<story><title>Lessons from Owning a Bookstore</title><url>https://ryanholiday.net/29-lessons-from-owning-a-bookstore/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcguire</author><text>&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...a better marketer...&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...a small town book store in rural Texas...&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; Bastrop is a (rather distant) suburb of Austin. &amp;quot;Rural Texas&amp;quot; is Roby (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;maps&amp;#x2F;place&amp;#x2F;Roby,+TX+79543&amp;#x2F;@32.7721923,-100.5799545,10.21z&amp;#x2F;data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8655e471ba626a2d:0xa9c2e3880a14e4fd!8m2!3d32.7448314!4d-100.3776067&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;maps&amp;#x2F;place&amp;#x2F;Roby,+TX+79543&amp;#x2F;@32.7721923...&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...the first 12 months of owning The Painted Porch. ... I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took weeks and months to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; A &lt;i&gt;whole&lt;/i&gt; year?!&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;I think one of the best decisions we made was making our book tower. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2000 books, 4000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap to do. It was not easy to do. It took forever. We had to solve all sorts of logistical problems to make it work. But it’s also probably one of the single best marketing and business decisions we made in the whole store. Because it’s the number one thing that people come into the store to take pictures of.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;preview.redd.it&amp;#x2F;2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&amp;amp;format=png&amp;amp;auto=webp&amp;amp;s=b3d335426e77da2390eebf10a2d6049a3ac6b09a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;preview.redd.it&amp;#x2F;2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&amp;amp;format=...&lt;/a&gt; Really? Really.</text></item><item><author>thenerdhead</author><text>It helps when you&amp;#x27;re a famous author&amp;#x2F;influencer and owner of said bookstore and have famous author&amp;#x2F;influencer friends who help promote your bookstore. This sadly isn&amp;#x27;t the case for the many gems&amp;#x2F;rare book stores in the various cities around the US. My favorite bookstores that have been opened for 30+ years are recently going out of business.&lt;p&gt;Not to discredit his success, but if anyone else followed these tips and did not have such a large following online, they would probably go under too.&lt;p&gt;The one thing I think his bookstore does better than others? A personal curated collection. Also, Holiday is just simply a better marketer than your average bookstore owner.&lt;p&gt;So just remember:&lt;p&gt;- Start small.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;- Be famous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tharne</author><text>&amp;gt; Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing.&lt;p&gt;Shallow internet marketing is kind of Ryan Holiday&amp;#x27;s jam. He&amp;#x27;s to books what Cheetos is to food.</text></comment>
<story><title>Lessons from Owning a Bookstore</title><url>https://ryanholiday.net/29-lessons-from-owning-a-bookstore/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mcguire</author><text>&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...a better marketer...&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Oh, my lord, everything about this article screams shallow internet marketing.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...a small town book store in rural Texas...&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; Bastrop is a (rather distant) suburb of Austin. &amp;quot;Rural Texas&amp;quot; is Roby (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;maps&amp;#x2F;place&amp;#x2F;Roby,+TX+79543&amp;#x2F;@32.7721923,-100.5799545,10.21z&amp;#x2F;data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8655e471ba626a2d:0xa9c2e3880a14e4fd!8m2!3d32.7448314!4d-100.3776067&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.google.com&amp;#x2F;maps&amp;#x2F;place&amp;#x2F;Roby,+TX+79543&amp;#x2F;@32.7721923...&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;...the first 12 months of owning The Painted Porch. ... I love how The Painted Porch is now, but it took weeks and months to get it to where it is. It’s been a continual process of improvement and growth and making changes.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot; A &lt;i&gt;whole&lt;/i&gt; year?!&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;i&gt;I think one of the best decisions we made was making our book tower. It’s 20 feet tall and made of some 2000 books, 4000 nails, and 40 gallons of glue. It was not cheap to do. It was not easy to do. It took forever. We had to solve all sorts of logistical problems to make it work. But it’s also probably one of the single best marketing and business decisions we made in the whole store. Because it’s the number one thing that people come into the store to take pictures of.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;preview.redd.it&amp;#x2F;2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&amp;amp;format=png&amp;amp;auto=webp&amp;amp;s=b3d335426e77da2390eebf10a2d6049a3ac6b09a&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;preview.redd.it&amp;#x2F;2ajncim1mdk71.png?width=1200&amp;amp;format=...&lt;/a&gt; Really? Really.</text></item><item><author>thenerdhead</author><text>It helps when you&amp;#x27;re a famous author&amp;#x2F;influencer and owner of said bookstore and have famous author&amp;#x2F;influencer friends who help promote your bookstore. This sadly isn&amp;#x27;t the case for the many gems&amp;#x2F;rare book stores in the various cities around the US. My favorite bookstores that have been opened for 30+ years are recently going out of business.&lt;p&gt;Not to discredit his success, but if anyone else followed these tips and did not have such a large following online, they would probably go under too.&lt;p&gt;The one thing I think his bookstore does better than others? A personal curated collection. Also, Holiday is just simply a better marketer than your average bookstore owner.&lt;p&gt;So just remember:&lt;p&gt;- Start small.&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;- Be famous.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wincy</author><text>What strikes me is the surrounding picture I’m struck thinking “where are the books? Where are the bookshelves? There’s like 6 books sparsely populating a shelf. When I think of a used book store like the one I frequented when I was a teenager, I expect it to be absolutely lousy with books in every nook and cranny, filled to the brim with interesting finds.</text></comment>