Wordsmiths Books Closes Suddenly
Decatur Metro | March 2, 2009Carl points to this note on Wordsmiths website…
I’ve pondered how to start this, but this is the best I can come up with. There is no great way to begin the end of a dream, and there is no gentle way to state that finality is upon you. That said, I regret to announce that, as of Monday, March 2nd, 2009, Wordsmiths Books will close its doors for good. I don’t do this willingly, and I would love to say that there were avenues of exploration yet to wander, possibilities that could avert this outcome, but that would be untruthful. I have explored every possibility open to me, but the sheer magnitude of the decline in sales alone (on the heels of our efforts to right the boat) from our current economic downturn has long since evaporated the fumes. Frankly put, there’s nothing left to make the engine go, and sitting on the side of the road with a thumb out doesn’t seem to earn you much grace as a business.
Read the full note here.
This is tough. Not only to those that helped keep the operation afloat last fall during the controversial donations campaign, but for all the people that attended some great events at Wordsmiths on a weekly basis. Best of luck to Zach, Russ and all the Wordsmiths crew!
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That’s a real loss. Sad news.
That is unfortunate but I’m certainly not surprised. Here’s the thing that always surprised me about Wordsmith’s. I read quite a bit and for better or worse, buy books faster than I can read. I’m very interested in supporting local business, particular a bookshop (i’m a regular at the Atlanta Book Exchange). When i browsed Wordsmiths, say 6 to 8 times while they were in business, I was surprised at how much they leaned towards (and i hate labels but i’m going to stick with them for now) popular as opposed to literary fiction. What i mean is that I didn’t see authors like Bolano, Roth, Bellow, Delilo, etc. I’m not saying that you need only such authors but I would have thought that the Decatur market would have justified a higher proportion of literary fiction. For example, I don’t know who does the selection of the very small number of books that Indie Coffee has but it is pretty amazingly good (at least from my perspective).
I also recall someone coming in and asking for “Heinlein” and the person at the counter hadn’t heard of him. Now, I’m not trying to kick someone when they are down, I’m just (probably arrogantly) attempting a post mortem and suggest that I didn’t think that they read the market they were in quite as well as they might have. Perhaps there simply are too many obstacles to businesses like this with places like amazon and powells.
Just my two cents.
Simply put… for a bookstore, they didn’t have many books there.
As many great events as Wordsmith’s hosted, which in today’s market goes a long way in fulfilling that niche market independents inhabit and beating out the big boxes and the internet stores, the selection was very slim.
Best of luck to Zach and the Wordsmith employees.
I’ll throw in my ideas on the matter, too. I’ll miss Wordsmiths. I love the idea of a good bookstore in downtown Decatur. I think specializing would have helped, too. I never found a book I was looking for there. I’m very interested in graphic novels, and the selection wasn’t very good. The comics were on a rack that ensured that they get bent up when placed in it. I think Decatur could use a great comic shop. Atlanta is very short on them – in fact Oxford is really the only one I know of. Fill it with tons of comics, graphic novels, CCGs, anime, action figures, and so on. There’s barely any competition, and with all the superhero movies coming out, and the great new independent Vertigo titles, I bet the demand is even growing.
It made me a little sad that when Mr. Steele was wishing good luck to other Decatur book stores he left out one of my favorites, Indie Coffee and Books.
I agree with Glockenspieler.
In retail you typically know 8-12 months in adavance that you are shutting the doors and going out of business. I can’t help but think that the October charity drive for Wordsmith was a way to pay creditors down. They probably already knew they were closing but looking for kind hearts to help pay down the debt, without having to phrase it as such. “Help pay down our creditors before we lock the doors,” doesn’t sound very PC, nor glamorous. But, that is exactly what they did. It sounds better to say “Help indie literature survive in a charming little town.” That message brings in the donations. Best of luck to them,albeit, their exit was a little shady to say the least. Remember, Oxford books couldn’t be saved either.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who found Wordsmith’s book selection less than inspiring. I agree about Indie Coffee and Books. Their small book selection is very good, but I rarely see many people in there. Anyone know if it’s doing well?
Just to make sure that everyone knows: Decatur HAS a little indie bookstore
****** Indie Coffee and Books**********
Is it small? Yes, but it’s a small and very good selection. Let’s make sure they don’t leave too!
This isn’t just about Wordsmith’s. Get ready for a lot more business closings in Decatur and everywhere else. The economic contraction we are experiencing is one for the ages.
