year, Cohen said it could have been far worse. “We didn’t have much of an online presence when the pandemic started and we locked down, but we were lucky because we had Bookmanager installed. It was a godsend, as it allowed us to, more or less, flip a switch to get online sales started.”
The Writer’s Block reopened for in-person shopping in June with reduced hours. Today, the store maintains a staff of eight, including Cohen and Seeley.
Considering the drastic drop in tourism, Cohen said foot traffic at the Writer’s Block had been “reasonable” and that holiday sales were strong. The store holds relatively few author events so it didn’t suffer much from the cancellation of author tours, save for the cancellation of the annual Believer Festival, which is part of the Black Mountain Institute and was originally scheduled for the end of April and for which the store serves as the official bookseller.
Looking ahead, Cohen said he has “modest short-term ambitions” for the Writer’s Block, which include producing more store-branded and original sidelines, such as note cards and other stationery products. Otherwise, he said, much like us all, he’s just looking forward to the end of the pandemic.
