New Owners Tout "Booksmith 2.0" Strategy
by Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 6/6/2007 8:33:00 AM
After operating the Booksmith in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury since 1976, Gary Frank is selling the store to Christin Evans and Praveen Madan, two business consultants (and a married couple) looking for a career change. "They told me how their friends would go on book store tours," said Frank. "That sort of told me they were committed." Evans and Madan take over Booksmith on June 14. All 12 employees will remain at the store under the new ownership, including Tom Gladys, Booksmith’s events coordinator of 18 years.
Evans said she and her husband are planning "Booksmith 2.0"--an admittedly "tongue-in-cheek" description of their plan to boost the store's sales. She stressed that she and her husband have spent years working with Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Cisco and Albertson’s, helping them to grow their business or turn it around. "If independent booksellers are going to survive and thrive, then there is a need to reevaluate the old business model," said Evans.
Evans and Madan plan to build on the strong foundation the Booksmith laid as a community and resource center. They want to add kiosks and create a dedicated events space with multimedia capability in the 3,300-sq.-ft. store. The Booksmith recently started video-recording events and is doing podcasts, and technology is key to the bookstore future.
"They are highly skilled in technology," Frank said. "Their energy is amazing, and they really want to take Booksmith to the next level."
In February, Evans and Madan launched litminds.org, an interactive Web community where readers, authors and booksellers gather to talk about their reading lives. Evans said the site gets 800-1,000 visitors a day and has grown 50% every month since the launch. "We’ve had over 25,000 unique visitors to date," she said.
Evans called litminds.org a sister company to the Booksmith and explained that it offers a global social reading-related experience while the bookstore continues to focus on "being a really great neighborhood bookstore."
To do that, she said they plan to double the 80 annual events on average held at Booksmith and look for cool, outside event venues.
Frank will stay on board to advise the new booksellers as he works to promote his newly patented Shelfwiz flexible shelf-talkers to other booksellers. Just back from BookExpo, Frank said he enjoyed telling people in the industry that the store was "in good hands"; he also got a good response to Shelfwiz.
Selling the store is a little sad for Frank, but he said it needed a new vision and he feels good about handing over the reins to Evans and Madan.
