Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Sherman.
Jen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have been a life long reader and book lover. My parents instilled the love of reading in me from a young age and I will forever be grateful to them for that! Since a young age, I have always dreamed of working in or owning a bookstore! About two years ago, I started an Instagram account and blog focused on reviewing books I have read. From that, I developed relationships with publishers to read and review titles for them and I learned so much more about books and publishing. My love of books and reading went to an entire new level!
My family has owned a weekend lake home on Cedar Creek lake for seven years and we have loved spending our weekends there. As my husband and I became empty nesters, we found ourselves spending more and more time at the lake house. That precipitated my husband’s desire to find a place he could have an office at to work from when we were there. He began looking for office space and found an amazing historic building for sale in down town Malakoff, which is about five minutes from our lake home. The minute I saw the building, I just knew it had to be a bookstore! We finalized the purchase of the building in July and began to get to work to turn it into a bookstore! I had a vision in my head of what I wanted it to look like but more importantly, I had a vision in my head of what I wanted the mission to be. My goal with the store is to promote reading and literacy in the community surrounding Cedar Creek Lake and to connect people with books and authors. To achieve that, I created a business model to provide books at a discounted price so that every single person has access to a book! We are currently in the process of approval for our non-profit status so we can further our mission of literacy.
We set our grand opening date for March 21st and had an entire day of events planned. We had three local authors committed to speak about their books and sign copies and giveaways planned throughout the day! Three days before the grand opening, the Covid shelter in place order went into effect. I was so disappointed that I would not be able to open my doors to my store which was completely stocked and ready for customers. I had not initially planned to do online business, however, once my Instagram following heard that I could not open my store, they began to contact me to place online orders. I was soon shipping books and Merchandise and puzzles around the US! There was so much support for small business and independent bookstores during March and April and I am so thankful for all the online sales that I had! Because of that support, I was able to bring in funds and order even more books and merchandise so that when the day came to actually open the doors of Bookish, the store was even better than it would have been back in March! Even though this has been a difficult time and not how I anticipated the opening of my business would be, I can see the positives and am thankful for the support during the last two months. We officially opened our doors on May 1st at 25% capacity in accordance with CDC guidelines and with social distancing procedures in place. It was wonderful to finally be open and have patrons browsing our shelves. The last month we have had a steady stream of customers in the store and the amount of support has been move than I imagined! I believe Bookish has a bright future and I cannot wait to have story time for children and author events. Bookish is a dream come true for me and I feel honored to be part of such a wonderful community!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been smooth because of the COVID shut down. Bookish was completely ready to open when shelter I place was put into effect. The store sat there for two full months and I was not able to open the doors. It was extremely disappointing and I had moments where I questioned what I had done trying to open a business.
Bookish – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a new and used bookstore. Our mission is to provide books and reading to the community and to connect people with books and authors. I am most proud of the fact that anyone that walks into my store, can leave with a book regardless of how much money they have. I even have a free little library shelf where you can borrow a book. I am proud of the impact we are already making on the community after only one month in business.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success as living a life that impacts others in a positive way. For me personally, I have a strong faith in God and so my ultimate success is to live a life that others will see Christ in. For my business, I define success by the number of books I am able to get into the hands of the community!
Pricing:
- 10% of fpubliser price
- 30% off publisher price
- 60% off publisher price
- .50, 1.00, 2.00 children’s books
Contact Info:
- Address: 211 South Terry Street, Malakoff, Texas 75148
- Website: www.bookishcedarcreek.org
- Phone: 214-797-7669
- Email: bookishbtl@gmail.com
- Instagram: bookishcedarcreek
- Facebook: @bookishbookstoreTX
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