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Bookseller Promotes Well-Known Author, His Wife

Quad - State Business Journal, Apr 2006 by Pfoutz, Yvonne

Each year, more independent bookstores are pressed out of business by the twin competition of huge chains like Borders and Internet giants like Amazon. According to the American Booksellers Association (ABA), independent bookstores' market share of consumer book purchases declined from 32% in 1991 to 9% in 2004.

The ABA's advice to members: to survive, find a niche or go online.

Turn the Page Bookstore Cafe, Inc., located on the main street of Boonsboro, a small town near Hagerstown, has done both.

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Turn the Page, which has expanded from 500 to 1,600 square feet of retail space since it opened 11 years ago, stocks 2000 different titles-children's books, romances, mysteries, science fiction, cookbooks, New York Times best sellers, and non-fiction including books on the Civil War and local history. It also sells gift items, such as locally made pottery and soaps, and espresso and flavored coffees.

Its niche, however, says Turn the Page owner, Bruce Wilder, is "a unique product, autographed Nora Roberts books. About 75% of our sales are her books and related items [T-shirts, water bottles, beach mats and other imprinted items]."

Wilder has unique access to the best-selling author who lives near Boonsboro. They married in 1985, four years after the publication of her first book.

Although Roberts has expanded her writing to include suspense and mysteries, she gained her initial popularity with paperback romance novels, a genre that is often denigrated by critics.

"Nora's mission is to get more respect for the genre," says Wilder. "They're not bodice-rippers [a reference to the flamboyant covers of many early paperback romances]."

Critics may still ignore romance novels, but business has paid attention. A 2004 article about Nora Roberts in Forbes magazine noted that in 2003, readers spent $1.4 billion on romance novels, which accounted for 34% of all popular fiction sales.

Roberts has published 163 books, with five more titles scheduled for release later this year. Because Roberts is so prolific, writing eight hours every day, in 1995 her publishers persuaded her to publish a new series of mysteries set in 2058 under a pseudonym, J.D. Robb. Many of her books under both names are now released first in hardcover. According to 2005 statistics on her Web site, Roberts has had 124 books on the New York Times best-seller list, including 12 J.D. Robb titles.

Roberts was one of the first authors to set up a Web site, launching hers in 1996. Turn the Page Bookstore set up its own site in 1999, but didn't start selling on-line until 2001.

"Our on-line business is about 68% of our total sales. Without the Internet, I don't think we'd be here," says Wilder. "After we went live with the present Web site in January 2001, we had a 35% increase in sales the first two years after that, and have averaged 11% a year increase since then."

Autographed Nora Roberts books, which cost no more for the signature, are 70% of the Internet orders. How long customers wait for personalized copies "depends on how tired Nora is or where she is," says Wilder who takes books home each evening for signing. Turn the Page also has a subscription service which automatically ships an autographed copy of each new Nora Roberts title to over 400 fans.

Web site orders are filled and shipped from the store. Because storage space is tight, Wilder stocks small quantities and orders frequently. "I seldom order cases unless they offer a deal on a case: 90 day billing or another 4-5% discount [normal bookstore discount is 40% off list price]. Besides I was taught, don't warehouse merchandise if you don't have to."

Before opening the bookstore, Wilder was a carpenter who met Roberts when he built bookcases at her home. By the early 1990s, Wilder says, "I wanted to get out of carpentry because it was physically hard on me. I had done retail in the 1970s, managing departments at Sears in the D.C. area. With Nora's contacts with publishers, a bookstore seemed like the thing to do."

Wilder, who has one full-time and three part-time employees, chooses all the books except for children's books and non-Roberts romance novels, which are chosen by employees with interest in those fields. In addition to Roberts' books, the most popular categories are general fiction and mysteries.

Wilder says that non-fiction books are hardest to select. "I'm still surprised at the number of new books still coming out about the Civil War."

To promote the store, Wilder produces a newsletter five times a year, which is e-mailed to a subscriber list handled by Topic, an on-line marketer. Nora Roberts e-mails her own newsletter to readers several times a year. Wilder also mails post cards to a list of over 1,500 people and runs print ads in local papers about upcoming events. The store has a weekly children's story hour and is starting a book discussion club.

The biggest promotional events are the five book signings held at the store each year, usually tied to the release of a new Roberts book. In addition to Roberts, as many as 15 other authors may also participate, usually a mixture of local, Civil War, mystery and romance writers.

Bookseller Promotes Well-Known Author, His Wife

Quad - State Business Journal, Apr 2006 by Pfoutz, Yvonne

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