Over the past few years a number of women's bookstores have closed. But in recent months some have decided to modify their names and missions in order to survive.
Perhaps the largest such transformation is the one taking place in Cambridge, Mass., where New Words closed last month to get ready for its re-opening as the nonprofit Center for New Words sometime next year. (Bookselling, Sept. 16.) Four months ago, Lodestar Books & Gifts in Birmingham, Ala., became Luna Tea Room & Café/Luna Yoga, a café/yoga center, which now serves up only yoga-related books. While not quite as dramatic a shift, My Sisters' Words in Syracuse, N.Y., celebrated its 15th anniversary earlier this month along with its re-christening as My Sisters' Words/The Next Wave: A Bookstore for All Progressive Minds and introduced its new wave logo. (Bookstore names are getting as long as book subtitles.)
"Last year," said Mary Ellen Kavanaugh, owner and founder of the 750-sq.-ft. store in what was once a beauty salon in a Victorian home, "was the worst year I ever had. When I sat down with my accountant, she just shook her head, 'This isn't working.' " At the same time the bottom line was forcing Kavanaugh to rethink her business, the city of Syracuse was trying to decide what it wanted to be in the wake of a proposal to build what would be the largest mall in America there. "What I wanted to do was rouse people's consciousness, bring in more types of women and make a bolder statement to men that they are welcome," Kavanaugh told PW. "We haven't abandoned anything that we've always been doing. We still have the largest feminist and LGBT sections in Syracuse."
"I started looking at what kinds of questions people were asking and what kinds of books were being special-ordered," continued Kavanaugh, who calls the store more of "a lefty bookstore" than a general one. "The store already had been moving in that direction." As a result, Kavanaugh expanded poetry, children's, sexuality, social change, global issues, peace and social justice and bestsellers. However, as a Book Sense member, she decided to try to wean her customers from the New York Times bestsellers list, from which they had been placing special orders, to the Book Sense bestsellers list.
So far, the changes, including expanded hours, seem to be a strong draw. For the grand re-opening, enough hardy souls braved the snow to eat their way through three birthday cakes. However, inclement weather forced all but one insistent three-year-old to forgo the annual tulip-planting activity. And the reopening did draw more male customers. About 20% men and 80% women stopped by during the first weekend.
