'Bookstores Can Always Stay Relevant'

Books & Books: 'Bookstores Can Always Stay Relevant'

In a lengthy Independent Publisher profile of Books & Books, which has seven locations, including one in the Cayman Islands, owner and founder Mitchell Kaplan offered advice to other bookstore owners who might expand: consolidate what can be consolidated and keep control over each store's operations, while making sure that each store feels different from the others and has stock that represents that community. He said, as Independent Publisher put it: "Bookstore owners should give each store manager some autonomy to acquire books that they believe in and encourage them to create a sense of ownership among the staff."

The piece recounts what led Kaplan into bookselling ("As I found myself in the bookstores of Washington, D.C., more than I visited the law library, I left law school with the specific plan to open a bookstore"), Books & Books' steady growth, Kaplan's participation in Miami Book Fair International, the development of Books & Books Press and more.

"I think bookstores can always stay relevant; no matter what happens in culture I believe there will always be a need for great, good places," Kaplan said. "And, ultimately, that's what inspires me the most."

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