The Written Nerd has been one of my favorite bookseller blogs for some time now. The author, Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, details her experiences working at one of NYC’s best independent bookstores (including this jealousy-inducing run-in with Jonathan Lethem), all the while planning to “have a bookstore of my own in Brooklyn.”
Stockton recently won the $15,000 Power Up! business-plan competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Public Library in order to help bring her bookstore plans closer to fruition. And closer to fruition they are:
I opened a small business money market account with the prize money, which will also be the depository for other funds raised. And he gave me the paperwork to fill out for a great big (to me) small business loan application. I’m hoping to get that in by mid-June, at the same time as I’m looking for retail spaces.
In the meantime, I’ve made some other great business friends: the Retail Committee of the fabulous Fort Greene Association. It turns out that the beautiful, developing neighborhood of Fort Greene wants a bookstore almost as bad as I want to create one, so I’ll be working with them on finding a space, building community support, and doing some more fundraising.
To that end, Stockton has created a rather clever fundraising campaign. Stimulated Reading is hoping to find “investors” to:
[…] use your [IRS] stimulus package to become an investor in an independent bookstore — specifically, the one I’m creating in Brooklyn.
The website will explain the details — basically, you can choose an amount to kick in and receive some Book Nerd swag and/or buying power at the future bookstore. And using your rebate in this way is a way not only to show your support for my little literary project, but to stimulate the economy through supporting small and independent businesses.
It certainly seems that Stockton has the chops to successfully pull-off her endevour. Besides her bookselling experience and prize-winning business plan, she is (as her FAQ explains) “on the executive board of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, the chair of the Emerging Leaders Project, [and] a member of the ABA Digital Task Force.” And having read her blog for the past two years, I have no doubt she will be successful.