Really, between the little book sections at Decatur CD and Indie Coffee & Books (and probably a couple other places) along with Little Shop of Stories, you can kinda sorta piece together a local bookstore in downtown alone, not counting all the great outlying indie booksellers. There’s also the used book shop across from the HS (which hopefully will see more traffic once the work on the HS is done and the classic car place opens up).
I can’t say I will miss Wordsmiths but if LSoS ever closed, I would be devastated.
Books Again, the shop across from the High School, does a lot of internet business, which I imagine was not true of Wordsmith’s.
I love Books Again, though they are too pricey for me to buy there frequently. Hope it survives.
Despite Wordsmith’s shortcomings, I think it would have made it in a “normal” economy.
One of my “if I won the lottery” dreams is to open an art house/revival movie theater in Decatur. It seems to me it would take that kid of capital (mega millions) to make a go of a new book store in the current climate.
I am sad to see Wordsmith’s go, but I have to agree with the criticisms already posted regarding the selection of books. Indie Coffee has a much smaller selection, but I always see things I actually want to buy there. That wasn’t the case with Wordsmith’s.
The last time on was in Wordsmith’s, my friend and I went to see a band play. The start time was 7pm, on a Friday. We got there at about 7:10. In addition to the two people running the shop, there were maybe 12 other people there; from what I could tell we were all friends of the band and thus almost certainly would not have been in the store except for the music. My friend and I had planned to stick around after the music to shop, if for no other reason than to support the store and to encourage more musical events (in fact we each had a couple of birthday gifts to buy that weekend). But the music finished at about 7:55pm and the young man and woman running the store forced us all out in an extremely rude way — turning the overhead lights on and off repeatedly, then, when everyone continued to stand around talking, loudly commenting about us that none of us understood what it means when the lights are turned on and off. It was very uncomfortable. Perhaps their lease required them to close by 8pm? If so, it would have been much more appropriate, and better for future business, to politely explain this to us all. It left me with a very bad taste in my mouth for Wordsmith’s.
The old movie theatre in Avondale is for rent.
As for other local businesses that have books– Taste has a great selection of cookbooks– especially southern. Mingei has a small but interesting selection of mostly non-fiction and photography that focuses on cultures their inventory comes from.
So I can come out of the closet as another voracious reader who found Wordsmith’s lacking? I read pretty much everything- from popular fiction in the bathtub to loads of history, and even with my range I found the selection lacking.
And it seems like we have enough investors to open the brewhouse theater. Come on kids!
What bothered me about Wordsmiths was how the overall business was run. Keep in mind, this was a business, not a public service. That means that it has to make a profit, not receive public money. And making a profit means you have to provide something that people want to buy. Sure, Wordsmiths had cool events, but they went into debt to fund those events and then when the leveraged events did not result in profits, Wordsmiths asked for donations just to keep the store open. Business doesn’t work that way.
Frankly, when Wordsmiths writes “and sitting on the side of the road with a thumb out doesn’t seem to earn you much grace as a business” I get a bit irked. At the risk of sounding crass (I refer to “Wordsmiths”, not the owner’s name for a reason- I in no way intend this to be a personal attack), you can’t expect to run an unprofitable business that does not provide something people want to buy, and then expect people to just give you money to keep you open. “I’m a local business, I won’t sell you anything you want, but I’m a local business, so donate money to me to keep me open, because I’m a local business” is not a solid marketing plan. If your business doesn’t go well you should not expect a handout. That’s not how business works. Well, unless you’re a large, failing bank. But that’s another topic….
I’m stepping off my soapox now. I truly wish the owners good luck in the future.
Oh for the classic movie theatre format..sigh…seems we all have a shared dream.
The Strand just re-opened on the square ( a real square!) in Marietta after private funds raised millions to renovate it and it is stunning. It serves as host to Lyric Theatre for performance/plays, Pebblebrook high schools’ performing arts department (HUGE ARTS HIGH SCHOOL), and they also show classic films once or twice a month. Just saw CITIZEN KANE there a few weeks ago…there is nothing like seeing these old films in the scale for which they were filmed.
Always wanted to have that type of thing in Decatur, but sadly there seems to be no momentum for performance/arts whatsoever. Just festivals and such. Would anyone venture a guess as to why that is, given the community’s educated demographic?
I can’t take full credit for this idea, but I think that once the new DHS 500 seat auditorium is completed, the community should take full advantage of it…including for some of the ideas listed above.
