Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?
Freshly out of graduate school at MIT the bookstore was started with the notion that integrating Internet-sales into a traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore was the way forward for small retailers. Rather than run from technology, we were going to embrace it to provide a new sales channel. With a group of friends I built this new way forward, creating Lorem Ipsum Books in Inman Square, Cambridge.
Lorem Ipsum benefited from a custom-coded inventory system that automatically listed our inventory for sale at other online partners like Amazon.com. It was fun to use, efficient, and worked. For awhile there, it looked like this dual-listing was the answer to bookstore's problems. Then supply-ballooned, demand remained the same, and prices dropped.
We tried many things, but were unable to get the store from red to black.
They just deleted our Wikipedia page, citing progress as being 'unremarkable'. Clearly something has to be done...
It's time to innovate again.
The bookstore needs fresh ideas, a radical change in thinking, and a reimagining of the role of the bookstore in the future. I don't want to shut the store down, but may be forced to. Instead, I'm looking to pass the store to other keepers--other innovators--hands.
I write to Hacker News to ask if anyone knows anyone in the Cambridge or Boston area that would be interested in this project?
106 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 175 ms ] threadResearch that and look around at other book stores. You'll find the one doing it.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/philjohnson/2012/05/10/the-man-w...
Is it so expensive that you could burn out three cheap laser printers a month for a fraction of the cost? What if it was one moderately expensive printer every two months?
What if you had a Raspberry Pi managing your print queue across multiple networked printers and you bind them with a surplus GBC machine? You could keep a supply of "nice" pre-printed covers available to wrap around books when they're ready.
One nice thing about this is that you could start small, and scale fairly easily. Use human labour (that's already running the shop) to fill in the gaps in automation.
It might be worth looking at Don Lancaster's web site (tinaja.com) for some thoughts on how to do this stuff before any pre-packaged solutions existed (look for "print-on-demand" resources).
I like bookstores a lot. I hope you'll be able to find a way to make it work for you!
I'd love to find someone who wants to get involved and do just what you describe.
This is a solution for a low print run rather one-of-kind printing but it works for him.
If you can get your prices competitive, there might be an opportunity for you in thesis printing.
If you could get your prices so low that a professor with a ready-to-go textbook in PDF form could get it printed on demand cheaper than going through regular publishers and college bookstores, that would be a big opportunity right there. By all accounts college textbooks in America are very expensive, but neither authors nor publishers admit to making much profit, so presumably there's a lot of inefficiency there. Could be ripe for disruption.
Have you looked into textbooks? There's a lot of money in the textbook market right now (for a variety of reasons). Won't help your storefront business, but could help on the internet side. I work in the industry; feel free to email if you want to chat more about the textbook side of the industry :)
Similarly, maybe it could have a future as a not-for-profit entity?
edit: Overall, I think selling coffee would definitely be a good idea, though this would require someone with that type of experience in order to deliver a valuable product.
In addition in the area there are a few stores that sell board games that are already established. Off the top of my head I can think of two in Cambridge. Pandemonium Books and Games and Games People Play.
I still love to support my local independent book shop but I'm reading more than ever now but the last 5 books I read weren't even in printed format. It's time to compete in a different way.
This is assuming of course that a problem is getting more traffic. I don't know if that's an issue, or if the problem is the "conversion rate". It would be interesting to find out what's working and what isn't, but don't know if you're inclined to share further. Myself I'm not in a position to take over, but I sure can provide free advice :>
I've always dreamed of hybrid book store/coffee shops. Perhaps ones that sell subscription access, becoming for-pay lending libraries with a book inventory that adjusts to patron demands. That way you have recurring revenue off each customer, and you can hope people sign up for it like they do for gym memberships and then don't show :)
I like the lending library / coffee shop notion as well, and if you don't have a lot of runway to try this, you might be able to put out a signup sheet asking people to pre-commit to a multi-month membership up front - if there's not enough interest there to keep you afloat (or get you close), try something else. Should serve to at least get baseline validation on the concept before you sink any real time / money / effort into it.
One of the keys is having a lot of comfortable chairs (like B&N used to). I used to go to B&N all the time, read half a book and purchase it.
Places for book geeks like me are shrinking quickly.
Ellen
I don't know anything about the bookstore business except that it is tough. I was sad when Quantum Books closed, and their books were a lot more expensive than yours, and they were right next to MIT and sold a lot of textbooks to students.
Do you know the proprietors of Brookline Booksmith or Harvard Bookstore? I assume they are still making it, and maybe there are some ideas or principles here that would help that you guys could learn. They have a lot of readings and signings and events that I imagine help get people in the stores.
(I do sort-of-know Ken and Frenchie, the proprietors of the "banned in Boston" outdoor free book table that sometimes sets up in Harvard Square, but I'm guessing that introduction would not help you...)
If you want to run a remarkable book store today, don't sell books. That's a loosing battle. This is where i'd start if I was trying to think of ways to innovate in this space. I'm sure you're familiar with Porter square books. They for instance have built a pretty remarkable community around the store with book clubs etc.
Other then that, i'd like to say good luck! I live in Boston, so i'll try to visit the next time i'm in the neighborhood.
Browsing on Amazon sucks. If you know what you want it is OK, but for discovery there is still room for improvement.
I have a bookcase full of textbooks of $60-$120 a piece that I'd love to have digitized for like 10-20 bucks per kindle-readable book.
