New York

New York, New York, may be “a helluva town,” as Betty Comden and Adolph Green boast in the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s 1944 musical On the Town, but it’s also a helluva book town—located in an equally great book state. Both publishing and printing are among the principal industries in New York. And the Big Apple, the nation’s largest city—with a population of more than eight million—is home to some of the most influential book review publications (the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books), the biggest museum bookstore (the Met Store) and the largest bookstore chain (Barnes & Noble) in the U.S.

With 19.2 million people, the Empire State is the third most populous, after California and Texas, but its population is much denser than those states—number six in the country, with 401.9 people per square mile. That number soars to to 26,402.9 in New York City. Given the state’s population and wealth—the median household income is $46,195—it makes sense that the two major bookstore chains continue to increase their superstore presence. Over the past five years, Borders and Barnes & Noble combined have added 21 superstores, for a total of 74. During the same period, the number of B. Dalton and Walden stores dropped by half, from 55 to 28, and several long-time independents closed, including Coliseum Books in New York City and Ariel Booksellers in New Paltz.

For Eileen Dengler, executive director of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, it’s as if there are two New Yorks. “There’s the New York that everyone thinks of, which is Manhattan and the boroughs. Everything north, we call 'the other New York.’ ” That’s not to imply that bookstores inside the city have become homogenized. “They all have their own character and their own flavor,” noted Chesapeake & Hudson sales rep Michael Gourley. “Almost every general bookstore in the City is in essence a specialty store.”

Two generalist exceptions that prove the rule are Posman Books at Grand Central Terminal and McNally Robinson Booksellers, which, at 7,000 square feet, is the largest independent in New York City, after the 80-year-old Strand, with its 18 miles of books. “Our whole philosophy is we’re big enough to have every book you need,” said owner Sarah McNally. One of her biggest challenges in opening the store three years ago was creating a balanced inventory of 60,000 titles.

At Posman, buyer Robert Fader, who learned bookselling working at the defunct Endicott Bookstore on the Upper West Side, said, “Bookselling tends not to be so elite here. I’ve been happy to find a broad demographic willing to read a good cross section. If we have a focus, it would be that we are very keen to feature what is in the news right now. When something is embargoed, we make a big effort to have it. We’ve learned to approach that pretty aggressively.” Fader experiences little price resistance, although he does discount the New York Times bestsellers list. “A hardcover book is only 25 bucks, by and large,” he said. “What does lunch cost in Midtown?”

Tiny stores like the 550-sq.-ft. Three Lives & Co., about the size of a typical New York apartment, have no choice but to specialize. Owner Toby Cox, who bought the 29-year-old bookstore in 2001, said, “I try to stock a good story well told, in fiction or narrative nonfiction.” He likened the store to the bar in Cheers, with books instead of beer. “To survive you have to have some kind of a niche,” agreed Bob Contant, co-owner and buyer for St. Mark’s Bookshop, who puts a lot of work into fine-tuning inventory. The store’s strengths are literary fiction, small press books, critical theory, poetry and graphic design. And Contant works hard to carry the entire backlist of established writers.

In Brooklyn, where many residents take the subway to work, BookCourt’s strongest section is paperback fiction. Sales for both hardcover fiction and nonfiction softened last year, and were down 10% and 25%, respectively, according to owner Henry Zook. The 23-year-old store’s second strongest section is children’s books, and Zook plans to double the space he allocates to children’s when the store expands this fall.

The Other New York

In the “other New York,” many bookstores are located in college towns and rely on textbook sales and author events geared to the college community to bring in customers. There are still some independent college stores in the state, like Colgate Bookstore, which moved off campus into downtown Hamilton five years ago to strengthen the university’s connection with the surrounding area.

“We’re three hours north of New York City,” said Susan Novotny, owner of two stores near SUNY campuses, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany and Market Block Books in Troy. “From a bookselling perspective, it kind of turns into the Midwest.” While the landscape is more rural and her Albany store is in “a lifestyle center” that replaced the old downtown district, Novotny sells many of the same types of books as her colleagues in the big city. “We do a tremendous sales volume in literary fiction, but we are an everything bookstore. We carry bestsellers, though BJ’s sells them for 43% discount. The midlist is very well served at the Book House. AnArsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England from Algonquin is the kind of book that stands a chance here.”

Thirty-year-old Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, the state’s second largest city, may be closer to Washington, D.C., than New York City as the crow flies, but with its blue-collar roots and strong literary tradition, it isn’t really like either metropolis, says cofounder Jonathon Welch. Buffalo is home to the Just Buffalo literary center, one of eight selected to be part of the Big Read program, and to the Hallwalls Art Center started by Cindy Sherman, which is why Talking Leaves, which prides itself on being “independent and idiosyncratic,” has been able to maintain one of the largest, if not the largest, poetry selections in the U.S. ( between 4,000 and 6,000 titles) for the past three decades.

Even stores that are physically closer to the New York City share characteristics with more distant regions of the “other New York,” including a loyal and educated clientele. “I have people call me and say, 'I’m walking past the Barnes & Noble and this is in the window. Can you get it for me for the weekend?’ And they’ll wait two days to get it and pay full price,” says Terry Lucas, owner of the Open Book in Westhampton Beach, a community bookstore in a resort town. “We have a lot of people who have second homes here. They’re very well-informed about books, and so are their kids.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two New Yorks may be the stores’ ability to host author events. While plenty of authors visit New York City to meet with their publishers, it can be challenging to get them to other parts of the state, as Erika Davis, owner of two-and-a-half-year-old Creekside Books & Coffee in Skaneateles, has discovered. Of course, many big-name authors are from “the other New York,” like Kim Edwards (The Memory Keepers Daughter), who was born in Skaneateles, she noted.

Ultimately, booksellers say, they’re comfortable with the differences. “We don’t compete with the city,” says Richard Klein, co-owner of the 17,500-sq.-ft. Book Revue in Huntington, on Long Island, which carries 100,000 used books in addition to new titles. “I can sell gardening, sailing and dog books that they can’t give away in the city. And the stuff they can sell, we can sell, just not as much.”