Why limit its use to just high school functions? Why couldn’t it be used for various community performances, the State of the City address, and even perhaps regular viewings of classic films? It won’t have the nostalgia of an actual classic theater…but we’re never going to get one of those back, so we might as well use what we got, right?
Though I agree with the assessment of the service and selection at Wordsmith’s, isn’t all this moot? At the end of the day, wouldn’t we all just complain that said local establishment charged too much or that there wasn’t enough convenient parking?
I generally agree with MC’s comments, above.
Plus, didn’t this small bookstore have a Director of Marketing? How many small bookshops have employees with that title?
There is a concept in DC called Busboys & Poets that I think would be great in Decatur (www.busboysandpoets.com). Maybe it’s a niche that’s already being served but it’s sort of a Java Monkey meets Feast meets Indie Coffee & Books.
IMO if you like a local store and it has what you want at fair prices, you should not only shop there, but tell others to as well. I have spoken to many shop owners in Decatur who are hanging on by a thread, and if we don’t continue to rally around them, our downtown is going to look like a ghost town once again. With that, home values will fall, the schools will suffer and here we go again. We need to not only eat in our restaurants, but also shop in our stores. Keep your money in your community. Off the top of my head I can think of several stores that offer competetive prices on great products and are locally owned and operated. We need to keep them going.
So…I have a gift card that still had some money (not a lot) on it. Go me. I actually had a feeling the store was going to close, and I spent part of it last week, but I also thought “Well, they’ll give *some* notice, so I’ll just come back next week and spend the rest.” Oh well. (For the record, the gift card was from me selling them some used books so in the scheme of things, I didn’t really lose much. Still disappointed though.)
It takes an enormous amount of bravery to open an independent bookstore — especially a general bookstore — even in the best of times. Zach at Wordsmiths was no exception. He had a vision and fought hard to make it happen.
The entire publishing industry was hurting prior to the economic downturn last year, and now the situation for many is dire. Publishing houses are laying off significant numbers of editors and sales reps, stopping new acquisitions, closing imprints, and consolidating. Trade news regularly features the shutting of long-established independent bookstores. Shares in Barnes and Noble are trading at 1/3rd of their value in 2006. Borders is down about 98% during the same time period and is in danger of going under. I could go on.
Wordsmiths did a lot of things right. It had a devoted following, brought in tons of authors to our community, and even moved to a more visible location. It still wasn’t enough. Our hearts go out to Zach and his employees.
Dave
Little Shop of Stories
When I was a student at Georgia Tech, there was a series of events called “Flicks on Fifth” sponsored by the businesses surrounding the “Tech Square” area of fifth street, as well as some student organizations. Similar concept to “Screen on the Green”, except it was located right in the middle of restaraunts, ice cream stores, etc.
While I know the square is used for some events during the comfortable months, why not give movie screenings a shot as well? On a Tuesday or Wednesday night, it could really bring a lot of people into the square area and all those delicious eateries and beverage providers could see a nice uptick in business on a normally slow night.
The market certainly seems to be there for classic movies, judging from the comments here and general demographics. I can’t imagine the screening fees for older movies would be too high (someone point out my error if I’m wrong here), so most money would go to rental of the AV equipment (unless the city has its own already). Anyone else think this would be a nice step towards a theater on the square? Is this already happening and I’m just clueless?
I suggest tearing down that Callaway building next to the High School and put in a drive in. Oops, make that WALK-In!
Seriously, I wish I still lived in Decatur so I could help revive this effort. Good luck and I will watch for your success if this takes off.
I’ve talked with the city before specifically about a cinema on that parcel, Dawg. At one point, we’d even sourced a group that was looking around the country for downtown locations for medium-sized (4-8 screens) projects. Both parcel size and location are ideal there but, as I recall, there were a number of hurdles associated with the county’s ownership of it (even though they’ve looked at unloading it, I believe).
Whether a cinema group could be recruited would depend on what we’re trying to accomplish. No one would do land acquisition and new construction for an art house operation. It would have to be first run fare if we went down that path.
Netflix has killed repertory cinema.
I also was unimpressed with the selection at Wordsmith’s, but still tried to support them when I could. I never like to see businesses fail, but you could kind of see the writing on the wall for them for some time.
This was pretty much my experience as well, sadly. Over Christmas, i went in looking for gifts for three or four people and couldn’t find anything appropriate for any of them.
That said, I’m really sad to hear the news of the closing. Decatur seems like such a great fit for an indie book store.