Rebuying it on Amazon usually costs the same ridiculously high price or higher, and the books aren't always prepared nicely either.
I think this is actually a great business idea. Imagine you could just send in, or drop off books that you then receive in DRM free glorious PDF or other nice e-book formats.
Would it work legally?
edit: wtf there's a community built around book scanning http://www.diybookscanner.org/
Plus, Google Books is going to do a much better job than a local book store.
Google Books doesn't let you download an entire DRM free book to your Kindle, does it?
Note that they destroy the books in the process of scanning them (spine is cut off) and then they dispose of the books to avoid copyright and similar issues.
* Anything I can do to help the store? Other than buy things, which I've bought quite a bit form lorem Ipsum.
Ben
I think labors of love can be foolish but at the same time I have the utmost respect for them. Best of luck. I will be stopping in sometime soon.
Could you try to capitalize on the fact that you're right in between two enormous populations of PhD students and professors who are eager to both give talks and learn more?
Maybe you could support micro-publishing of books, or collections of interesting papers, for local distribution around Kendall/Harvard. Kind of like academic blogging but on paper.
Or you could host themed nights where a few academics give talks about why Subject X is interesting, and then you tell the audience they can buy/order books on Subject X from you at the end (and please do, it's how you pay for the free talk).
Also, I live right near Inman. You guys have the "Refrigerator Repairs" sign (or something like it) above your store, right? Hard honesty, from someone whose walked by many times and never gone in: the Refrigerator sign made me think you were a) too lazy to put up a sign for your store, or b) trying to be ironically lazy, which I think isn't a positive vibe to send to society. Either way, I transferred these impressions onto my expectations about the product waiting inside for me, and passed by every time. Perhaps that is a silly reason not to enter a book store, but at least it is a data point for you to consider.
EDIT:
Another idea: what if you provided a nice binding service for graduating PhD students. Package up all your papers and thesis together into a nice volume to show the kids one day. I know you can do this online, but you would provide nice Harvard and MIT themed leather book jackets with some stock material about the school or department history, along with a thicker page for the student to put some photos in from that time period. I would pay $100 for this. Maybe $200 if it was really nice. There's no class ring for PhD students, but this would make a similarly nostalgic memento.
While I can't internet-verify it, one of my Spanish co-PhD students told me that in Spain you _are_ given a ring upon completion. It's supposedly to signify your marriage to science. I think my wife would have something to say about that...
Google Street Maps view:
(https://maps.google.com/maps?q=+Our+address+is+1299+Cambridg...)
Only issue is why they would come to a book store to do this rather than do this sort of thing at MIT or Stanford. Maybe, integrate a coffee/snacks/cosy reading room along with book store?
What seems to be working for Pandemonium, just down the street, is event and community space -- for them it's board and collectible card games. For Porter Square Books, it's some combination of having a coffee shop and events (readings etc).
Providing shared experiences in the physical world is something Amazon can't (yet) do.
(Adding a coffee shop might be enough -- based on the number popping up and thriving in Boston recently it seems that we have a nigh-infinite demand for them. 1369 could use some competition, right?)
I wish could help more directly, but I'm steadily approaching broke and determined to be working full-time on my own project till my money runs out.
In any case, I'd love to buy you a coffee / tea / beer / whatever and just chat with you for an hour, your pick of time and place. Best case, you could refine some of my crazy ideas. Worst case, you'll have had an hour break. What's there to lose? E-mail is in my profile! :)
A few ideas to consider along those lines, either individually or as smaller pieces of a larger concept:
- Become a hacker/student-centric coffee shop that enables freelancers, et al, to work in a less frenetic environment than Starbucks
- (Not sure how big your space is, but) Build a small stage (or not) and host local singers and poets as well as professor and/or student talks
- Become a resource for finding hard-to-get books and charge a premium for it
- Host book sales, etc., for the local universities where students can buy/sell from each other, then give a small discount on books students are searching for but can't find at the sale
Not sure how intent you are on maintaining the store's identity as a Place That Sells Books, but you have a lot of options, I think, if you want to go in another direction altogether – or even partly.
There can always be more events too.
How about hosting an in-person brand/biz hack of the store?
She created vinyl stickers that read "I Wish This Was", under which is a blank white space (resembling the My Name Is stickers common to networking events, etc.). She affixes a grid of the stickers to the building/scaffolding/whatever along with a Sharpie, and folks passing by write their suggestions on the stickers.
For me, what makes her idea so incredible is that the suggestions are made in context; they're not discussed at a town hall meeting miles away from the location, they're not submitted online in a fancy web app, and they're not handed down by local government among suggestions for hundreds of other plots.
It's great that OP is asking on HN, because I think (s)he'll get some great responses here, but the best place to ask might be in the space itself, in the company of the folks that make it more than Some Bookstore In Massachusetts Ripe For a Pivot.
Why not host an event to discuss the future of the store? Send invitations to professors and post flyers for students at local universities and see what happens. It can't hurt, right?
1. http://urbanizedfilm.com 2. http://candychang.com/i-wish-this-was/
Doing "something else" (exercise for the reader, sorry) that offers something book-related as one of many services is probably where the future of non-Amazon book business will be.
A work-space with services ...
Other idea is to ask at a book(store) forum.
Good luck!
Imagine having a membership to a place filled with books, and you can read all you want. Go inside the place, sit down, enjoy a cup of coffee, pick any book you like. You can even bring your laptop and work, it's like having a gym membership, but for your brain.
What do you guys think?