New Booksellers

On Saturday, August 30, Light of Islam Bookstore, a nonprofit bookstore and educational center dedicated to furthering the knowledge and understanding of the religion of Islam, will celebrate its grand opening in Webster, Texas, just south of the Houston city line.

Trish Brown said she "didn't pay a whole lot of attention to children's books before I had a child." When she did start paying attention, it had quite an impact on her life: she became a bookseller at A Likely Story in Alexandria, Virginia, when her daughter was five years old -- and stayed on for 16 years.

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When friends Nicole Butz and Joanna Parzakonis first met, both had eight-month-old baby girls, and both, it turns out, had long wanted to open a children's bookstore. In the two years since, they drafted Parzakonis' husband, Derek Molitor, outlined a business plan, found a location, and opened up shop in February 2008.

Teri Tanner believes the timing is right to open a 24,000-square-foot indie bookstore in Plano, Texas. The managing partner of Legacy Books, scheduled for a soft opening in the northern suburb of Dallas at the end of October, told BTW, "It's a whopper, but the timing is great. With the economy the way it is, people are really focused on local businesses. They want to spend their money someplace where it will stay in the community."

Babylon Falling, a 600-square-foot space in San Francisco, is primarily a general bookstore, as well as a gallery space, said owner Sean Stewart. "It is a concept-driven independent bookstore with a focus on the spirit of revolution ...

On Sunday, April 20, Idlewild Books will open near Union Square in New York City with an inventory of 6,000 titles, all of them arranged according to country. "I've always been a big traveler and reader so the idea of a bookstore organized by country -- with literature, guide books, books about politics and culture, and so on, all shelved together by place -- always appealed to me," said owner David Del Vecchio.

For prospective booksellers who may be daunted by the idea of creating a business plan, learning what resources are available to help is a good first step.

During one March week in New Milford, Connecticut, two neighboring downtown independent businesses were spared closure. One is the town's only independent bookstore. The other is the landmark Bank Street Theater, an Art Deco movie house built during the silent film era.

Before Tiffany Dow and Robin Cain opened A Shade of Gray Bookstore, a feminist store with an African-American slant, in Indianapolis, Indiana, last May, they visited other feminist bookstores -- Antigone Books in Tucson, Arizona, and Women and Children First in Chicago -- and researched African-American bookstores, including African-American Images, also in Chicago.