I agree with you. Other than just out of blind loyalty to supporting a local, independant bookstore (which is not a very good business plan by the way) what would have made me purchase books at Wordsmith’s over having them delivered to my house by Amazon (at a lower price by the way) or going to one of the big boxes with a far larger selection?
I can’t give you an answer. Yes, they had good events, but I bet you those events cost more to produce than books that were sold because of them. It’s a business and the numbers have to work. I also got a feeling everytime I went in there that the owners did not have a whole lot of experience as to how to make a retail operation work just by the setup and the decor of the place.
I think that an independent bookstore has to fill some sort of niche. That is how Little Shop of Stories (childrens books) and Outwrite (gay/lesbian) survive. Not saying any of these places are thriving, but they are surviving this market at least it seems.
That’s what Wordsmith’s never found.
Criminal Records in L5P is probably the go-to comic shop in this area, but yeah, it would be nice to have one in Decatur.
Little Shop of Stories has a small but growing graphic novel section overseen by a very dedicated guy. Worth checking into.
Don’t know if what you say is true, but would not surprise me, and I can’t say I blame them.
I did notice they stayed open just long enough for Mr. Steele to unveil his own novel and have an event in the store. I suspect that was probably the goal date.
I would bet that a straight theater wouldn’t make it. However, there are a good number of places that do a theater pub thing that I think would be doable in Decatur. Of course, it would all be in the execution I guess.
Hey, that’s our dream too, Brian! Unfortunately, I can’t see any way it would happen, since Decatur didn’t have a movie theater originally, and I can’t see a way you would shoehorn one in unless it was a very small “screening room” type arrangement (anybody remember The Screening Room at Lindbergh way back when?). But I would love it dearly.
Decatur had at least 2 movie theaters back in the days, lump.
lump, let me win that 212 million and we will find a way! I do remember the Screening Room. I had something more the size of Garden Hills in mind.
One of them was in the now empty parking lot between the former Wordsmith’s and Eddie’s Attic where the condos planned for that site have been “coming soon” for about two years.
Somehow knowing that makes me sadder.
I think it is mainly for a lack of phyiscal space MariettaDog. As was mentioned earlier Decatur’s two movie theaters were long ago torn down and may have never been as grand as the Strand in Marietta to begin with … I don’t know, wasn’t here and don’t think there are too many people left who would remember.
Theatre Decatur gave it a shot, but I think lack of funding, a poor location (in the back of the police station? come on), and poor management killed it.
I used to live down the street from Busboys…I loved that place!
Agreed. A gay theater would probably be better.
It has to be one or the other? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do it like the Landmark and have 70% art and foreign, 20% mainstream, and 10% gay?
When you have a single screen you have to be kind of creative with the programming. I was part of the film division of the student union at UGA and we’d program art and classic films Monday through Thursday (different film each day, three showings), a recent (intelligent) mainstream film on Friday and Saturday, and a foreign film on Sunday.
They tried this a couple years ago, to modest success. The problem, if I recall, was that it always seemed to rain on movie night. This might seem like an impossibility in the midst of a drought, but it’s true.
Dekalb Medical, which now sponsors the book festival, was a sponsor for that series. To be honest, I think the festival might be getting that money now.
Is anyone aware that the small theatre in the Holiday Inn Conference Center shows movies occasionally? Or they did, not long ago. I was talking with someone there about the venue, and she mentioned it off-handedly. One might be able to use that as a starting point for a movie series. They haven’t exactly done a bang-up job getting the word out.
Daren, thanks for the information. I would be very interested in seeing a cost breakdown from one of these events, because it’d be great to see that series brought back.
The Decatur Library also screens occasional movies.
What about something like Landmark in Midtown, Scott? Do you think that would have a shot in Decatur?
Since it would be right next to the HS, I’m thinking Scott’s right about it needing to be a little more mainstream than Landmark. But I also think it would be easy to devote at least one screen or a couple nights a week to more avant garde fare.
Then again, now that I think about it, Landmark’s right next to Grady HS. lol
It’s more a land and construction cost issue. If they can’t show max possible return for every screen (which means pulling people from a larger catchment area), I can’t see anyone pursuing it for the foreseeable future. That’s the beauty of the raggedy older theaters — they can be assumed and operated on the cheap by people with a passion for running an art house. That’s what’s going on with the Plaza right now.
Maybe, in good economic times, some company might develop 8 screens there and devote one to art fare part of the time to see how it performed. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t generally specialize in “Oscar-worthy” fare, as Midtown often does. Plus, Midtown has beer!